Year: 1868




mOur.


We make the following extracts
from the great speech delivered by
Senator Morton, at indianapolis, Oct
9th, in reply to Horatio Seymour;


For many years the politicians Of the
South labored to excite their people
finally resulted in rebellion. Fol-
Democratic party of Indiana and other
Northwestern States to denounee New
England, and arouse the prejudices
and feelings of our people against the
people of that portion of our country.
This was the staple of Democeatic ar
eument throughout the war, and the
leading men of that party In Indiana
limited broadly at a Northwestern con-
federacy, and that New England
should be left out in the cold; and
now we have an Eastern politician. q
candidate for Office, endeavoring, by
every means in his power, to excite the
people of the Northwest against the
people even Of his own State.


Among the charges which he brings
against the Government Is that the ma
tional debt is sectional inits character;
that it was not contracted In the seYe-
raj States, according to their popula-
ton, but that most of the money was
borrowed from Eastern States. 1t is
hard to refrain from calling this COM
plant absurd. J ust as if Congress could
borrow money in the States where the
people had little or none to lend, and
refuse to borrow money in other States
where they have plenty of it to lend.
He says that, by this improper method
of borrowing money chiefly IN the
Eastern States, the States have been
divided into creditor and debtor
States, Eastern being creditors, and
Western States debtors. This phrase
he first employed In his Cooper Insti-
tute speech, on the 29th Of June last,
and il has now passed into a quotation
although there is absolutely no mean
ing in It. The Eastern States did not
loan their money to the Government.
It is true that the Western States are
liable to help pay the debt, but SO
are the Eastern States, and they will
help to pay the debt IN very much the
same proportion as they lent money.
In his speeches at Buffalo and Chica-
go, the first financial grievance he com
Dlained of was that Congress had lev
led an export tax of six cents per
pound on raw cotton He said that
this not only oppressed the planter,
but chiefly the negro laborer, with
whom he seems to have fallen In love.


He declares this tax as being oner-
Gus in character, levied for vindictive
purposes, and as being the reason why
reconstruction has not taken place in
in the South. On this subject Mr.
Seymour is not well informed. The
tax levied on cotton was not six cents
per pound, but three cents per pound;
the tax was not an export tax as he
states. Congress is expressly prohibit
ted by the Constitution from levying
an export tax, which Mr.. Seymour
seems to have forgotten. On the con-
trary the tax was levied upon all the
Gotten produced in the country, with
out regard to whether it was exported
to foreign countries for manufacture
or kept IN this country.


1t was levied at a time when this
Government was compelled to tax
everything. and to draw revenue from
exer7 possible source, aud was repealed
nearly year ago; soon as the time had
come when taxation could be reduced!
The most extraordinary statement
which he makes, is that it was instiga-
ted by Eastern manufacturers, and 1
quote his language say Il was a
selfish act: because II was done IN the
interest of the Eastern manufacturers,
already wealthy from the fruits of the
war. Protected by enormous tariffs,
this tax of six cents per pound on all
cotton exported, was merely imposed
so that he might buy it at a price six
cents less than it was worth IN the
market of the Old World. The man
ufacturers were, ofall others, the class
in the north who were especially inter-
ested against the tax. 1t IS not to be
supposed that they desired to add six
cents per pound to the cost of the raw
material which they manufactured into
goods. On the contrary, the people of
the manufacturing States were anxious
to have this law repealed, and every
Representative from the New Eng
land States voted for its repeal:


His complaint against the Eastern
manufacturers that instigated this tax
on cotton is quite as logical as that of
the wolf that quarrelleG with the lamb
which was drinking in the steam be-
low, because he muddled the water so
that he could not use it. But Mr..
Seymour is determined to prove that
people of the Eastern States are the
oppressors of the West and South, and
hence this remarkable statement.
Another financial outrage which has
been perpetrated by the Republican
party, as he alleges, was driving out
the circulation of State and local banks
by heavy taxation during the war, to
make room for the circulation of Ma
tional Bank legal tender notes. This
was war measure upon tho part of
the Government, aud one of absolute
necessity. The Government had to
have money to carry on the war, to pay
the army and navy. to purchase sup
plies for them, and to meet expen6i-
lures which were necessary to be in
Cured. The notes of local banks
could not be used by the Government,
as they were at par only in their i'm
mediate localities IN time of peace.
In 1861, the notes of the Bank of the
State of Indiana, (as good a bank as
there was in the country,) would not
pay hotel bills or buy goods in the city
Of New York. They were at a dis
count in all Eastern cities, and what
was true of the banks of Indiana, was
true of the banks of Ohio and of all
the other Western States.


The issues of these local banks could