Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-04-26
SOME STRONG POINTS.

IuC NUttVHut 4FtUuHc vi w dSnlb9
ton in an "Open Letter, to those
Southern Representatives who are
so bitterly opposed TO pensions,
makes some strong points that are
not generally known. Pension pay
ments increase no ones taxes IN
this cIuDtry. The money is levied |
on imposts, fully one third of which |
comes from import duties imposed
for tie protection of farm products
in the South, section that does not
contain one quarter of our popu-
lation.
SOS, APO. COS we're collected in 1888
on hemp, lemons, rice, sugar, fruit.
&c, all of which imports come di-
rectly in conf etition with Southern
farms.
1t also shows that by the war
settlement the bulk of the taxes was
paid by the Northern States.
Surprising that the South had
succeeded, the Tribune shows that
to hold lis independence would
have required line of forts and
garrisons from the Potomac to the
Mississippi Valley, which would have
drained the South of men and money
annually beyond calculation. In
other words, the success OF arms
would have meant for the South q
debt that could never have been
paid, and its independence to de-
fend which would have kept the
government always on guard and
the people down with taxation.
BIT there is another phase of the
matter which we desire to present
to you. 1t has nothing to do with
sentiment. 1t is strictly pecuniary
-" business view. Admitting,
for the sake of argument, that the
payment of pensions entails heavy
burden upon the people of the
South, did it never occur to you
that it was only the resolute valor
of the pensioners and pension
claimants which saved your section
from financial burden beside which
the prese3t pension expenditures
would be but a feathers weight 7
Did it never occur to you what would
haye been your financial condition if
the veterans had wearied-as God
knows they had reason to midway
in the bloody fighting Of the Wilder
ness and the Atlanta Campaign, and
said, awe will stop right here :" =?
This would have been very bad for
the whole country, but it would have
been very much worse for your sec
ton than for any other. 1t is true
you would have gained your indie,
penGence, but heavier calamity
could scarcely have befallen you. In
the first, you would have been bur
dencd down with load Of debt be-
You'd all calculation. The printing
presses in Richmond and Columbia
were very busy from short time
after Fo.t Sumter was fired upon
until the very eve of Lees surrender,
and Steam-presses will turn off an
! immense number of bonds and notes
in the course of four years. active
work, night and day. There we're
more Confederate bonds and notes
payable Six Months After Treaty
of Peace Between the Confederate
States and the United States" set
atioat than you could have paid off
i'll century, tax as heavily as you
might. Then, too, each of the States
had an immense debt incurred in
support OF the rebellion. Nothing
could have saved you but wholesale
reputation, which would have blast
ed the whole financial future of the
Southern Confederacy, and destroy
ed the business of its citizens. By
fighting to the end, and crushing the
rebellion INTO nothingncss the veter.
ans swept away all this vast incubus
of debt, which otherwise would have
paralyzed you forever. They saved
you from the disgrace frepudiating
it. The arbitrament of the sword
decided that the whole wretched
business of rebellion, with all the
acts done in its name, were Illegal
and utterly void. 10 this way you
were saved mole than would pay
Your share of the pensions to Union
soldiers for some centuries.