The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-05-13

The State Administration.
1t is universally admitted by all cam
did and honest men, that the present
Republican State Administration, in
point of ability, honesty, application
and capacity, has never been equaled
since our admission into the Union.
We all know that the little fragmentary
opposition called Democrats" have
bitterly and ruthlessly assailed our
State officers, but it is evident from all
the indications of popular feeling, as
well as the result of the last two general
and the spring elections, that the masses
of the people have the utmost conf
dence in and respect for our entire
board of State officers. That the oppo-
sition should assail them is natural and
proper, for in the first place were they
to refrain from such assaults, it would
be good ground to distrust and suspect
them, and secondly, these unprovoked
attacks have brought forth replies from
the Republican press and writers, SO
completely indicating them, and show
ing such a vast amount of corruption,
peculation and dishonesty, in the former
Democratic Administrations, as to de-
stroy the last chance and the only YES
tige of hope that the people will ever
again trust them with the control of
the affairs of the State.
1t is well known from the present
organization of our State government
to the time the Democratic party were
thrust out of power in 1854, it had been
their policy to prosecute all kinds of
Improvements and works of necessary
or beneficial character with borrowed
capital. Thus the State in its earliest
infancy was burdened with an immense
debt, some of which occur to us as fol-
lows: Five Million Loan internal I'm
provement Bonds S., 100000; Peniten-
tiary Bonds S44, 900; Pontiac Railroad
Bonds 100000; University Bonds
100000; making an aggregate of ST.
443, 900 of State indebtedness incurred
in the first two or three years of their
rule. This was a large debt, but still
it could have been met and provision
made for payment without excessive
burden to the people, had a wise and
judicious policy been early initiated and
steadily followed. But such was not
the case. No effort or provision was
made until 1916, when the unanimous
voice of the people, oppressed and
borne down with taxes, demanded The
sale of the Railroads in possession of
the State. This measure was a tempo
rary rsGef, but the accumulating inter-
| est on the balance of the debt was still
an irksome and exhausting source of
taxation. To avoid this, the Demo-
cratic Administration neglected to pay,
for series of years, the accruing inter-
est as well as the final adjustment of a
large sum, over three millions, of what
was termed "part paid bonds," thus
subjecting the people to an immense
loss and adding to the State indebted
ness a sum nearly as large as that re-
ceived from the sale of our railroads.
Not satisfied with this mode of increas-
ing our State Indebtedness, and to
avoid any direct taxation of the people,
they entered upon system of absorb
ing the "Trust Funds" of the State,
using the principal to pay the current
expenses of the Government, and pay
ing the primary school interest out OF
the principal of that fund, until they
had increased the liabilities of the
people to these funds over one million
of dollars. Such is n brief history of
Democratic" management of our State
finances.
When the Republican party came
into power, January 1st, 1855, they
found the State Indebtedness to be 3d.
53I, $3.50. Add to this the loss of
interest and unpaid interest ON part
paid bonds, $500, s35.21, and the
amount absorbed from the Trust and
School funds, $676, 2ss.so, and we have
as the total of the Democratic" State
indebtedness at that date the small sum
-ef-S4,f74, 66971. What a precious
evidence of "Democratic" management
and economy. To offset this there was
left in the Treasury trihe over four
hundred thousand dollars, but it should
be remembered that this sum was all
borrowed from the school funds, and
not one cent of it was bona tide sur
plus.
To remedy the exhausted condition
Of tho Ctato Hnapcoe and To rrocoouto