The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-05-20
WHAT Is THAT DEBT?

depreciatively, of "The debt due thu
soldiers of the War of the Rebellion.
Very few-entirely too few-stop ano
calmly consider what that debt really is
Let us state few fundamental facts
for their consideration
1. In 1901 the people of II States
or nearly one-third the whole number
and a population of over 9,o00,0oO-ol
about one-third the total in the country
-avowed their inflexible determination
to secede and set up new Government
They were aided, abetted, and sym
pathized with by their friends in the
non-seceding States to the extent thai
virtually nearly one-half of the people
were concerned in the attempt.
g We know to-day, even more fully
than we felt then, that the success OF
such a scheme meant the utter destruc.
ton of the country. If the secession
had gone no farther, it would have re-
suited in the two hostile Nations occupy.
ing our present territory, with bound.
arv line between them more than 5000
miles long, over which there would have
been perpetual warfare. But it was IN
evitable that one successful secession
would have been followed by another
until the country would have been split
up into a score or more of discordant
little Nations, with perennial wars
standing armies, and crushing ex
penses for ornaments. Every bushes:
would have been ruined, and every
industry Frustrated. Instead Of going
ahead 10 its present splendid develop.
meht, the country would have retro
graded to the condition of Spain OF
Turkey.
3. To avert ills crushing calamity
over 100000 of the pick and flower o.
the youth of the country offered them
selves as willing sacrifice. They gave
up their homes, their chosen. occupation:
in life, their future prospects, to follow
the hard, hazardous, ll-paid career of {
soldier in wartime. They sacrificed
themselves for those who staid at home
and for those who should live after them
Measured by the money returns alone
those devoted men did not receive one
fifth what was paid those who selfishl,
staid at home. In addition to this, the,
exposed their lives every hour, and the,
suffered inconceivable hardships. Still
more, one entire fourth Of their humble
were dead before the war ended, an,
still another fourth were more or les
disabled by wounds and disease. Til
is the price they paid for the uneS
amplcd prosperity the country has Ell
joyed since they won peace and Nationa
unity, and in which time its wealth ha
increased from $4,000, 1000, 900 in 1856
to SOS, oo0,00O,0Oo in 1890.
4. When we consider this enormou
aggregation of wealth, not dollar {
which would have been possible but fo
the immense sacrifices Of these mel
when we think of the universal happ
ness of the peaceful and united country
which would have been impossible
they had not fought and endured as the
did when we contemplate the distrac
ed, debt-ridden, poyerty-strickea col
dition from which they rescued it, an
place all those in the balance along. wit
the terrible cost to themselves of til
four years of awful fighting, and scarcel
less terrible hardships. how paltry an
inadequate seems the money return whic
has been made in the way of pension
The very least that in common, ever,
day justice the country should do is
make sure, beyond any doubt, that N
one of these men yet living, nor Il
dependent ones of those dead, shall sufI
from want. This would be the payme
of a very small part of the debt d.
them.