Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1880 — THOSE AWFUL SOUTHERN CLAIMS! [ARTICLE]

THOSE AWFUL SOUTHERN CLAIMS!

Tennessee Stamps on “All Claims of a Disloyal Person in Any Way Arising: Out of tlie War.” In a recent speech delivered at Lewisburg, Tenn., John C. Burch, Secretary of the Senate and editor of the Nashville American, dealt with the “ bugbea? of Southern claims.” A charge which is made by the Republican speakers and writers, to mislead the honest masses of the North, is that when the Democracy get the Presidency, as they now have thf>

' Senate and the House, they will bankrupt the i Government by paying rebel war debts, for emancipated slaves* and property of Con- ■ federates taken or destroyed by the Federal army. That this is a lie out qf whole doth, every man in the South knows. But there are thousands and tens of thousands of good citizens in the North who are made to beI lieve this unmitigated lie by the persistent misrepresentations of those they are accustomed to look to for political information and guidance. Even if we desired so to do, the constitution forever prohibits us, without a change of that, instrument, which cannot be accomplished but with the consent and approval of a large proportion of the North themselves. The Fourteenth amendment to the constitution declares : “Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss -or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.” To alter or amend the constitution it is necessary that the alteration or amendment shall be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or by a general convention called on application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States. The amendment, when proposed, must be ratified by three-fourths of the States, or' bv conventions in three-fourths thereof. Three-fourths are twenty-nine. The South has only sixteen. It would require a solid South and thirteen Northern States to alter or amend. No such amendment as we are charged with desiring is demanded, requested or contemplated by the people of the South. We went into the w T ar with all of our energy and all of our resources. We made the best tight we could. We were vanquished, and we will abide the result. When wo reflect on the bitterness with which Republican partisans pursue us. upon the malignity with which they misrepresent us, we are doubly, trebly thankful to the noble band of Northern patriots who have stood as a wall of fire between us and military despotism. In the third session of the Fortieth Congress (1870-71), when Mr. Garfield was Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the Army Appropriation bill established the Court of Claims, consisting of three Commissioners, “ who consider the justice and validity of i such claims as shall be brought before them of those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cause and Government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the Rebellion for the use of the army of the United States in States proclaimed as in insurrection the United States.” That commission reports to Congress on all claims presented. There cannot be a claim reported upon by that court belonging to one who was disloyal to the Union. No claim of a disloyal person in any way arising out of the war can be paid or will ever be presented to the Court of Claims by Congress. Alabama on the Claims Bugaboo. All address of the Democratic State Committee of Alabama has been issued. It thoroughly indorses Gen. Hancock’s letter on the claims question, and, summing up, says: “Our party in Alabama stands committed by its platform, by the action of every department of the State Government, and by the Judges of its courts elected by it, first, ti) the acceptance of the result of the war ; second, to the equal- political rights of every citizen; third, to the faithful maintenance of the public credit, State and national, and unflinching opposition to repudiation of any public obligations; fourth, to the free and fair exercise of the elective franchise; fifth, to the strictest economy in the administration of public affairs.”