Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-30

gate reputation OF state and municipal debts
amounts to about $500 600 OO0 In 1872 the
debts of the southern states were S242. 800 ,O00.
| Now these states recognized and pay interest on
| only S53 97S ,945. A large part even of this is
unpaid and funded interest. $4,000 600 interest
has beer scaled down to per cent. Whether the
| residue of the debts are also to be foreswon is
now an open issue. Is there excuse or palEation
| for this We are told so. What is it 1t is
| that carpet-bag governments contracted these OBJ
| legations. One difficulty with this excuse and
not the only one is that it Is not true The anti
war debt, contracted before the carpet-hagger
| ever visited the south, either with knapsack or
without it. was $50, GOO 900. No part of this debt
| has been paid; a large part has been repudiated
| The carpet-bag governments paid the interest on
it regularly. The increase of debt since the war
was largely for public Improvements. But the
most damaging fact for this excuse Is that all the
alleged illegal issues of bonds charged upon the
carpet-bag governments put together does not
equal the sums repudiatcd by Georgia alone
" hat are We to.think of men and communities
who go into Wholesale Reputation as 'gaylv as
the troubadour touched his guitar" When Mr..
Weaver brought forward in the house of repre-
sentatiyes a bill toissue fiat money and make it Il
legal tender for all debts public and private man
after man from the south declared that if the
word private stricken out he would vote for
the bill. They had no objection to paying off
public debts with chaf, but private debts they
thought should be paid in money. State debts
| arc sacred above national obligations In south
em ethics "a sovereign state is of higher essence
than the nation" and this was the standing de
Tense in rebellion for going with their states.
Moreover state and municipal obligations are for
home purposes. If their own states faith and
credit is not nviOlate with southern leaders what
IN their hands would be the fate of obligations
which were the means, the cause the memorials of
their defeat?
THE PERIL OF DEMOCRATIC AsCENDANCY.
But We are told General Hancock would watch
thA1n A1Np ,tsrl,t n+al p.l,,ll
might attempt to divide a beefsteak with blood
hound; lamb might lie down with lion; but
the lamb would be inside. The peril of democrat
ic ascendancy in all the branches of the govern
ment is deeper rooted than any measure within
the scope of existing public questions. States
of changing the map of Europe" These say
mgs mean not much more than might easily occur
here.
OPPOSITION TO THE ARMY.
The army too is envied, its ''offence is rank"
Less than four lines of the revised statutes are
all that denies commissions in the army to men
who, educated at the countrys cost, and present
ed with their cOuntry's sword, drew that sword
against their cOuntrys life. A bill to repeal
these four lines is now pending in the Senate
already passed to a third reading by the solid
democrat vote. On the 25th of February last
Mr. Herskell, of Maryland, was relieved from the
operation of this exclusion, and a senator from
Arkansas moved, as an amendment, its total
peal. The ayes and nays were demanded, and
thlrty-SlX senators, every democrat who was pres
ent voted aye; Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
and New Ork, contributed their democratic votes
to this southern proposition of reform" Subse-
quently the mover and all concluded to reconsider
and drop the amendment. A sagacious concu-
sion III n presidential year7 Mr.. Fucker, OF
Virginia moved in the house the repeal of this
safeguard to the army as rider to an apprOpria=
ton bill, but it was huddled out of sight
point of order. a judcious point in ''presiden-
tlal year" The democratic majority put in the
army bill Il provision that officers in the
army might receive advanced rank and pay if
they would retire. A benevolent thoughtful
provision certainly, but if body of army officers
could thus be cOaXed out of the service there
would be so many vacancies to be filled and filled
by the president and with the advice and consent
Of Il democratic senate. When this Iree-will
Offering presented cry arose about gift
bearing Greeks, and other ungracious symptoms
We're manifested on the republican side and so
brevet rank and breyet pay stand over at least
till the season of the Santa Claus. Meanwhile the
army has been reduced to a skeleton, and when
ever scare, pretense, speck of war on the
Mexican border or elsewhere shall be discovered
or invented, tho army must be increased and filled
up. Filled up by whom? That depends on the
approaching election If Garfield and Arthur
are chosen, by union men, men always for the
union to the core; if Hancock and English and
the democratic get in, by the men who went
with their States2 Confederate soldiers would
flock to the standard of military as well as of
civil service reform, and flock in fervor of mag
nanlinity. Rank in the army should be given to
those who fought III that army rather than those
who assailed it in the dread extremity of the ma
TONS life
The present tariff and revenue laws are deemed
very bad by the dominant element of the demOc-
racy. They want to change them. They will
change them radically whenever the way is clear,
There is a whisky rebellion now in the several
states, and the officers of the law powerless to
suppress it. In Alabama the law is resisted and
the process of the courts destroyed and defed.
Recently wauent was issued for the arrest of
one Pinte, charged with such an Offense. A
deputy marshal went with a posse to execute the
warrant In his report to the marshal, he says
Pinto assembled from twenty-five to fifty men,
and set him and the law at defiance when eau
toned to desist. Pinte replied, "When Hancock
is elected this d foolishness will stop" The
thing to stop thus piously predicted is the coec
ton Of the tax on whisky, that mild beverage, so
sacred to the democratic heart, and so grateful
to the democratic stomach, and so nOurishing to
democratic principles. The law is defed i'll Ar
kansas, and the officers apply to the governor for
the use of the arms of the United States loaned to
Arkansas, and the governor replies that he dare
not permit the arms to be used because If he
should, and if a moOnshiner should be killed,
he would have to leave the state. Washington
raised an army when he president and
marched at its head to put down such lawlesSness,
months after it down to see that it did not get
! up again. Now there thrty-tw0 soldiers of
the United States in Alabama and ffty-seven in
Arkansas and if 100 more should be ordered to
either state the country would not be big enough
to hold the noise. Hancock's order No. 40 would
leap from the democratic scabbard, and we
should hear how ''the military must be always
subordinate to the civil power and how the
courts are open.
SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS.
War claims upon the treasury have been and
will be subjects fruitful to much agitation. |
moved to refer to it now by the wholly grOundless
assertion in regard to it=now going the
rounds of party Journals. The fashion of this
assertion seems to have been set by Mr.. Randall,
the speaker of the house Of representatives. Mr..
Randall is one of the ablest and most intelligent,
as he is one of the most courageous men OF his
party and | speak of him with much respect. In
several speeches he has taken up the matter OF
southern claims. always to say that they are
barred by the fourteenth amendment of the con-
stitution. 1t puzzles me to see how as discerning
a man can have fallen into such an error. The
proceedings over which he presided constantly re-
| fute the assertion. In the fourteenth amendment
stands these words: Neither tho United States
nor anv state shall assume or pay any debt or OBJ
legation incurred in the aid of the nsurrectiOn
| rebellion against the United States or any claim
for the loss emancipation of any slave: but all
| such debts obligations, and claims shall be held
illegal and void" The claims which stand as stag
gering totals in bills already before congress- and
| in other bills said to be waiting not touched
| by this section of the constitution. For example
it is insisted that the direct tax imposed by the
nation on all states in 1861 should as to the
| ceded states be refunded. The amount claimed
| is % 492 110. Again it Is said the war tax laid
| on cotton should be refunded. The argument is
| that cotton ike wheat and corn, is product of
| the earth and that wheat and corn were not
/ IL hon