USA > New York > Columbia County > Hillsdale > A history of Hillsdale, Columbia County, New York : a memorabilia of persons and things of interest, passed and passing > Part 21
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In the interview at Hampton Roads President Lincoln expressed his willingness that Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee might negotiate the terms for closing the civil war. But he was so strongly opposed by Edwin M. Stanton and his associates that it was given up Pres- ident Lincoln again made that proposition to his cabinet on the 3d of March, 1865, to which Mr. Stanton replied that if such was his policy he had better not be inaugu- rated, he having been elected a second time to the Presi- dency. Therefore Secretary Stanton was allowed to send instructions to General Grant to hold no communication with Gen. Lee, but to push his military operations to the utmost. That order cost at least ten thousand lives. At last, on the 9th of April, 1865, President Lincoln did 42
178
HILLSDALE HISTORY.
allow Gen. Grant to negotiate with Gen. Lee the terms of surrender for which in four days time President Lincoln was assassinated, and to conceal the authorship of that assassination Mrs. Suratt, an innocent woman, was hung by the order of a military court in which James A. Gar- field was a member, associated with other high officials of the Republican party. For attempting to carry out the policy of President Lincoln in opposition to Secretary Stanton, President Johnson was impeached and came near being removed from the Presidential chair. During the fiscal year ending in 1865 the Southern Confederacy had only 175,000 men in the field while the Government had 1,050,000 men. The Southern Confederacy were de- siring peace. But Secretary Stanton would not receive their envoys. On the contrary he called for a half million more men, and James A. Garfield being at the head of the military committee in Congress, granted his request and the men were commuted for at the rate of eight hundred dollars for each individual. The consequence was that though the war during that year was languishing to its close, the military expenses were over three hundred and forty millions of dollars more than any other year of its prosecution. Another fact is developed. While the rev- enues to the treasury during that year were but a trifle greater than other years, it shows conclusively that at least three hundred millions of dollars of that commuta- tion money passed into the pockets of those who were controlling the operations of the government, which ex- plains the mystery of their enormous wealth. The act calling for that half million of men was drawn by the committee in a way to accommodate the stealing of the commutation money instead of its going to the treasury. Republican policy caused that closing year of the war to cost the people of the States more money than the whole Crimean war cost England, France, Turkey and Russia. The Republican protective policy of burdening commerce
179
GOVERNMENT PREROGATIVES.
by imposing a fifty per cent. duty upon certain imports in order to enable the infant manufacture of $5,300,000,- 000. of products to stand alone, now costs the people of the United States, annually, more than the Crimean war cost all those nations in Europe. The continuance of that pro- tective policy is to be the great political issue which re- publicans and robustuous democrats are to unite in con- tending for.
ROBUSTUOUS DEMOCRACY.
A COMMUNICATION FROM MR. JOHN F. COLLIN, PUBLISHED IN THE HUDSON GAZETTE, AUGUST 15TH, 1883.
The celebration of the Fourth of July will ever be a mockery so long as political Republicanism with its ante- cedents and its boasted protective policy shall be in the ascendant. Among the circumstances which has specially called my attention to this subject, is a recently received insulting and threatening letter, upon a subject that con- cerns the reputation of our town and upon which I may have occasion to say much in the future that may not meet the approbation of the gentlemanly writer of the letter. This political Republicanism is now based upon a triumverate consisting of Stalwart and Half-breed Re- publicans and Robustuous Democrats, their only differ- ence consisting in their furious pursuit of spoils.
Aaron Burr was the first distinguished Robustuous Democrat. The Federalists in making him their candi- date for Governor boasted in the Hudson Balance of the 24th of April, 1804, that, "by his merit he had raised from the dust and ashes of Democratic obloquy," and that "in comparison to him Morgan Lewis was contempt- ible," though in history Morgan Lewis stands to-day among the most patriotic of this or any other country, while it will be a favor to Aaron Burr when oblivion shall ยท cover his name.
