The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1860-12-07
Financial and Commercial.


business offices were closed.
From the South we hear that. as was
expected, the Charleston banks have sus-
pended specie payments. These banks
are good enough, and will be able TO pay
all their noteholders and depositors in
full as soon as the movement in cotton
revives. The st. Louis banks have like
wise been compelled to suspend specie
payments.
The Committee Of Ways and Means in
the South Carolina Legislature have re-
ported against raising money IN the pr es-
ent emergency by taxation, and have
recommended an issue of State bonds
The present debt Of the State, as specified
in the report Of the Attorney General
just laid before the Legislature, is 81, 406,-
600, being an increase of about 81, 100000
since last year. This debt is mostly held
in the State and in Europe. The bulk
of it consists of five and SIX per cent.
bonds, which, until the recent revolu-
tionary proceedings, stood at near par in
the London market. Here they are un-
known. The question now arises, will
the new issue of bonds command ready
sale! Can they be recommended as an
investment to capitalists? If South Car
DINA were to remain in the confederacy,
and her commercial and agricultural re-
sources were in a fair way of being peace
fully developed, we see no reason why a
further issue Of bonds to the extent Of a
million or so, should not command a
good price in the financial markets of
the world. According to the letter we
received the other day from a leading
director of one of the Charleston banks,
the State will produce this year S25 ,0O0,-
600 worth of cotton, rice, turpentine, &C.
Allowing that this estimate was twenty
per cent. over the mark, we still have an
annual production of S20,000,000. On
this basis the State could well afford to
owe FIVE or six millions-if it were GER
tain that no expenses would be incurred
beyond the ordinary cost of supporting
white population of less than 100000, and
about as many slaves. But if South Car
DINA is to embark in a revolutionary
war, the case, in the opinion of CAPT
talists, will perhaps not be so clear
1t is understood at present, that the
United States will not use force to
retain South Carolina in the Union
But even if the naked right of seces-
eminent, in order to avoid the calam-
ity of civil war, there would still remain
a number of nice questions to be adjusted
between this country and South Carolina,
which might lead to an interruption
of peaceable intercourse. No practical
scheme has been suggested for the divis-
ion of the national debt; for the parti-
ton of the national territories; for the
transfer of the national property within
the territory of South Carolina; for the
settlement of the Fugitive Slave question
after secession, &C., &c. In the event
of the recognition by tho United States
of the independence of South Carolina,
all these matters would have to be set
tied, and it is hardly likely that they
could be settled without angry contro-
versies. If these controversies became
so embittered as to lead to war, the secu-
rites Of South Carolina would not stand
very high in the financial world. War
would of course do great mischief in the
North; but it would likewise involve the
blockade of Charleston, and consequent
ly the stoppage of the export of cotton,
rice and turpentine; where in this case,
would be the S20,000,000 of annual pro-
ducts? Where would the planters get
corn to feed their slaves? These are mat
tiers which capitalists will be likely to
consider before they purchase the bonds
which South Carolina proposes to issue.
We should be glad to recommend them
as an Investment, because we believe
that the people of South Carolina-un-
like the people of some other States
are imbued with high sense of honor
which would prevent their attempting to
shirk their debts. But before they can
lie recommended to capitalists, it is alb
solutely necessary that the public should
be acquainted with the probable amount
which the State will require to issue, and
the probable means which will be forth
coming for the payment of the interest.
1t is urged by the Committee of Ways
and Means that the people OF the State
should come forward periodically and
take the bonds. This is more romantic
than practical. State bonds can only be
sold at great financial centres, where
men of means congregate in search of
save investments. In agricultural States
capitalists are rare; people in South Caro-
lima, who have money, want it for the
purchase of land, negroes and machinery.
At the present time, especially, the APP
peal to the South Carolina planters and
men of means is ill timed. The mer-
chants are in great Distress the soundest
among them are seeking extensions
The banks are on the eve of suspension.
The planters are getting but 81 cents for
cotton, which, but for the present agita-
ton, they would have sold for IL cents.
Trade is paralyzed, and great distress
prevails throughout the State Surely,
at such time as this it is gratuitous to
expect people to take revolutionary
bonds.
Opinions of Virginia congressman.
The Lynchburg Virginian says Hon.
Sherrard Clemens, of the Wheeling dis
trict, in Va, comes out in letter to his |