Overdue Bill

Most American schoolchildren have known about Frederick, Md., through the John Greenleaf Whittier poem:

Up from the meadows rich with corn,

Clear in the cool September morn . . .

The clustered spires of Frederick stand

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

There, of course, Barbara Fritchie is said to have leaned out a window beside Old Glory and challenged passing Confederate troops. “Shoot if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country’s flag,” she said.

But the real concern of the citizens of Frederick back in 1864 was Confederate Gen. Jubal Early’s threat to burn the town to the ground unless they paid tribute of $200,000. The town borrowed the ransom from banks on the assumption that the Union would repay the funds when the war was over. After all, bargaining for the ransom protected Federal stores in the city and gave Union troops time to protect Washington from an assault by the South’s forces.

Frederick still stands, a delightful small city of about 30,000 northwest of Washington and boasting one of the nation’s outstanding historic districts. But, alas, Frederick never got its $200,000 back, to say nothing of the interest that it would have earned over a century’s time.

This year may be the last that Frederick has any hope of Congress paying up. For the 13th time, Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.) is sponsoring legislation to square things with his hometown. Mathias is retiring from the Senate, and it is uncertain whether any other Marylander will take up the cause if it fails now.

Fie on Gramm-Rudman and a balanced budget! In the name of social justice, Congress, pay Frederick its $200,000, even though that sum is worth but a fraction of its 1865 value. This bill is overdue.