Dewitt Clinton was the next most distinguished Robus-
181
ROBUSTUOUS DEMOCRACY.
tuous Democrat, honored as a Federal candidate for Gov- ernor against Daniel D. Tompkins who sacrificed his own interest in the war of 1812, while Clinton affiliated with those who made common canse with the enemy.
The patrons of the Wilmot proviso were among the next most distinguished Robustnous Democrats, and only the strong bolts to my door prevented my being carried by force into one of their assemblies in which their how- lings corroborated the statements of the servant, that they were all with only one exception ridiculously drunk.
My next experience with Robustuous Democrats was in my refusal to meet with them in Hudson when they were affiliating with Republicans in instituting the late civil war. The Republican organ was then denouncing woe upon those who talked constitution or conciliation upon that occasion. The characteristics of Republicans and robustnous Democrats united are exhibited in the commencement of the civil war, and in the invasion of Virginia without any earthly excuse and in violation of the principles of the constitution, and in their neglect of twenty thousand wounded and slaughtered soldiers on the battle field of Manasses for four long days and nights, and in their subsequent treatment of Robert E. Lee, who on that occasion set ten thousand captured soldiers at liberty, and did what he could to relieve the wounded and in marking their graves and in sending word to their kindred, of which a son of William Chamberlin, of Red Hook, in Dutchess county, is an example. For these acts of humanity and his defence of the sovereign rights of Virginia his property has been confiscated, his splendid park converted into a national cemetery, and his life was saved by Abraham Lincoln at the sacrifice of his own by the hand of an assassin. The blood of Washington flowed in the veins of Robert E. Lee, and under the inspiration of the muse it may be said of him-
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HILLSDALE HISTORY.
"Ever glorious Virginian, the best of the good, So simple in heart, so sublime in the rest,
With all that a Washington wanted endued,
And his rival and victor in all he possessed."
The horrid neglect of slaughtered soldiers on the fields. of Manasses occurred through the instrumentality of Ed- win M. Stanton, a chief among the robustuous Democ- racy. When the casualties of war had driven thirty thousand unacclimated captured soldiers to a prison pen at Andersonville, which had only been provided for ten thousand, he refused to exchange for them, and then re- fused to send ships to Savannah for them when their re- lease was offered gratuitously. In consequence nearly half of them perished. He got from one of those priso- ners (Dorance Atwater), his record of their sufferings, and then sent him to a prison for his attempt to reposses him- self of that record, and subsequently, under pretense of sending him to a consulate appointment on an Island in the Pacific ocean, he was never heard of after. Stanton, Preston King, and others of those prominent robustuous Democrats went to premature graves.
When the civil war had virtually come to a close, and the government had a million men in the field, it was a robustnous Democrat who proposed and cansed the peo- ple to be taxed four hundred million dollars under a call for five hundred thousand men, Mr. Stanton still being Secretary of War, and James A. Garfield being at the head of the committee upon military affairs. Had the financial policy contemplated in the constitution been in the ascendant none of those atrocities would ever have occurred. In fact, the civil war would never had an exis- tence. Had only the ordinary Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Diplomatic expenses of the government been imposed upon commerce ; and all other expenses been paid by a tax upon property justly imposed, none of those evils would ever have been visited upon the country ; and
183
ROBUSTUOUS DEMOCRACY.
agriculture, instead of paying nine-tenths of the expenses of the government, would only have had to pay one- fourth. Had those expenses of the government been paid by an excise upon net incomes, agriculture instead of paying nine-tenths, would only have had to pay one-eighth and the expenses themselves would not have exceeded one-fourth of what they now are. Bonds and stocks com- prising one-half the wealth of the people, would have to pay one-half the government expenses if borne under a tax, and their net income, with that of commerce and man- ufactures, being so much greater than that of agriculture, would much farther relieve agriculture if the expenses should be borne under the imposition of an excise. Under such poliey no motive would exist for increasing the ex- y nses of the government, but the reverse. Agriculture relieved from the mountain of taxation now imposed upon it, and being relieved from one half of the duties now im- posed upon the imports taken in exchange for its exports, would at once become the leading industrial interest of the country, and would control the agricultural markets of the world ; and the city of New York in its own ships would, during the present generation, become the great world's commercial emporium ; universal industry would do away with the present existing wickedness and crime ; we should hear no more of tramps, vagabonds and burg- lars. Old men, for the mere expression of opinions, would cease to be threatened with dungeons and no longer be insulted by letters from degenerated sons of once respectable towns. But if the people allow Repub- lican and robustnous Democracy to be in the ascendant, the day is not far distant when the agricultural and all others of the industrial population will be reduced to the condition of the peasantry in Ireland and India, with Asiatic and African suffrages and bayonets used to keep them in subjection.
If manufacturers can not prosper in this country under
184
HILLSDALE HISTORY.
the incidental benefit of a twenty per cent. duty upon imports, which is equivalent to the whole amount of labor expended in their production, it is time that they should go into some other employment and let those with whom we hold friendly commercial intercourse do our manufac- turing for us. Those manufacturers have enjoyed colos- sal fortunes at the sweat and toil of others long enough, especially when they have used their ill-gotten gains to corrupt the people and thus ruin our civil institutions.
COUNTING THE COST.
A COMMUNICATION FROM MR. JOHN F. COLLIN, PUBLISHED IN THE HUDSON GAZETTE, AUGUST 30TH, 1883.
In an equal period the wars in Europe were never more destructive to both life and treasure than during the past thirty years. Yet that sacrifice during those thirty years has been but little over half that of the peo- ple of the United States in only about four years of the civil war. Those wars in Europe costing only $5,065,- 000,000, while the four years of civil war cost the United States $9,700,000,000, and over one million of lives, and commenced at the very period that it was the universal boast that the government of the United States was the best that Heaven ever blest a people with. The cause of that war has been a subject of dispute. Some have im- puted it to the existence of slavery. But slavery had been existing for all time, and the people of the North were the authors of it, as history has demonstrated, and the unscrupulous James A. Garfield and the honest Abra- ham Lincoln both publicly admitted.
The war was commenced by the invasion of Virginia, which State had ever opposed the African slave trade and had been the author of the first free territory in the Uni- ted States, and was rapidly emancipating the slaves among its own people. Some have imputed the civil war to a desire to preserve the union of States, when in fact Massachusetts had been most prominent in the com-
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HILLSDALE HISTORY.
mencement of the war after having been the first to with- draw from the Union in the war of 1812, and was allowed to sneak back into the Union after the termination of that war. In fact, the civil war itself implied a destruc- tion of the Union by substituting for it, a collection of States pinned together by bayonets. Some have imputed the civil war to what they were pleased to consider the pernicious provisions in the constitution of State Sover- eignty. Such Senator Sherman declared to be the cause of the civil war with all its sacrifice of blood and treasure, in which declaration he is sustained by authentic history.
Up to 1863 the South had been uniformly successful in the most important battles fought, and at one time had voluntarily set ten thousand prisoners free without ex- change. Then Alexander H. Stephens was appointed a commissioner to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. In his acceptance of the appointment on the 12th of June, 1863, as appears in the second volume of his History of War, he suggested as follows :
"While in conference with the authorities at Washing- ton, I am not without hope that indirectly I could turn attention to the general adjustment of peace upon such basis as might be accepted to both parties, and stop the further effusion of blood in a contest so irrational, un- christian and so inconsistent with all recognized American principles. Of course I entertain but one idea of a basis of final settlement, which is the recognition of the sover- eignty of the States. This principle lays at the founda- tion of the American system. It was what was achieved in the war of Independence. The principle covers all that is really involved in the present issue. That the Federal government is yet ripe for such acknowledgment I by no means believe. But the time has come for a proper presentation of the question to the authorities at Washington, I do believe. While, therefore, a mission on a minor point, the greater one could possibly, with prudence, discretion and skill, be opened to view and in a discussion might lead eventually to successful results.
