The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-04-20
The Crucial Test.

The rapidity with which South Carolina
bonds and stocks have advanced in price
during the last two years is huge feather
in the cap Of the present administration;
and the literary retainers OF the State oifl-
cials have trumpeted abroad with diligent
care their purchased praises OF the financial
lights of the party. 1t is true that here IN
South Carolina there has been an amazing
want of confidence in the ability or the hon
esty OF the persons who negotiated loans,
and disbursed the revenues OF the State; but
to every murmuring objection the smashing
reply is made, that "South Carolina bonds
sswere thirty or forty or fifty when Governor
''Scott was elected, and are now eighty and
s:ninety and we'll on the way to par" The
people remembered the way in which the
Bank of the State bills were bought for o
song by the State officials, and then con-
yerted into State bonds worth seventy and
eighty cents on the dollar. They bore in
mind thousand shifts and stratagems which
did not smack of candid dealing. But they
could not convince the venal speculator that
the price Of State bonds might be highest at
the very moment that the financial resources
of the State were at the lowest ebb., With the
public the proof Of good government was to
be, not low taxation, constant employment
and prosperous agriculture and commerce,
but an advance in the market price OF South
Carolina bonds. 1t mattered nothing that,
for speculative reasons, the interest on the
debt should be made payable in coin, or that
a large amount OF bonds should be with
drawn from the market to be deposited by
insurance companies as collateral securities.
The rise in price was declared to be the pure
and natural consequence Of the integrity anu
skill OF Governor Scott and his advisers.
But while State bonds are ballooned to the
nineties, the people are oppressed with taxa
sion The report Is circulated that EIGHT
MILLION DOLLARS is added to the State debt
in one year, and this startling fact seems to
be confirmed by what facts are in possession
Of the public Take the State debttwo years
ago as s6,0OO,OO0. Add to this q contin-
gent liability Of s4,OOo,00O for the Blue
Ridge Railroad, direct liability Of 100000
for the bonds issued to the Land Commfs-
sion, and sl,25O,0C0 issued to redeem the
bills OF the Bank of the State. This makes
total OF Sll, ,950,0OO, exclusive of bonds
OF tho State to. tho, amount OF %, 1Uu, QUO
held by the financial agent OF the State at
the date of the last official statement, and
excluding, also, $500, 900 in bonds sold "
the financial agent, and not reported in the
accounts for the last fiscal year. All these
amounts together would make q total of
sl4, $50, 900 as the outstanding State debt,
being an increase OF more than EIGHT MIL
LIONS in two years.
It is unjust, however, in a mat
ter so important, to pin ones faith
to popular rumor, and we owe strict
justice even to Governor Scott and his coz
conspirators. Unfortunately, little conf
dence is reposed in even their official asser-
tions, but we may, without doing them
wrong, subject the popular belief to the
crucial test OF strict comparison with the
formal printed statements of the present
Comptroller General In his statements OF
the Indebtedness of South Carolina, contain
ed in his report for 1859, (page sC,) the
Comptroller General does not include the
So, 100, 900 OF State bonds pawned by the
Financial Agent. The statement of 'the
adebtors and creditors OF the State OF South
Carolina, which pretends to show the whole
amount due 10, and due by, the State, furnish
es, then, the best means Of ascertaining our
real financial condition. Comparing the
chief sums due by the State, according to
the report oflsGS, (pages % to 35, and the
report OF 1869, page 23, we have the follow
ing results: