Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-03-10
WHY TEKNEssEE 8ONDs no NOT
ADVANCE

W duOlI H.
WHY TEKNEssEE 8ONDs no NOT
ADVANCE.
Just after the August election of last
year the Press and Times exultingly told
its readers that Tennessee bonds would 60
up very near par Perhaps the men who
read that very confident prediction, have
wondered that our bonds have fallen be-
low the prices they then commanded,
with no prospect Of an improvement
There is good and sufficient reason for
this decline and the wonder is that our
bonds have kept up as well as they have
While our taxes have been enormously
increased year after year, and are now
five or six fold greater than they were in
the prosperous year of 1860, we are COM
PEELED to borrow money to pay the iu>
terest on these bonds every time it falls
due. So extravagant has been our State
administration, that the State Treasury
is always upon a strain But the other
day VIII r. McBath, the Clerk Of the
Circuit Court for Knox county, presented
a small claim against the State to the
Treasurer, and that officer frankly told
him be could not pay it. Here is what
Mr. McBath says in letter published in
the Knoxville Press and Herald of the
It'll instant
ain my communication from Nashville
wrote "the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth" Col. Henry did
inform me that the State Treasury was
empty, and twelve thousand dollars worse
than nothing, and he did not give me the
information as a secret. thought it but
an act of justice TO myself that ] inform
those who were looking to me for money
due them from the State Of Tennessee, and
which they expected on my return from
Nashville, that / inform them Of the empti-
ness of our State Treasury through our
public journals. Whatever comment the
public see proper to indulge in is no affair
of mine mean to vindicate myself while
/ can, although learn some not very COM
plimentary remarks have been made by
some about me in Knoxville since my re-
turn from Nashville, on Tuesday last in
consequence of the letter l wrote at Nash
Vile which was published here am
Union man died in the wool. / am also
freeman, OF try TO be, and whenever this
country gets so loyal that q man cannot
give an honest expression of facts as they
really are, without some men on the streets
controverting the sincerity of his motives,
/ think il time to quit trying to be freemen,
and sell out to those who, in their wisdom,
can tell you what to do"
Here we are attempting to run the ma
chinery of a great State upon an empty
treasury, and yet what have we to do
Besides meeting the ordinary expenses of
the State, which through the most reck-
less extravaganza, have grown out of all
proportion, we shall have TO provide for
the July interest on our bonds, and then
a very large amount of our bonds
fall due this year On the eth of May,
less than two months of, 100000 fall
due, and yet the Treasurer states that the
treasury is $4,000 worse than empty
During the month Of November $245,-
600 more of our bonds fall due Now
what are we to say to the holders Of these
bonds ? We have been preaching about
the good faith of Tennessee about as long
as preaching will accomplish any thing.
The time for showing that we were honest
in what we professed has now come When
the men who hold the 81 100000 of our
bonds that will fall due on the 18th of May
present them for redemption, will we
offer to issue new and deprecated bonds
60 these men for those for which
they paid perhaps thirty cents in the
dollar more than our bonds will CONS
mand to-day OF course, the proposed |
exchange would not be accepted How
then, with worse than empty treasury,
are these bonds to be taken up2 Here is
a question in which the taxpayers of the |
State are interested 1t has suffced only |
TO pension a horde Of hungry officials |
that they have been loaded down with |
taxes The large sums that have thus
been wrung from an oppressed and im-
poyerished people have been dissipatsd |
in wastefnl extravaganza and now when |
cur maturing debt comes upon us, that |
must be met if we expect to retain even
the poor standing we have in the great
financial mart Of the country, we are
frankly told that we have worse than an
empty treasury. Do the people of Ten
nessee, who were met with such great
promises Of financial prosperity as the re-
suit Of Radical victory in the August
election, now wonder that Tennessee
bonds do not advance in price,