187
COUNTING THE COST.
I am willing to undertake such a mission with a view to such ulterior ends. With that view I am at your ser- vice, heart and soul."
About the first of July Mr. Stephens, accompanied by Robert Ould, an agent for the exchange of prisoners, went to Newport News and from there telegraphed to Washington, where their proposition was held for two days under consideration, and the reply was that no special commissioner would be received notwithstanding Mr. Stephens' credentials were not from the President of the Confederacy, but from the commander of the military department, addressed so specially to obviate any techini- cality in respect to a recognition of the confederacy.
That result protracted the war for the two long years more. Having five soldiers in the field to only one of the confederacy, and having the government treasury at com- mand, while the confederacy had only that of an impover- ished people, it enabled the government to lay waste by fire and sword all the States of the South, and to burn their cities, as was the case with Atlanta and Columbia. It cost the sacrifice of another half million of lives and five thousand millions of treasure. While robbing the people of the South of all their moveable property, the people of the North were robbed of four hundred millions by the calling for one half million of men and commuting for them at the rate of eight hundred dollars each. It pro- duced the horrid scenes of Andersonville, and to conceal the horrors of which Dorance Atwater was robbed of his diary and doubtless his life. It enabled corporations to rob the government of the public domain and raise the wealth of the people from $16,000,000,000, invested in the industries, to $30,000,000,000, largely consisting of watered stocks. It laid the foundation of the claim that "the pernicious doctrine of States rights" had been put down by a changing the Union of the States to a collec- tion of States held together by the military force of the
188
HILLSDALE HISTORY.
government. It has put down the pernicious doctrine of established justice by robbing certain industrial interests for the benefit of others. It has put down the pernicious doctrine of providing for the general welfare by imposing enormous burdens upon the people for the benefit of the manufacturing interests, under the name of a protective tariff.
When President Lincoln and Secretary Seward saw where these consequences and policy were tending, they sought to obviate them and to restore the original prin- ciples of the government. To that end they procured a meeting with Alexander H. Stephens and others at Hamp- ton Roads. To that end Gen. Grant and Gen. Lee were permitted and authorized to make the terms of the sur- render at Appomatox embrace the principles for restor- ing the Union. That act of President Lincoln cost him his life in five days after the surrender, and the life of Secretary Seward was saved by a miracle. That treaty, however, saved the Union for the time, and if the protec- tive tariff policy and that of imposing all the expenses and corruptions of the Government upon commerce can be put down, the Union can be preserved for the future.
VIEWS ON THE TARIFF.
A COMMUNICATION FROM MR. JOHN F. COLLIN, PUBLISHED IN THE HUDSON GAZETTE, SEPT. 12TH, 1883.
To the same extent that a tariff incidentally confers benefits upon the manufacturing interest it imposes bur- dens upon the interest of agriculture. The tariff of 1846 averaged about twenty-four per cent. and incidentally con- ferred that amount of benefit upon the manfacturing in- terest, and as was there shown, it was equivalent to the whole amount of labor required in the production of man- ufactures. It was a full protection against the labor in foreign manufacture, even if that foreign labor had cost nothing. Manufacturers now have not only the inciden- tal but the direct benefit of fifty per cent. duty upon for- eign manufactures, it being double that of 1846. Agri- culture bears ninety per cent. of the burden of these duties, as a free list of over $200,000,000 protects the manufac- turer from any considerable portion of these duties. As the productions of the manufacturers exceeds $5,300,000,- 000 annually, the incidental benefit accruing from a duty of fifty per cent. would exceed $2,500,000,000 annually. As half the population is agricultural, half that burden would of course fall upon agriculture in addition to its having to pay the ninety per cent. duty upon the foreign imports.
