The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-01-04
A REMARKABLE DECLARATION.
Care Of Confederate Living Would Ee
Constitutional
From the Nrw i'ori Press.

South is that arising from the question
OF Confederate pensions. There never
has been since Lees surrender the
slightest doubt of Southern ..loyalty.-
so far as II desire to remain Within the
Union is concerned. 4 wal with
France on the Mexican question would
probably have enrolled as many south,
crn as Northern volunteers. uu the
Secession issue and the Emancipation
issue. which ii deemed The sulc issue,
of the war of the rebellion, the SnuIn
accepted the result in Tie most maniui
fashion ever followed. So fal. ~ We
know. by an mSurgcnt people. Since
1867, when Judge kclly's course.
through, Alalama WAS only occasional.
ly vrxcd by hrickbatS. there lnvc been
II" cNtraortlinary obstacles laid in the
way OF Republican orators in the more.
nnpulouS portions of the South. In
fact, from the year tS.;s to 1850. when
the B0urbons, being incrilsrd III the
number OF new school houses which
were being built and railroads laid out
raised Il howl aga inst carpet -baggcrs." :"
and "scalnwags," and shot the section
back into state of mint-.iulcpctl calm,
thc South was fairiy Republican re-
gion. At least, the parties battlcd fail
ly for it. Outside of piratical Loltis-
nna, whoever had the most votes won.
Anybody with political memory can
recall the doubt over the result of the
North Carolina State ELECTION of Au-
gust of Greeley's year. 1t was not, in
fact until "rilden's bar'l" was opened
for the bulldozcrs that any question of
the loyalty Of the South arose. So we
cannot see OH this head of reunion"
much difference between Mr.. McKin-
lcy's position and reception and those
OF the first Northern Republican and
orator who went below Mason and
Dixon's line to inform the world that
G"d only knew whether Abraham Lin
cnln OF Jefferson Davis "was right"
Mr.. McKinley's attitude may be traced
directly. in brief, to that Of member
of President Hayes Cabinet. There is
absolutely nothing new about the re-
union idea. Bagleys are not born Of a
disloyal generation. More eloquent
than oil the ''bloody chasm" rhetoric
that political orators may invent was
the laugh that went up at San Juan
when General Wheeler, through force
of habit, told his United States cavalry
regulars to go in and lick the id
Yankees" The old terms of bitterness
had become merely historic, and the
General would have aroused 10 more
political feeling had he called upon
JacObite clansmen to lay on the clay
mare.
But the policy which the South,
Chairman Cannon, the Baltimore Sun
and others have t@fe.i 70 be fores!:a;s-
owed in the Presidents speech as to
E 10 care of the Confederate dead la
naw, and, whatever other objections
may be made. it Is nonsense to talk of
it as unconstitutional: If Mr.. McKin-
ley intends to recOmmit TO Congress
the relief of the Southern States from
the Confederate pensions, which now
sofely oppress many of them, no one
can object on grounds found in the or
ganic law. Undoubtedly, il old Thad-
deus Stevens or even young James G..
Blaine had ever dreamed Of G proposal
to pay what they coarsely called
"rebel" pensions out of United States
revenues a prohibition OF such expen-
diture would have been inserted in the
XIV Amendment. But, SO they did
not and could not have conceived snch
notion, the prohibition was omitted.
This was natural. The pensions of
those who sought to preserve, not to
destroy, the Union had not then alb
sorbed an appreciable amount of the
national revenue and did not until
Congress, with what it considered
amazing cleverness. found way to
get rid Of Hn unmanageable surplus
and make votes simultaneously. so
the XIV Amendment merely fOrbit:s
the assumption by the United States Of
"any debt or obligation incurred in aid
Of insurreetiOn or rebellion against the
United States, OF any claim for the loss
or emancipation Of any slave" A ren-
sion is not "debt or Obligation" but
entirely a gratuity. The care of the
Confederate living rests upon precisely
the same basis as the care Of tho Con-
federate dead recommended by the
President. Moreover, the Court which
wouIdinquire. as Courts for guidance
must, into the circumstances under
which the amendment was adopted,
would find that the 89th Congress, in
proposing this article to the several
States on June 10, 1865, had in mind
two .things-avoidance of the payment
of the huge Confederate debt, largely
held in England, and remuneration
for the emancipated slaves. a demand
for which was expected in the event of
the Democratic party's return to pow
ier. II may elsc be nc:eeta that that, If pom.
sions were a "debt or Obligation every