Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1898 — FACTS ABOUT WARS. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT WARS.

hiDiTOE Democrat: In the Republican of last week a few statements are made concerning the relative mismanagement of what it terms the two great republican wars for freedom and the one democratic war for slavery, its object being to prove that the mismanagement, or, rather, the fatalities resulting from said mismanagement was much greater in the democratic, qt Mexican war, than in the republican ware, namely the civil and Spanish wars. To begin with he makes the statement that the suffering of the soldiers in the Mexican war was much greater than in the Spanish’, and, that it began with the commencement of the war. Granting this, let us look into the relative conditions of the country then and now. In 1845 the country was but poorly developed, immigration had progressed but little beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The region between the Alleghany Mountains and-the Mississippi (now the* best part of the country) was then very thinly populated, a great part of the land was as yet uncleared, and the comfortable nomes| such as we have at present, to those few early settlers were then unknown. Beyond, or west of the Mississippi, was practically a wilderness, except, for a scanty population in Texas and California. lowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas and several other states were not admitted as states until after the war, while Florida and Texas wbre admitted in 1845. In 1845 the entire population of the United States did not number over 20,000,000 while today it is over 70,000,000. Taking these facts into consideration it is clearly seen that a war tax, equal, not in numbers, bnt in value, to that which oonld now be borne with ease, was, at that time, impossible,

and consequently the same degree of comfort for as well as for private citizens could not be expected—and more, it was an impossibility. He farther says: In the Mexican war. from May 1846, to April 1848, the whole number of volunteers mustered Into the United States service was 71,300,. of whom 58,096 were accepted. Altogether, including noncombatants, there were not more than 100,000 Americans engaged In active service against Mexico. The loss of life through battle and disease reached the enormous number, for so small an army, of 95.000, or 95 per cent. That is what the country had to sacrifice so that negro slavery in the land of boastful freedom might have more territory to blight with its horrors. That frightful sacrifice was made by a democratic administration solely for democratic purposes and democratic slavedrivers. James K. Polk was president and William L. Marcy, secretary of war. Thus we have a mathematical setting forth like this: Cost of freedom, civil war 13 per cent Cost of freedom, Spanish war 3 per cent Cost of slavery. Mexican war 25 per cent Excess of cpst of slavery over '.ivil war ........19 percent Excess of cost of slavery over Spanish war 22 per cent Excess of cost of slavery over both wars 9 percent In this case Mr. Marshall’s own numbers are best proof against what he seeks to prove—namely: that it was solely due to the mismanagement of the war officials that this large proportion of fatalities occurred. The undeveloped condition of the country at that time prevonted the raising and equipping of so large an army as could now be put into the field; . consequently, as Mr. Marshall stated, only 100,000 in all were engaged, while in the late Spanish war, at the least estimate 275,000 men were engaged. Add to this fact that they were fighting foes# of almost equal strength, for while Spain is an older country, her own impoverished condition together with the trouble and expense it took to get her troops to Cuba, placed her at a disadvantage, while the people of the country, who are supposed to understand their own country best, were on our side. In the late war Spain could not have placed in the field an army of more than 65,000 to fight against our 275,000, while in the Mexican war about 50,000 Mexicans were engaged to fight 100,000. In the Spanish war the proportion of soldiers was thirteen Spaniards to fifty-five Americans, or nearly five Americans to one Spaniard, while in the Mexican war it was two Americans to one Mexican, moreover, the Mexicans were in their own country. It was 50,000 citizen soldiers of the> country in which the war was being carried on, men who understood perfectly the dangerous roads of-their rough, mountainous country, and who were used to its climate, that 100,000 American soldiers were obliged to fight, not 275,000 against 65,000 imported soldiers who had no £ ractical knowledge of the country. foreover, the comparative sizes of the two armies and their antagonists prevented the execution of the war in three months, thus giving the American soldiers a much longer time to suffer and causing a larger number of fatalities. All other things being equal, the larger the army, the better their chances of success in a short time and with a small loss to themselves. But all things were not equal, and the late Spanish war an army of 275,000 matched against an army of 65,000 the loss should not have been as great in numbers, to say nothing of the proportion, as that of an army of 100,000 fighting an army of 50.000. XX

Judy and The Lief Buggy Co., j will sell anything in their line to you individually, independently of. any one else as secuijty. An alleged letter in the Journal —conceived and born within that office —wants to know what we done with the money we received from the sale of our Remington office, as we were not assessed with same. Well, for the benefit of the Journal and its statistician (30 years in office) we will state that our deal was not consumated for the sale of the Remington office until after April Ist. The office this year was assessed to our successor, although, perhaps, in reality it should have been assessed to us,' but as the assessor had already assessed it to anothei before taking our enumeration, we did not think that we should also pay taxes on the outfit. The money finally received from the property in great part went to pay obligations due on property in Newton county, and where we paid taxes on same. As to subscription accounts, these were turned over with the office. Is this satisfactory, Bro. Clark?

WHO ARB FATTENING ON PUBLIC PLUNDER. A CLOSE INSPECTION WILL GENERALLY REVEAL THE PACT THAT TNBV ARE SHARING IN THE BOOTY.—HaferM - ll*W§» ~ .'Jgjgp We occasionally send out a few sample copies of The Democrat to people who are not regular subscribers, with a view of inducing them to become such. These papers are stamped “Sample Copy,’* and anyone receiving such need have no hesitancy in taking them from the post office, as there is no charge made for sample copies.