It was this view of the subject that induced the ever honored and now lamented Jeremiah S. Black, to call it robbery that agriculture had to bear ninety per cent. of
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HILLSDALE HISTORY.
the burdens of the government. Following the example of the government our county imposes near ninety per cent. of its burdens upon the agricultural interest. For an agricultural town with an income of less than $200,000, pays twice as much tax as a manufacturing town with an income of at least $2,000,000.
A tariff of fifty per cent. for the special benefit of the manufacturing interest has been and is now publicly de- clared to be the great one idea of Republicans. Demo- cratic conventions are now adopting resolutions in favor of a tariff for revenue necessary for the support of the Federal Government economically administered. This of course is all right so far as the Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Diplomatic existence of the government are concerned, but should not apply for the action of the gov- ernment in any capacity, and particularly for its action for the interests of the States. It should not apply for the expenses of the credit mobillier nor the payment of the debt contracted for it. It should not apply to pay commissions to a syndicate for a mere profession of trans- ferring $1,700,000,000 of government liabilities to foreign lands. It should not apply to a civil war got up on ac- count of the existence of slavery, or for the purpose of putting down the doctrine of states rights, or for the pur- pose of changing the union of states to a collection of states held together by military force. It should not ap- ply to pay a pension list of hundreds of millions of dol- lars annually accruing as a consequence of either civil or foreign war. All such expenses should be paid by a tax upon property or by an excise upon incomes, in which cases over half at least of such burdens would fall upon the bonds or watered stocks of soulless corporations, which in a majority of cases are the creatures of knavish legislation. Whereas a tax upon imports falls to the great- est extent upon the laboring poor, particularly those en- gaged in agricultural pursuits.
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VIEWS ON THE TARIFF.
Since it is considered a grievance that the hand labor of the inmates of our penitentiaries should come in com- petition with the machine labor of our manufacturers, I would inquire whether it would not be better to impose a tariff of fifty per cent. upon the productions from those penitentiaries, rather than to suspend their labor alto- gether, and thereby increase the burden upon agriculture for their support.
The labor of those inmates pay a very respectable profit over and above the whole expenses of those peniten- tiaries, but perhaps not enough to satisfy the greed of manufacturers. So not to expose those inmates to the demoralizing influence of indolence I propose the fifty per cent. tariff.
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FREE CANALS.
A COMMUNICATION FROM MR. JOHN F. COLLIN, PUBLISHED IN THE HUDSON GAZETTE, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1883.
There are in the State of New York about 580 miles of canals, which cost near $80,000,000. By a constitutional amendment their navigation has now been made free at an annual expense to the State of near $900,000. That free navigation is claimed to have added 196,318 tons to the business on the canals during the past season. As the general government for long years allowed tonnage bounties to the New England fisheries, if it would allow tonnage bounties upon the canals it would relieve the State of New York from that $900,000 of annual expense and would gladden the hearts of all the farmers in British North America, who intend to monopolize the grain mar- kets of the world, upon the completion of the Canadian Pacific railroad. Another reciprocity arrangement would aid very much in the realization of their intentions. It consisted in allowing the free importation into the States of all Canadian agricultural production in reciprocation to allowing New England fishermen free access to the British North American fishing grounds. Such an ar- rangement, while supplying the people of the States with cheap agricultural productions, would vastly increase the exportation of New England fish. It would vastly in- crease the importation of cheap West India molasses. It would vastly increase the distillation of Boston rum. It
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FREE CANALS
would vastly increase the facilities for the East African slave trade, of which Boston rum is the mainspring.
