Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1845-02-05
celebrated despatch, "order reigns in War

Thus in the name of order and religion
all horrors have been perpetrated, and now
when tyranny has grown more cunning,
mankind, all over the civilized world, are
plundered under protence OF sustaining
public faith and credit. The uphoIders oil
National Debts. like the ancient advocates
of the divine right Of Kings, and supre-
macy Of Priests, would pursuade us that
all the virtue and intelligence OF society
are arraycd upon their side, and that to
refuse to pay debt, which he never con-
tracted by HIMSELF nor authorized any one
TO contract for him, is, in the citizen, an at
tempt to overthrow the social structure, or
TO do some other terrible thing which do
tards might fret about.
In state of society where the ability
TO pay is looked upon as the only test of
responsibility in the individual, it is not
surprising that we should find the dsncli-
nation TO pay what they do not owe con-
sidered as extreme profigacy and Jaco
binism in the mass of the people; yet it is
far from being clearly demonstrable that
such state of society or such opinions
are best calculated TO sustain virtue and
insure Improvement; and it would be diff
ficut to prove that what is called public
debt when not contracted with the eX-
press consent of The sovereign-the citi-
zens of the State-is, as to them, moral
obligation. If it be such upon AL, indeed
it is upon each; and a man may be ac-
cused of acting dishonesty if he quit the
State to reside elsewhere, because, by so
doing he throws upon the shoulders of
those he leaves behind, that portion of the
interest which he himself was bound to
pay, and which he would have paid had
he not emigrated; this legitimate conclu-
sion from the premises being itself an alb
surdity, shows that they too must be untrue.
If we turn our eyes TO the nations of
Europe, we find that the system of funding
public debts has burthencd the people Of
those countries with a load of intoerable
taxation. The debt of Great Britain, &C.
cumulated by the expensive wars under
taken by her government TO arrest the
progress of Democratical opinions, has
now swelled to five thousand millions of
dollars, and the payment of its annual in
terest lmpoverishes to the last degree the
thrifty and industrious laborers of that ma
ton. There is not an individual who does
not believe that the majority of the people
of that country would be worthy of all
praise, were they at once to rid themselves
of the enormous burthen imposed upon
them by the orders of paper stock and
credit.
The same system Of funded debt and
paper credit has been adopted in many of
the States of our Union and in Louisiana.
In Europe it is the scourge Of the people
and the bu)wark of tyranny; its transpor-
tation across the Atlantic cannot change
its nature it must be the same thing here.
Our system of election will not alleviate
the evils it inflicts, for as government by
means of funded debt becomes the mere
agent Of the stockholders 70 collect their
interest, it cannot be q matter of any ad.
vantage to the people, that they have the
privilege of periodically changing the tax
collectors.
In Europe, debts were funded to support
iniquitous wars, and the consequences
have been remarkable. Though the so.
vereigns are now at peace, with one an
other, yet the people have to pay as much
annual interest as would keep up a war,
as much as they had to pay when war was
raging; thus the great advantage and bles-
sing of funded debt to them is, that they
are compelled to pay war expenses in time
of peace, which is equivalent to eternal
warfare. Here in Louisiana, debt was
funded by the Legislature, though that bo-
dy had really no power whatever TO bind
the sovereign in that manner, for the pre-
tended purposes of carrying on a system
of internal Improvements, and banking
system. Now the most accurate investi-
cation could not at the present time Disco
yer either the existence Of the former or
the benefits of the latter, but the people
are obliged to pay an enormous amount of
annual interest, just as though canals and
railroads were Intersectlng the State in
every direction, and the paper money sys-
tenn was doing US the greatest possible a.
mount of good. itseem TO us that in lu-
ture times the fact will scarcely be credit
ed,that people consented to pay for ina
ginary railroads, and be taxed for per-
mission to use fantastic money.
In looking around upon our own con-
federation, examination will speedily con-
vince US that those States which have per-
mitted their Legislatures to iun them into
debt, have been severely the sufferers in
consequence; the great States of Penn
sylvania, Ohio, and Indiana are already
staggering under their burthens; and Hi.
nois, arrested in her career of improve
ment by the blighting influence of paper
stock and funded debt, sees her resources
drained of, and immigration avoiding her
borders.
We will now give the provisions which
have hnan inSnrtnd IL, tho constitutions Of