The Du Quoin Tribune

What has Become of the Money.

In the statement of the national debt on the 1st of August, there is an apparent increase over the figure at which it stood on the 1st of June last, whereupon the Democrat papers gravely declare that the country is rushing to bankruptcy at the rate of $21,000,000 every two months. A simple statement of the facts will at once silence this reckless babbling and demonstrate the wonderful success of the Republican party in its financial management.

The debt of the country in June, 1868, compared with August are exactly as follows:

August 1, 1868. June 1, 1868.
Debt bearing coin interest $2,083,871,800 $2,020,825,481
Debt bearing currency interest 81,604,890 203,117,540
Debt bearing no interest 410,302,891 408,973,982
Matured debt not paid 18,099,175 10,834,292
Pacific R. R. bonds 32,210,000
$2,626,088,756 $2,643,751,295

Amount in Treasury
Coin $90,228,069 $383,409,948
Currency 26,644,358 43,279,120
110,054 113,307,679
Net am't of debt 2,523,534,480 2,510,245,866
Apparent increase of the debt since June 1st. 13,288,614

Against this nominal increase of the debt, the government shows a receipt of $7,200,000 paid to Russia for Alaska, and an additional issue of $6,308,000 of bonds to the Pacific Railroad. The whole debt of the United States is $2,633,588,756-of which $32,210,000 are Pacific Railroad bonds, the principal and interest of which are payable by the companies, and are therein, of fact, no part of the debt. If the amount of cash on hand and the Pacific Railroad bonds be deducted, the aggregate of the national debt of all kinds is reduced to $2,490,324,858. That is the present debt; and to show how it has "increased" under Republican hands, we invite attention to the following figures.

When the war closed and the bulk of the army disbanded, the actual debt of the United States, compared with the present debt, was:

July 31, 1865. July 31, 1868.
$2,757,253,275 2,490,324,858
Reduc'n of the debt in three yrs. $266,928,417

Paid in addition to expenses of government since close of war:
Pensions $70,000,000
Bounties to soldiers 50,000,000
Back Pay &c., of the debt and navy 75,000,000
Indian war 10,000,000
Refunded State expenses. 10,330,600
Payment for property destroyed 11,000,000
Paid back pay &c., due the navy at the close of the war, 35,000,000
Paid for Alaska, in coin, 7,200,000
Grand total $268,530,600

Here is an account of how the government of the United States has expended $535,458,427 of the public revenue for extraordinary purposes, growing out of the war, including an actual reduction of the debt nearly $267,000,000: We have compiled this statement from official figures. In addition to the payment of this $535,000,000-all of which, except the Alaska purchase and the expenses of Indian hostilities, may be said to be part of the rebellion debt-the government has paid the interest on the national debt;-has maintained the military force required in consequence of the refusal of the rebels to reinstate their government; has kept up the Freedman's Bureau, and spent two millions in feeding, clothing and sheltering starving whites and blacks; has expended $6,000,000 in rivers and harbors, and during this same time has reduced taxation to an amount equal to $170,000,000 per annum.

All this, let it be remembered, has been accomplished in spite of and in defiance of the persistent opposition of the Democratic party and the President. Taxation reduced $170,000,000 annually. The debt reduced $267,000,000 in three years. $268,000,000 of other debts also paid. This is the record which Wade Hampton, Pirate Semmes, Frank Blair, Howell Cobb, Horatio Seymour and Fort Pillow Forrest, assail as infamous!