The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-10-15
it? They will do it unless defeated by
vigilant Republicans.


The nervousness in the Democratic
camp with regard to rebel claims is
constantly increasing. For some time
Gen. Hancock resisted the pressure to
write a disclaimer and take the Re-
publican position that has already been
crystalized by Republican Congress
into national law, that the person who
has sympathized with or aided and
abetted the rebellion against the Unit
ed States is barred by his disloyalty
from any compensation for losses re-
sulting from the war. The discussion
of this question by the Republican and
Independent press is making plain the
situation, and voters apprehend dis
tinctly the dangers that threaten the
country from Rebel claims if the Solid
South gains control of the National
government. The debts and obliga-
tions, the payment Of which is barred
by section of the 14th amendment to
the Constitution, are debts and obliga-
lions of the Rebel government of the
self-styled Confederate states. This
embraces the hundreds of millions of
currency issued with the promise to
pay in six months after the indepen-
dence Of the Confederate states should
be acknowledged, and the billions of
dollars in bonds issued and given in
exchange for arms and munitions of
war purchased abroad, whose redemp-
ton was based on the prospective cot
ton crop of the Confederacy. These
are the debts and obligations, together
with the payment of the war emanci-
pated slaves, which are barred by the
constitutional amendment. But indi-
vidual Rebel claims for property used,
occupied or destroyed by the armies of
the United States are not barred by
the Constitution. More than thirteen
thousand millions of dollars in claims
have been presented and filed against
the United States by persons who are
classed as disloyal. Gen. Hancock says
if he is elected President he would We
to all legislation providing for the pay
ment of claims of those e0ho acre en-
gagged IN rebellion. But the larger
part of the claimants were not engaged
in rebellion, being private citizens and
not soldiers. But, supposing Gen.
Hancock, if he be President, should
veto rebel claims, what would it avail
He might as we'll place his mouth to
Niagara, and extend himself for pump
log to limit and control that grand
cataract as to attempt to limit and
curtail the overwhelming avalanches
OF all classes ofrebel claims that would
be hurled upon him by a Brigadier
Congress. The people of the United
States well know that as long as the
chief executive Office of the Nation is
filled by a Republican and a Union
soldier, as is Gen. Garfield, no rebel
claims will ever be paid. They will
naturally be inclined to distrust even
an honest Union soldier, who, if elect
ed, will be elected by the votes of those
who hold the claims and by their sym.
pathizers and abettors.
This is what Senator Vance says on
the question of Rebel claims, and this
will be the outcome of Democratic gov.
eminent control, in spite of Gen. Han
cocks letters, vetoes and all:
The South asks no bold and unfair
thing when she demands her rightful
compensation for homes destroyed,
farms laid waste and pillaged, proper
ty stolen, and slaves released by the
Yankee plunderers who lived upon us
and then refused us bounty. And it
is time that the whole North should
understand this. 1t is time that the
North should understand that it must
atone, as far as it can, for all the South
has suffered in body, pocket and soul.
Our time is coming, boys, and the long
purgatory we have gone through will
only make our paradise the brighter
when we get there.