The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-02-05
THE MoNEYED INTERESTS OWE A SERVICE
PENSION

from commonly recognized salvage prin
ciples.
The darkest hour that those interest!
saw was the 18th of July, 1864.
| The most extraordinary efforts had beer
made by the Government to get money tt
equip its armies for the grand campaign
Of 1864, which it was sansuinely hoped
would end the war. The public debt had
been increased $700,00O,O00, TO obtain the
necessary funds, ard the money lenders
drove so hard bargain that the value OF
the greenback on May 1 was only 3d.
cents, showing that the dollars which were
lent the Government were worth only 1T.
tie over half their face value. But on
these interest was paid at G per cent in
gold, or nearly u per cent in gold per
annum. The usurers regarded the Gov
eminent as in sore straits, and would only
lend at exorbitant rates.
During the Winter of 1864 both sides
nerveds themselves for what both hoped
would be the last campaign. The Gov
eminent hoped to crush the rebels; the
rebels hoped to defeat the Government, ex-
haust the spirit of the loyal people, secure
recognition by France and England, and
achieve their independence. Jan. 1, 1864,
the Government had present for duty
1927 regulars, and 594,013 volunteers,
making a total of Gil $50, ready for duty
Owing to the frightful strains of the Vicks-
burg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and other
campaigns of the previous year there were
249, 4S7 men absent in hospital, GONZALES
cent camps, on furlough, ETC., recovering
from their wounds and breakdowns, or
waiting for a discharge by death or the
Surgeons certificate of incurability.
Against this total of 611,25O Union
troops ready for duty, the rebels had ar
rayed probably two-thirds as many, stand
ing in excellent defensive positions, with
shorter lines, so that one man could be
as effective as two advancing against him
from the longer outside circle.
The month of May opened with the
Union troops making an onslaught with
the most desperate stubbornness The
world never saw such protracted and san
culinary fighting. In Virginia a trail, red
with the blood of fully 100000 men on
both sides, reached over 100 miles, from
the Rapidan to the Appomattox. Another
bloody trail of 100 miles stretched over
the mountains and through the valleys
from Chattanooga to Atlanta. There were
smaller and shorter crimson streaks lead
ing into the Southern Confederacy from
every point at WHICH it could be attacked.
After two months of this awful work,
the month of July, 1864, opened with the
sanguine loyalists checked in their expec-
tations, but still hopeful; with the faint
hearted Unionists desparfng, the enemies
of the Union, North and South, eXultant,
and all heart and hope gone out from the
moneyed interests. Grants magnificent
army, after an appalling slaughter, SEEM
ed hopelessly piled up against the impreg-
nable works around Petersburg. Sherman
seemed fought to a standstill, and tangled
up in the mountains, where he could not
go ahead, and to retreat meant absolute
destruction. Banks had been whipped
back, with awful losses, from the Red
River. Sturgis had met with humilia-
ting defeat in Mississippi. The Shenan-
doah Valley had become the grave for the
regulations of two more promising Union
Generals. Hunter had gone off down the
Kanawha, and Sigel had put himself out
of harms way on Maryland flights. The
exultant Early, after defeating on the
banks of the Nionocacy still another Cen
eral, Lew Wallace, was at the very gates
of Washington.
The Government had appealed to the
moneyed interests for more money, but
they turned a deaf ear to its opportunities.
They were not going to throw good money
after bad-not even the deprecated green
backs. They would let it all go, and save
what they had. July11, 1864, the day that
Early appeared on the hills in the suburbs
of Washington, it took 1885 in greenbacks
to buy 500 in gold in New York, making
the value Of the paper dollar but 351 cents
in gold. Now let it be carefully remem-
bered, that this value determined that of
every balance in bank, every deposit in
savings banks, every bond or share of
stock in railroad, bank, steamboat, man.
ufacturing or other company, every State,
County or municipal bond, every note,
mortgage, judgment or bequest. The law
had made them all measurable by and pay
able in the greenback dollars, now only
worth 80 cents on the dollar. The value
of billions of the wealth of the people of
the country, of substantially all the invest
ments Of the moneyed classes, rose and
fell with the greenback. What was in the
minds of these men when they refused TO
lend the Government any more money we
can not tell, but they acted as if they re-
garded the war as complete failure, and
that the Government should get out of
the scrape as best it could and as quickly.
The only solidly hopeful men in the
country were those who were fighting its
battles. In Grants army they were sure
they would yet win; in Sherman's they
were certain they would take Atlanta, and
e,cfswtere csc they Were equally conf.
dcnt. They freely lent the Government,
out of their slender pay, some S20,0CO,OO0.
at the tine when it couIj not obtciD
dollar anywhere else.
Further than this, they kept striking
vigorously at their country's enemies.
Under Sheridan and Sherman they ran
Early back to Winchester, and "sent him
whirling up the Valley" and took Atlanta
The effect of these two victories was to
leo %l,o -