The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-10-07
souTHEKN wan INDEMNITY.

Among the many excellent points which
were made by Governor Holt in the fine adj
dress which he delivered at the opening of
the Raleigh Exposition was his reference to
the heavy burden of National taxation which
the South has been carrying for SO many
years without any prospect of relief IF in
the articles of surrender at Appomattox." said
he IAN indemnity had been demanded
from the South in the shape OF a sum whose
annual interest represented the amount now
paid by the South thirty years after the war,
the world would have stood aghast at such "a
wholesale confscation far exceeding anything
modern history has ever known. Almost the
whole OF the immense tribute for pensions
streams from the patient South never to
return"
This is an exact statement Of the truth, and
the moro carefully it is considered the moro
unjust seems the treatment to which the
South has been exposed. One of the princi-
pal causes which led tho Southern people be-
fore tie war to desire O separation from the
North was the inequality in the operation
of the tariff in the two sections. The
North being chiefly engaged in man
ufactures found it TO its interest to ex-
tend the scope OF the protective system. The
South. on the other hand, being dependent
for its prosperity on agriculture was anxious
TO sell IN the dearest market and buy in the
cheapest The tariff in cutting the South of
from the world at large, more especially Eng
land compelled it to purchase its principal
supplies III the North.
For long series Of years this section was
thus forced to contribute large proportion
of its means to the Northern merchants and
manufacturers, who rapidly increased their
fortunes at its expense. 1t is not an exagger-
alton to say that the North was largely built
up by the farmers and planters Of the South
ern States, and it WAS as much recognition of
the wealth derived from these States 40 il was
a patriotic and national spirit which PROMPTED
the Northern people to oppose secession.
The drain from the South to the North
under the tariff laws existing before the late
war. large as it was, was small in comparison
with the drain which has been going on since
the close of that conflict. This drain is not
only the result of the operation of the inter
nal revenue system but also Of the operation
Of the protective system. If the Southern
people considered the ante-bellum tariff laws
to be so onerous and tyrannical as to be in
themselves justification for secession. What
would they have thought if the Mckinley
tariff had then been imposed upon them
1t is we'll known what action South Caro-
lima took in the time of Jackson to resist the
tariff law passed during his administration.
II the North had succeeded before the war in
enactipg a counterpart of the Mckinley law
all the agricultural States of the Union from
the Ohio to the Rio Grande would have Sc
coded in body, and by practically unani-
nous vote. Such law would have been
looked upon then with even more Justice than
now as a measure Of legal robbery. which
would have been resisted with as much zeal
aud determination as an attempted confsca-
ton of the slaves
How far circumstances have controlled the
Southern people independently Of their in
terests and sentiments is shown most clearly
by their quiet submission to general sys
TEN OF taxation. which, as Governor Holt
very truly remarked. surpasses in the gross
ness of its injustice everything of the kind
that the civilized world has yet soon or shall
ever again see