Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-04
The Cost of the War.

The Tribune few days ago published
a statement made by Mr. N;black, Dem.
ocratic member OF Congress FROM India
ma, during debate in 1870, in which he
charged that the vast expenditures of the
war, and the enormous public debt, and
the increased cost of Government result
ing from the war, were due to the Re-
publicans, who refused to agree to the
demands of the South in 1860. This
charge was promptly met by Mr.. Garfield
at the moment of its utterance, and his
response cannot be too often reproduced,
nor its truth too often impressed upon
the country, large portion of the present
population having reached the age of
manhood, of reading and of voting since
that war was begun and carried on.
Here is what Mr.. Garfield said to Niblack
and to the Democratic party generally:
desire to ask that gentleman and his party
one question. Suppose that in the year 1861
every Democrat north OF the Potomac and the
of Douglas, and Dix and Dickinson aud Brough
and Tod, and other great lights of the Demo
cratic party; had thrown away the Democratic
name; said that they would be Democrats no
longer, as we said We would be Republicans no
longer, but all would be union men, and stand
together around the flag until the rebellion had
been put under our feet. desire to ask the gen
tleman If these things had happened. how long
the war would have lasted, and how much the
war WOulQ nave cost. L 90 not hesitate to that
it could not have lasted six months, and the
penditures OF the war would never have exceeded
$lO0,OO0,00) say. Is matter of current his
tory. that 1t was the great hope of the rebels OF
the South that the assistance OF the Democratic
party of the North would divide our forces and
overcome all our efforts; that at the ballot box
the Democrats at home would help the cause
which they were maintaining in the field. 1t was
that. and that alone, which protracted the war
aud created our immense debt. come, there
fore, to the door OF your party, gentlemen on the
other side and lay down at your threshold
every dollar Of the debt every Item OF the stu
pendous total which expresses the great cost OF
the war and say If you had followed Douglas,
there would have been no debt, no blood, no
burden.
In answer to q request from the Senate,
the Treasury Department has prepared
and has recently published a statement
giving detailed account of the expendi-
lures by the Government on account or
growing out of the War and resulting
therefrom. The tables of expenditures
are divided under three heads, the footiDgs
of which are as follows:
500 sOS
2 Expenditures other than for the War, 1884,
3. Gross expenditures to June, 1880, 1884, ST..
The pay of the army amounted to
81 $50. 000,0 900; the subsistence, Quarter
masters Department, transportation, and
clothing amounted to 81 .450 100000; paid
for horses, barracks, quarters, etc., $780,
100000; bounties, $131, 100000; arms,
$76 600 900; medical department, about
$4,000 900; army pensions, $407 ,429 1919,
which expenditure continues at the rate
of $34, 100000 year; these are but few
of the great expenses; there has also been
paid out 81 ,761 600, 600 for interest In all
the forms of public debt.
the actual money cost Of the War to
date is So, 1S9 1929 90S.
The loss OF lie during the War, and not
including those who have died since of
wounds and disease contracted in the ser
vice, was com nued to be $4,000 Union
men and 100000 Confederates, or over a
halfmillion of able-bodied men.
The war has left debt, with pensions
and interest, which will be charge upon
the country for half century.
The cost of the social and political de-
moralization resulting from the war can
only be family estimated it, too, remains
as legacy of the moral and political
madness Of the Democratic party in fore
ing that war upon the country.
Gen. Garfield with great force pointed
out the responsibility Of the Democrats
of the Northern States for this enormous
expenditure of treasure and of life In
the first place, the South demanded that
slavery should be carried into territory
then free. 1t rejected with scorn Doug
las doctrine that the people occupying
the Territories should be free to determine
for themselves whether they would have
slavery or not; they demanded the right.
against the declared wish of the people
of the Territories, to carry their slave
property and hold it legally in all the
Territories. This was the question on
which the Charleston Convention broke
into fragments, aud which was used as
the pretext for the second demand, which
was the right of States, separately or
otherwise, to secede from the Union. The
Republicans refused to accept either
Of these propositions, and the South
declared war. In making these demands
the South was sustained by large part
of the Democracy of the North, and it
was the confident assurance by this wing
of the Democratic party, including the
Democratic President and his chief ad
wiser, Jere Black, that the South would
find one-hslf the North to sustain it in
resisting any attempt "to coerce Sovereign
States" that encouraged and invited seces-
sion, and the subsequent war with all its
cost and consequences. When war was
begun, what was the action of the North.
ern Democratic partyf The entire pollti-
cal machinery of the party was used to
cripple the Government. Had the North
ern Democratic party been as united in
support of the War for the Union as the
South was united to destroy the Union,
the South would have been overwhelmed
within six months. But the Democratic
party as party never rose above the mere
partisan. 1t would not run the war itself,
and it did what it could to prevent the
Republicans doing so. 1t encouraged the
South; it's open hostility to the offensive"
prosecution of the war become SO violent
that at last $4,000 to 100000 vet
eran soldiers had to be with
drawn from the front and placed in
New York, Indiana, and other parts of
the country where Democratic organiza-
tions were in secret communication with
the Rebel Government, and were Grip
ping and embarrassing the Government
in every form. These proceedings by
Northern Democrats were adding a mil
lion of dollars q day to the cash exDen.