Mississippi Democrat. (Carrollton, Miss.) 1844-18??, 1845-01-29


sand dollars in each, and more than mil.
lion of dollars in all. Where can il all
come from, or be going tot
Conductor. This, sir, is the amount
raised by tares erery year from The people
of Louisiana to pay the foreign bond hold
ers, and am noD taking ii out of he
State 10 Europe TO settle nth them.
The train moves on; the farmer stands
staring at it until it is lost in the distance.
He has made discovery; he begins to
think. He finds that sixty-fve thousand
pounds of specie is going out OF the
Suite, never again to return; that no.
thing is to be received back for il; that 1t
is raised from himself and his neighbor;
that this is TO continue for twenty or thirty
years and then there is to become due
principal of some twenty-one millions be-
sides. Could scene like the above actu-
ally take place, the citizens would be
aroused to complete sense of the griev-
ance. lis equivalent, the same thing in
effect, must actually take place every
year, if what is called the State debt is to
be paid.
If we take the great staple Of Lou
isiana, cotton, as means of illustration,
we may place the subject in an equally
strong light.
The sum Of one million fifty thousand
dollars, the annual amount of interest on
the State bonds, would pay, at the present
price of cotton, for about twenty-one mil
lion pounds, equal to about filty-two thou.
sand bales, which must be nearly one.fifth
of the crop of the whole State. Should
we paw in cotton, then, we would have to
part with one.fifth of our whole product.
So much mystery and deusion has been
thrown by cunning around the corruptions
of paper stock and paper credit, that some
may be disposed to doubt the correctness
of our results; but let such reflect, that if
the annua! interest is paid at all, it must
be paid on. of the annual produce or labor
of the State, the money cannot be raised
by magic; and although the whole ma
chinery of the system of extortlon can
not be seen by every eye, yet no obscu-
ration can blind US to the fact, that labor
is the only source Of value, and out of it
the debt must be paid at last.
To protect individual property is the
legitimate purpose Of government, to plum
der property under pretence of govern
ment, is virtually revolution, and no acts
of such nature can be morally binding
upon society, for legislature was never
elected with the power to destroy, by in
direction, that which it is the object of all
governments to render safe.
Should the Legislature of Louisiana
have passed an act, giving as donation
10 the Manchester or Lowell manufactu-
rers, one fifth of the cotton crop Of the
State, annually, the consequences would
be manifest. The manufacturers would
now insist that they had vested rights I'M
der the act, which no succeeding assem-
bly, of the representatives of the people
could rightfully invade; that the act Of
the Legislature, giving them one.fflh Of
the cotton crop, was contract with Lou
Isiana, whose obligation must not be i'm
paired. The people of this State, how
ever, would treat such ridiculous preten-
sions with contempt, and reply, the sove-
reign power is in the people who constitu
ted the Legislature to protect and defend,
not to transfer and destroy it; were we 10
sanction such an act, we would be false to
ourselves, to humanity, and to the future.
1t must be manifest that there is no real
difference between transferring one-fiith Of
our cotton crop to foreign manufacturers,
and transferring its equivalent in money
to foreign bond holders: the effect upon
the State is the same, the bond system
being the more dangerous, as il is less
easily si(ted out.
1t would be needless for US to point out
to our readers that this power to transfer
property by law is entirely incompatible
with free government; property and pow
er are synonymous: take away from the
mass Of the people the former and you de-
prive them OF the latter. Whether this
be accomplished openly or covertly, d.
recty or indirectly, is Of no consequence;
a people who submit to it are not in reali-
'ty free; and, should such system be ex-
tended and persevered in, it would, like
all unjust institutions, when too long con-
tnued, be terminated by vioulent revo.
luton.