The Republican journal., 1881-01-06
Our Financial Triumph.

country and those of great Britain, which
are not at all favorable to the latter. In
this connection some tables taken from
the Consular reports, recently published
by the State Department at Washington,
are of interest. One table shows that
England and the Netherlands are the
only countries that have reduced their
debts since 1865, and that even in those
two instances the reduction has been
comparatively slight. In fifteen years
the Indebtedness of European nations has
nearly doubled while that of the United
States has been reduced one-third. In
1890 it owed less than France, Great
Britain, Russia, Spain, Austra-Hungary
and Italy. Another table shows that,
while the Indebtedness Of Europe has IN
creased with alarming rapidity, the cur
rent expenses have been increasing as
fast as the debt In the United States a
different policy has been followed. The
outlay for ordinary expenses III 1865 was
about 10000 900, exclusive Of all war
expenses, and the expenditures for the
last fiscal year were S267 ,642, so, and
during this period the population of the
United States has increased from thirty
five millions to fifty millions. The Lon
don Spectator says
The American people, half ruined by their civil
war, insisted on paying oil instead OF bearing their
debt. and amid the most terrible temptations ad-
hered to that resolve with an answering persist
enee which throws new light upon the future OF
democracy They utterly unused alike TO
debt and to sharp taxation. They were for a time
doubtful if they had succeeded lii their war
They were compelled to pass through cycle OF
depression unparalleled i'll their annals, depression
amid which every one felt poor and it was gravely
stated on competent authority, that every West
ern farm was more or less mortgaged. and work
men i'll the great centres not only talked Social
ism but fought for it. and the first feeder Of the
resources Of the nation, the marvellous lmm1gra-
ton from Europe, came practically to an end
The people, however, had made up their minds,
and they taxed themselves wholesale. as il self
ageaton Initiated them and with one notabss
exception. that of the income tax, they bore their
heavy mposts without linchlng No doubt they
were helped by the national feeling entertained
by those who indulge, that alcohol is IL Sc an evil
thing by the rooted prejudice IN favor OF hlgh
tariffs ana by the national CdltleSSuesS aUout tlIc
cost of certain IuXureS-no other people III the
world would bear the Western price for good boots
and gloyes-but their resolution to pay rather than
their descendants should pay had in 1t superb
| pride. They held on devoted surplus eighty
per cent higher than their whole taxation before
the war to the redemption Of deOt, voted down all
regulators by crushing majortles-tor the craze
about the dollar ofour fathers was honest enough
and finally reached their present financial posi-
ton More than third of their debt is paid, the
bo,
ftl7 800 0O0) or say two-thirds the debt of Great
Britain and the secretary Of the treasury while
proposing to sweep away all inland duties except
those on alcohol and tobacco expects to place
vast retundng loan at from three to 3! per cent.
The half ruined people of 1863 with their consols
at As and an irredeemable paper currency huctuat
ing two per cent IN an hour. have IN lSS0 the
credit of Great Britain and could raise t}O0,Joo,
00n for war There such financial
triumph in the history of a nation, or one which
reflected greater credit on its authors
Our neghbor the Journal, which raises its feeble
voice to help swell the sta wart chorus Of fraud at
the South preparatory to a count out Of dozen to
twenty Southern Congressman, singles out the
case Of Gen. Chalmers Of Mississippi par
ticularly outrageous declaring that his election
was secured by bulldozng and fraud. Prog. Age.
Colonel Mcclure, Of the Philadelphia
Times, an impartial observer, and who
has Just returned from a tour of the
south, mentions three or four Congress
ional districts in which fraud was fla
grantly manifest. Gen. Chalmers ease,
in the Vicksburg, Miss, district, he
denounces as ''simply an unmitigated
fraud" The Democratic candidate, he
says, was ':tairlv beaten by several thous-
ands, and he will dishonor himself and
the South by claiming the seat on such
title" The Prog. Age, which has be-
come the defender of such practices, now
seeks to pallate them by declaring that
worse methods have been resorted TO in
the North. Even so, two wrongs do not
make one right; and the Age does not
submit Il scntilla Of proof to sustain its
attack upon the integrity OF the Northern
people. There is no Congressional dis
trict in the North in which 5,33S votes
were thrown out to elect a defeated can
dldate. Nor one in which tissue ballots
were used. ballot boxes stuffed, and shot
guns, revolyers and cannon used to in
timidate voters at the polls, as was the
case in a number of Southern districts.
The evidence of these frauds comes
from Democratic as we'll as Republican
sources.
Information has been received from
Mississippi to the effect that on Dec. 18th
the Grand Jury returned a number Of
indictments in the election cases and
among them two against the election
commission of De Soto. At last advices
the jury was still examining witnesses. y
Republican resident of Mississippi, d thor
oughly trustworthy man, says that the
election Of George to the United States
Senate ought to be contested. He says
if the Senate will send committee to in
quire into the election of members of the
Legislature that elected him he will never
be seated. "In my part OF the State" says
this gentleman, ''seven or eight members
returned to the Legislature never were
elected, and the proof of the fraud can be
easily produced" Mention has hereto
fore been made of the frauds in South
Carolina in the Congressional elections. a
so-called election has since been held in
kershaw county, S. G., for member Of
the Legislature, to fill vacancy occa-
stoned by death, and a Republican pres
ent at one of the principal polls thus
writes Of what took place
The election passed Of quietly | have only
heard from the Camden poll. AS before, the box
at this poll carried by majority of 800 and
| more for the Democratic candidate when there
were but 700 votes actually cast Of which the Re
publican candidate received 46l, giving him ma
iority Of 222. According to the count of the man
| ayers there were lG4S counted out of the box