As the constitutional amendment in respect to the canals has so greatly increased the tonnage on those canals, so will a constitutional amendment in respect to convict labor in our penitentiaries probably vastly in- crease the number of the occupants of those penitenti- aries. for if the tramps and vagabonds who are overrun- ing our country can be housed, fed and cared for in gen- tlemanly idleness during winter they could obtain such accommodations by the simple robbing of hen roosts or other petit larcenies. They might be induced to commit those crimes for the express purpose of enjoying those ac- commodations. As a substitute to that proposed consti- tutional amendment I will suggest the idea of imposing a protective tariff of fifty per cent. upon the productions of the laborer in those penitentiaries in order to enable our "infant manufacturers" to stand alone. That policy can- not be objected to by those who believe that the government has a right to interfere with the industry of the people anywhere. It can not be objected to by those who approbate a protective tariff under any circum- stances. It can not be objected to by those who think the government can under the internal improvement policy enter States without their consent in order to make Goose Creeks navigable. It can not be objected to by those who think it a farce for the Government to obtain the consent of States in order to erect forts or lighthouses within their limits. It can not be objected to by those who consider State rights to be the infamous doctrine of the old Bourbon democracy.
4.4
MANUFACTURES OF THE UNITED STATES.
FROM THE CENSUS OF 1880, PUBLISHED IN THE PHILMONT SENTINEL, AUGUST . STH, 1883.
The census of 1880 makes the following showing :
Industries.
Hands employed.
Wages paid.
No. est'b.
Iron and steel,
306,958
$128,787,924
6,498
Lumber and wood,
244,926
79,848,837
38,090
Cotton and mixed textiles,
228,843
58,931,172
1,475
Mens' and womens'
clothing,
185,945
52,541,358
6,728
Woolen goods,
169,897
49,259,324
3,390
Boots and shoes,
128,635
52,252,127
18,390
Carriages & smithing,
104,718
38,185,271
43,122
Tobacco, etc.,
87,587
25,054,457
7,674
Brick, tile, etc.,
67,203
13,764,723
5,695
Furniture and up-
holstery,
64,127
26,571,831
6,087
Leather, harness, etc.,
63,136
25,081,913
13,708
Printing & Publishing,
62,800
32,838,959
3,634
Flour and grist mill products,
58,401
17,422,316
24,338
Agricultural implem'ts,
39,580
15,359,610
1,943
Shipbuilding,
21,341
12,713,813
2,188
Total
1,844,102
$627,708,634
182,960
195
UNITED STATES MANUFACTURES.
The total number of hands employed in all the indus- tries in the census year (1880) was 2,738,859 ; the aggre- gate of wages paid was $947,953,795, and total number of establishments is given at 253,852. The statistics of iron and steel manufactures include blast furnaces, bloomeries forges, rolling mills, steel works, forge products, ma- chinery, and finished and ornamental iron work of all kinds ; of lumber, sawed, planed, turned, carved, sash, doors and blinds ; brick and tile include drain pipe and terra-cotta statistics, and printing and publishing incor- porates lithographing. The following table exhibits the leading industries in order of annual value of products :
Industries
Value annual products.
Value mater- ials used.
Iron and steel,
$551,543,109
$319,594,960
Flour and grist mill products,
505.185,712
441,545,225
Lumber and wood,
401,715,968
245,986,332
Cotton and mixed textiles,
277,172,086
150,993,278
Woolen goods,
271,916,746
166,640,753
Men's and women's clothing,
241,553,254
150,922,509
Leather, harness, etc.,
241,056,230
177,821,175
Boots and shoes,
207,387,903
122,542,745
Carriage and smithing,
139,410,873
57,522,275
Tobaccos, etc.,
118,670,166
65,384,407
Printing and publishing,
97,701,679
35,216,159
Furniture and upholstery,
85,004,618
40,005,090
Agricultural implements,
68,640,486
31,531,170
Shipbuilding,
36,880,327
19,736,358
Brick, tile, etc.,
33,868,131
10,119,738
Total, $3,284,527,288
$2,035,561,974
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HK196-78
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