Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1870 — The Beginning of the End [ARTICLE]

The Beginning of the End

Secretary Boutwell has directed the preparation of a tabular statement showing in detail the receipts and expenditures of the government from the 80th of June, ISGI, to the close of the last fiscal year. The. statement shows from what sources the funds have been received and tor what purposes expended during this entire period of eleven fiscal years. The footings for the different years are as follows: Exp ndltnres. Receipts 1860 18 1 66 357.117 2) 4,314,983 82 1862 474,741,781 22 M,98\720 76 1863 714,7J9,99> 58 IU.BM 788 48 1861 865,214,687 86 266 682,717 44 1865 r... 1,29 312.982 41 329,567,886 (IS '866 520 809 416 99 660 250 353 10 1867 357 642 478 71 49U.634 0 0 27 1863 1' 337,340 284 86 405,638,63 382 1869 82! 1870.. 292.111,269 31 4'8,831,372 45 T0ta1515,303,760,811 23 $3,687,155,475 30 Of this vast expenditure of more than five thousand millions of money, the great proportion, of course, was required for war purposes: to put down the Slaveholder’s rebellion and save the Union. Thus there was disbursed for the regular army and volunteers the sum of $1,149,632,060,94; for the quartermaster and other staff departments for the supply of the army, $2,146,776,896 52; for the navy, $408,043 081; for bounties, $98,208,000; for pensions, $136,931,457.58; for interest on the publie debt, $851850,713.' Allthese immense items, it will be seen, are directly chargeable to the rebellion in the South, and the men of the North—every one a Democrat—who gave it moral aid and comfort. -

It will be seen that the greatest expenditures were in the years 1864 and 1865. These enormous sums of money were the most wicked financial waste of the war. For in July, 1863, the enemy was completely beaten on his right at Gettysburg, and on hia left at Vicksburg, lu November, of that year, the back-bone of the rebellion was broken by Grant’s magnificent battle of Chattanooga—Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge—and all fighting by the rebels afterwards was mere desperation and folly. It will be observed that the fiscal year 1870—the first, since the war, wholly under Republican administration —is thefirst in which the gratifying fact is presented' of larger receipts than expenditures And this fact is all the more gratifying, all the more conclusively demonstrative of the financial success of the Administration, because the taxes had already been largely reduced when Grant went into office. They have been again reduced seme sev-enty-five million dollars, and still there is a margin left, under the same economical administration, for a reasonable reduction of the public debt. Thus the beginning of the end may be seen. The great debt of the war may be removed, while the burden <?f taxation may be constantly decreased. Hsnest, faithful, economical administration, steady revenue reform, will solve our financial problem'before the croakers quit growling.— Chicago Pott.