The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-03-18
State Credit---Its Decline under
Republican Management.


The State Legislature, by means of
resolutions of enquiry, has at length sue
ceeded in extracting from the State off
GERS at Columbus, a statement which
not only shows the names of the persons
who made bids for the Ohio Loan of
2,400, goo in October las:, but exhibits
in a notifying light the sad decline
which Ohio State Credit has suffered
under the change of State policy adopt.
ed by. tho party now in power During
the four years (1S52 to 1853 both iLelu-
sive, Yin which the State ADMINISTRATION
was in the hands of the Democratic par
ty, there was DO period Of a months du-
raticn when Ohio Stocks having Thirty
gears to run, would have failed to have
commanded q premium of IL to Ia per
cent. But now behold the change J.
Notice is given NOT snfy in the newspa-
pers of New York, Int also,of London
and Paris, that an Ohio State loan of
81 400, 600 is to be offered at a stated
time, and yet with all this notice, in
Europe and in America, so few bidders
appeared, that the Republican State of
fcers declared that they felt themselves
driven to the necessity of sacrificing tho
s0h0Ae loan at a premium of 80 per cent,
because there were not a sufficieDt moun
of offers at a higher rate to cover the
entire sum desired /!
The acts of omission and of commits
sion which have led to this humiliating
fall in the credit of Ohio from the high
and commanding position which it occu-
pied through the four years of Democrat;
financial management, are various both
in character and motive. To account for
it all, however, it would be sufficient of
itself to point to the extraordinary fact
that during the entire year, 1856, the
policy of reducing the State Debt was
totally ignored; and that within the
year named. the interest bearing debt
Of Oh o was actually INCREASED in.
stead of being diminished as the imper
alive requirement of the Constitution
demanded. This fact alone-exhib;t-
ing a total reeklessness On tine part of
tho party in power-was sufficient with
out the aid, of other unmistakable indi-
cations, to fix upon the minds of the
money-IendiDg public at home and
abroad, the irresistible conviction that
the State management had fallen into
unsafe names, anu tnaG the nlSn anu
flattering preference which had hereto
fore been shown in favor of Ohio Stocks
over those of almost all other States in
the Union, could be safely INDUCED no
longer.
We might add further comments on
the Notifying condition of things which
is exhibited by the sacrifice of these
two million four hundred thousand dol
lars of State Securities. But for the
present, we desist. At a leisure mo-
ment, we may note "reminiscences of the
past few years, which will clearly though
painfully illustrate the change that must
nave occurred in Ohio credit when in
July, 1854, the Fund Commissioners on
personal application to bondholders in
New York, were unable TO procure the
surrender of Ohio Stocks of 1856 at 8
per cent. premium, and yet in October,
1856, the same State unable to COM
mand more that 81 per cent. premium
on a loan not to be cancelled except at
the will of the holder, for thirty years !
-Nearark Advocate.