Watson's weekly Jeffersonian., 1907-11-14
Gibe 1T TO the old C0nteds.


ly, from the South during the period of her
subjection, humiliation and helplessness We
refer, of course, to the illegal cotton tax
What shall be done with this money? Shall
it always stay there in the Treasury, monu-
ment of National injustice? Will the North
and the East never grow ashamed of that act
of spoliation and do themselves the justice of
making restitution?
We believe that if Southern Congressman
will exert themselves with earnestness and per-
sistence, the wrong of thirty odd years ago
can be righted.
What should be done with this money? It
seems to us that the answer is plain. Wherever
the owner, or the lawful heirs of the owner, can
be traced, the money should be returned to
those from whom it was taken. But it is prob
able that the greater part of this fund could
never be restored to the owners or their legal
representatives therefore, the principle of es-
cheat would apply The property would be-
long to the state in which the taxpayer lived
at the time his cotton was taxed. Probably
the larger part of this fund of fifty million dol
lars would thus be thrown into the treasures
of the different cotton states That being so,
what disposition should be made of it? We be-
lieve that ninety-nine Southern men out of ev-
cry hundred would say, cheerfully and rever-
emily,
"Give it to the survivors who fought for the
Cotton States give it to the remnants of the
heroic bands of Lee, and Jackson, and Stuart,
and Johnston, and Forrest; give it to those
who, for four years, threw between the South
ern home and the invading army, the buwark
of their dauntless battle line"
The world is staggered yet when contemplate
ing the enormous indemnity which Germany
wrung from PROSTATE France. A billion dol
lars, paid in lump sums, seemed cruel pen
atty to exact from fallen foe-but have you
ever stopped to consider the indemnity which
the South has paid, during the forty years
which have elapsed since the war? Every
year, the survivors of the Union army have
drawn from the National Treasury bounteous
PENSIONS which have run up to nearly one hun
dred and fifty million dollars. Of this enormous
annual payment of pensions, the South has had
to contribute, through the indirect system of
taxation (Which burdens the agricultural COM
munity much more heavily than any other), at
least one-third of the entire amount paid to
the Union soldiers. Thus the South is paying
war indemnity of nearly fifty million dollars
every year-for the South gets practically
nothing back from all that she pays. The
great bulk of the money comes from the Old
Confed, his children, and his grandchildren
and it never comes back When we consider
that this payment incident to our defeat in
war, has been running on for forty years, and
will, perhaps, continue to run on for forty years
more, we begin to have some clear and inn
pressive idea of the frightful war indemnity
which the triumphant North is exacting from
the helpless South.
Surely there will be, in the various Southern
delegations that will go UP to the National
Council in December, some one Congressman
with courage enough, patriotism enough abili-
tY enough, to go plead the cause of fha wan