New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-04-09
TIE coyF- DERATE FILIsUSTERA

The bill to refund to the States the amount
of direct tax paid during the war, against
which Confederate Bngadiers have been fill
clustering in the House the past week, ought
to stand on its own merits. II is simply dis
honest to say that the bill means the refunding
of the cotton tax Also for some at least OF
those who prominently urge this measure have
publicly declared that they Will oppose the
other when reached. The Confederate army
in Congress is fighting the bill because it re-
pays the tax to those who did pay it, while
their States, being in rebellion, did not pay.
1t is not less dishonest to represent that the
measure has anything to do with the tariff or
the surplus revenue. Nobody but Demo-
cratic Brigadier or Mugwump Tariff Re
former" would imagine the people ignorant
enough to be misled by an assertion so palpably
foolish The refunding bill concerns only the
disposition of sundry millions which have
already been collected, and are now in the
Treasury, and has not the slightest thing to
do with the surplus revenue, at this or any
future time, with the amount that should be
collected, or the way it shall be raised. That
explanation entirely fits set of persons so
ignorant that they are despised by their own
party for their incompetence as legislators
even by the people who think them eminently
competent to revise the whole tariff system Of
the Nation, because their ignorance makes
them Free Traders.
If every dollar of the surplus which has thus
far gathered in the Treasury should be OK
pended, or returned to the States that would
make no difference whatever as to the need Of
reducing taxation hereafter in order to prevent
future accumulation Of money. The bill
would pay out part Of the money now in the
Treasury to the States, instead Of paying the
whole of it to the bondholders, as was author
lied by the Bond Purchase bill, which recently
passed tho House. That is all there is of the
question about which the Congressman still in
rebellion are bowling and drinking whiskey
night and day, and the attempt of "Thc New
York Herald" to excuse their disgIaceful per-
formancc on the plea that it has something
to do with the Mills bill, if not intentionally
deceptive, is as ignorant as the Congressman
themselves.
Whether sundry millions of the nuhlio
money, which have been collected in the past
and are not now needed by the Treasury,
ought to be paid back to the loyal States, is a
question on which it is a piece of impudence
for persons who were pardoned traitors, and
who if they had their deserts, would have
been hanged, to express a very strenuous
opinion. Loyal and patriotic citizens paid this
money into the Treasury, to meet part of the
expense of putting down Democratic re-
belliOn. The loyal and patriotic citizens have
some right to say whether they want 1t back
again, particularly as they asked no bonds for
it and want no interest. The persons who are
now in Congress by virtue of the exceeding
generosity of the National generosity they
have not yet shown themselves capable Of
comprehendng-migh fifty sit in Inundated
and Iepentant silence, when it is proposed that
the Nation they tiled to destroy should pay
back any of its debt But for that, as for
other evidence of capacity to govern, they have
not the selfrespect or the manly patriotism Of
feeling. They are qualified only to draw pay
from the Treasury for wasting public timc--to
plumber the Government they failed to destroy.