The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-02-04

million. it NO recollect Alright. The Legislature,
though always acknowledging the liability at The
State stitutional. legal and mor4l--to pay the
Planters Bank bonds, declined to pay the interest
thereon; and ~ If to afford encouragement % The
spirit ofrepudiation, and to take away the contin-
ualiy-recurring incentive to honesty, that = sur
plus IA the treasury always presented, the Legis-
latdre ordered three hundred thousapd dollars Of
the surplus to be distributed back to the counties
of the State and the taxes Of the people to be di-
unfinished one-haf. 1.-THE Legislature had desired
to force the State into Reputation of her bonds,
to drain her treasury and impoverish her Golfers,
80 that she could not pay her debts without oner-
Gus taxation, that body would have adopted no
other means than it did.
'.The counties had been taxed according to the
real and personal property contained therein the
taxes were redistributed back according to the
population! From Adams county the State had
gathered $sl5, 900 year; to her it gave back
$500. From Tishemingo and Tippah it had
gathered about $500, and it gave back 81 900 /.
The State drew money from one set of counties
and gave it away to another set as il to give the
last named set excuse for voting not to pay the
State obligations, on the ground of unwillingness
to be taxed, Can excuse they readily Availed them
selves Off at the very period when they were re-
ceiving back in one year more taxes than they
had paid in during three years, and when the
counties, which were thus bearing the heaviest
burdens of ia Ration for the benefit of their more
poPulons sister counties, were still by large ma
torties in favor of further taxation to redeem the
credit of the State
"The surplus was distributed back in this un-
righteous ratio; the taxes were reduced in this i'm
provident manner; and then the Legislature di.
rected vote of the people to be taken, as to
whether they were willing to submit to taxation to
pay bonds, which the Legislature itself, while it
did not dare to repudiate. had not the irmness to
propose liquidating. Nor was this ALL At the
very period when this encouragement was given
to the people to repudiate the State bonds, by
the fact of an empty treasury, of diminished
revenue, and the bugbear of heavy taxation in the
future, the Legislature seized upon the veru nsoneu
paid IN BY the bond holders as premium ,.pon the
bonds ouer and abope their par vale and authorized
the treasurer to disbTse 1t for the daily expenses of
the State If the bonds to remain unpaid it was
the height of dishonesty to spend the very money
OF the bondholders at the time the State was refs
ing to pay the bonds for which that money was
paid in. But the sinking fund was seized upon,
and ithas now been spent. Not dollar remains
IN the treasury. The amount which the high court
20 lately decided should be paid out of that fund
towards the interest on those bonds has not been
paid. The warrants of the State are for the first
time for six or seven years below par. Ninety per
cent, or Whereabouts, is the offer made for them in
the money market; and there can be no amend
ment OF her financial condition until after April or
May. Then the taxes will be coming in, and back
warrants will be paid.
But before the close of 1853 the demands upon
the State treasury will have again exhausted it.
and the Legislature must then be called upon to
invent some new panacea, wherewith to cure the
evils that reckless, unwise, and dishonorable leg
islaton has induced,