The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-09-28
LETTER.

forcible expression of his views onthe subject
of "southern claims About those claims
our republican brethren have lately allowed
| themselves to become sorely reXed IN spirit
| with an anxiety which we hope to find set at
rest by the very positive and unequivocal dec
l~arations of the democratic presidential NOM
inee concerning them. We hope we shall
hear no more about southern claims, rebel
pensions, etc. For the sake of the respect
which we would like to entertain for our pc
litical opponents it is sincerely TO be wished
that all such demagogic cries may hereafter
be discarded, and that for the future they
will address themselves to an honest discus
sion of the points of difference really existing
between democratic and republican policy.
Of all the low, ~disreputable, demagogic cries
ever used in a campaign, that of "southern
claims is the lowest, most ~disreputable. In
the writer or speaker who used it,
it argued on his part an utter lack
of lruthfulness; and furthermore, that
he had a contemptuous estimate of the
intelligence and information of those whom
he addressed. Considerthe facts of the case.
The payment by the government Of the
United States of any debt or obligation such
as those embraced in the comprehensive title
southern claims" is positively prohibited by
the fourteenth amendment to the constitution.
1t is true that when We remember how the
republicans, since their first access to power,
have persistently continued to ignore the
constitution, acting very often, indeed, as if
they were not aware of the existence of SUch
an instrument, we cannot blame them for
supposing that their adverSarlts would prove
equally regardless of constitutional
trammels as soon as the voice of the
people should place them in power. Still,
they should not have gone so far as to i'm
agine that the democratic party, or any other
party, would offer violence TO the constitution
could not fail to be The suicide of the party
by whose agency it was perpetrated. And
this is what an attempt to pay even the least
among southern claims would amount to
the suicide of the democratic party. Suppos-
ing those claims 10 be recognized as valid, by
whom would they be paid: BY the whole
body of tax payers of the nation, northe rners
as well as southerners; but most of the bur
den would rest on the north, where the great
er portion of the wealth of the country is to
be found. The proposition to impose such a
burden OH the people in favor of a few OF the
old slaye-holding aristocracy, would be re;
sisted even by great numbers of the southern
people themselves, whose taxes are already
sufficiently heavy. But in the north, where
the democracy must maintain its footing or
else be swept from power-in the north,
merely to entertain any sue proposition
would cause the instant disappearance of the
democratic party beneath Il majority of such
magnitude as to render hopeless the prospect
OF its ever again emerging to the light of day.
No one understands this better than the stall
walt orators and ''organs' who would be de-
lighted at observing among their opponents
the traces OF a policy whose immediate effect
would be the return of their own party to
power but SO long as Hancock failed ia
speak authorltatlyelY Oh the subject thew pre-
tended to be in an agony of fear concerning
his intentions. But now Hancock has spok-
Ell, and in language not to be mistaken. 1.-The
government can never pay a debt, or grant a
pension or reward of any sort for wacipe
war upon its " existence. To uropose il
would insult the intelligence of our people"
This is surely sufficiently emphatic, but to
avoid the possibility of his words being mis-
understood, the General adds; eff | were
president l womd teto all legislation mhich
mtght come before me fT0riding for consj1sr-
alton or payment Of claims Of ony kina for
losses or damages by persons ,rAo ,ce,e IN ,o-
; delion ,ehethcr pardoned or not" If this is
not suifieient'y explicit will our republican
friends kindly tell us what they would like
III Tie way OF an enumeration of principles.