Year: 1876




Mr.. Tilden is as explicit on the question
of paying Southern war claims as anybody
could desire His declarations are so strong
and emphatic as to leave but two methods
of assailing them--namely, either first to
impuSn his sincerity or, secondly, to dispute
his ability to make his declarations good il
he should be elected. 1t cannot very we'll
be disputed that the electioneering profess
sions of candidates are more or less open to
suspicious of insincerity. 1t is the habit of
offce-seekers to say whatever they think will
promote their election. 1t is always proper
to compare such statements with the record
of the person who makes them before he
became a candidate. Mr.. Tildens letter is
consistent enough with his character and
antecedents. He expressed similar views in
his first annual Message as Governor, and
(what is perhaps q better guarantee of sim
cerity) opposition to Southern war claims
tallies with his peculiar and distinctive g6le
as public officer. 1t was derisively said of
some one "his talk is of bullocks." Mr.. Til
den's talk is of taxation 1t has been his
constant topic, both in Office and out of
Office, for the last ten years. He aspires to
be champion tax reducer. He knows that
he could not play that r6le in the federal
government if the national Treasury were to
be saddled with a great mass of Southern
claims. It is. therefore, not very difficult to
believe him sincere in his present declara-
tions. True, they are the electioneering
declarations of u candidate, but they are in
accord with his whole record as public
man. He could not entertain different
purpose from that which he AYERS without
closing the door to his ambition to illustrate
his Presidency by great alienation of the
public burdens We think it fair to credit
him with sincerity; but the question still
remains whether his party, or the Southern
wing of it, would not foil and control him.
We proceed to consider this question.


II must be borne in mind that the consti-
tuition lays its broad interdict on any pay
ment for the loss Of slaves, for the war
expenses of the insurgents, or for the de-
struction of the private property of rebel
owners in the course of our military
operations. A law granting indem-
nifty for such losses would be void
on it's face and every officer of the
Treasury would disregard it, because
he would be liable to personal prosecution
for misappropriation of the public funds.
No claim for the destruction of Southern
property has been presented or will be pre-
sented, except on the pretence of loyal own
ership. The great body OF the Southern


IL
claims by the fact that they supported the
rebellion. 1t is contrary to all we know of
their character to suppose that the ex-rebels
are going to be zealots for the payment of
losses incurred during the struggle by South
ern citizens who did not act with them. It
is absurd to think that the mass of the
Southern people desire premium to be
paid by the federal government for what
they regarded at the time as treason
to their cause. As their own losses
can never be reimbursed they will be
in no hurry to support the claims
of the Southern loyalists. Why should the
ex-Confederates desire a discrimination to
be made in favor Of small class whom they
denounced rs false to their section during
the war? They have no motive for wishing
anything of the sort. The Treasury would
be more secure against such claims under
democratic than under republican admin
istration, because there would be less SYM
pathy with Southern loyalists and less dis
position to grant them favors. Mr.. Tilden's
letter will not weaken him with the Southern
democrats. They will indorse every word of
it. Being debarred by the constitution from
setting up any claims of their own they do
not wish the loyalists, whom they despised
as traitors, to fare better than themselves.


We have no doubt that Mr.. Tilden reflects
the sentiments of his Southern supporters
and sincerely expresses his own in the con-
tempt he pours upon Southern war claims
Even when the persons making them were
loyal he thinks they ought to be rejected,
and he broadly hints that such loyalty is in
many cases an afterthought and swindllng
sham. Even where the alleged loyalty is
not false pretence, put on for the purpose
of cheating the government, Mr.. Tilden says
that the claims are 'stale" and have mostly
passed into the hands of spectators and lob
byists. The following passage of the letter
is not only sound in law and true in fact,
but states view which will be readily ac-
cepted by all Southern democrats who SO
actively participated in the rebellion that
denial would be vain, or who scorn to pre-
tend loyalty they did not feel as means
of detrauding the Treasury. Mr.. Tilden
says, with irresistible cogency:-"The
1.u.,or kc <ba pat;opol Tra,c,r, ;s ,ot r.o,,~
claims of persons who aided the rebellion,
but from claims of persons residing in the
Southern States or having property in those
States who were or pretended to be, or who,
for the sake of aiding claims, now pretend to
have been loyal to the government of the