Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-25

THERE are obligations resting on
the purchasers of public securities.
They must exercise ordinary prudence
and caution. If the law be plainly
violated under which the bonds are
issued, surely the State is not bound.
If the contrary were true, the State
would virtually offer a premium for
the corruption Of her " agents.
The acts of State officers who issued
bonds in excess of their authority and
of sums due railroad corporations are
voidable or wholly void. Purchasers
of such bends were surely bound to
exercise ordinary caution, and such is
the simplicity of statutory require
ments and the ~plainness of facts in
vOlved, that there could be no mistake.
The ~Comptroller's books showed in
each instance how many bonds were
due each company, how many had
been delivered, and ON the face Of the
country there was the railway carved
out Of the everlasting hills. Wilfully
blind was that Wall street operator,
who traded with Mabry and others.
The purchasers Of these bonds are as
guilty AS those who sold them, and
the State, swindled by the cOmbfna-
ton, is under no obligation direct or
remote to reeognizethe validity of pa
per, as wholly void as counterfeit
bank notes. Not long ago, we see it
stated in the Little Rock Gazette, a
ring Of State plunderers, who
aftlict Arkansas, sought to levy
black mail upon a Railroad Com
pany. State bonds issued to
the company had been made uni
formly payable to the order of the
President Of thecompany. The ring"
knew that the Endorsement of the
President could not be secured, and
the bonds were therefore, in this in
stance, made payable 10 bearer, !" and
parcelled out among the parties to the
pleasant little transaction. When they
went to Wall street to dispose of the
bonds, both bulls and bears were too
sharp to be caught. Why were the
bonds made payable to "bearer" in
stead Of "to order'? And yet most
bonds are payable TO "bearer." The
Arkansas ring failed to accomplish
its purposes and the bonds were re-
turned to the President OF the rail-
way company, except a small lot,
which, it is said, Fremont stupidity
bought. Does any moral obligation
rest upon Arkansas t. pay bonds
thus issued Does not the princi-
pie eareat emptOr apply2 Did not all
the world know that Tennessee was
governed by thieves, by men having
no interest, direct or remote, in the
well being of the people? Was not
Boston in charge Of our public schools,
and Indiana Secretary of State,
a Canadian tinker meanwhile run
ming u County Court and making
appropriations for a jail? Was not
an insane ZealOt, maddened by dis
ease and tortured by ungUdly passion,
supreme master Of Tennessee, threat
his W people with torch and
turpentine? These are they who ,
Arkansas, who consign con- !
ductors of public journals to prison, !
who steal railroad bonds, who, as {
State officers, combine with thieves
in New York, and after they
have robbed taxpayers Of Arkansas
and Tennessee to poverty, hold up
their filthy hands in holy horror and |
Inyeigh against Reputation. It is no 1
population to refuse the payment !
IF a debt which never rested upon /
he slightest moral obligation and t
never wrought the slightest good for 7
hose sought 10 be held liable to paw. :
md if the Legislature now in session /
to deny the validity OF this stu I
,endous Tennessee railroad debt, il .
viii hail to discharge its obligations TO +
he people Of Tennessee. t