Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-04-04
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

TENNESSEE CREDIT. Naturally enough we
expect falsehoods in harangues that drift Out
Of Washington, and are designed to influence
ignorance and prejudice. Yerger's escape and
return to prison was the work Of the rebel
element" intended ito excite Northern sym
patty in his behalf" Southern securities, as
those Of Tennessee and North Carolina, are
depressed, and straightway it is declared by
the financial editor Of the Tribune that the
fact results from revolutionary movements and
recent demonstrations made by the unrepent-
ant 'rebel element" The rebel element"
as scape-goat, has borne SO many ISLANDERS,
and. weighed down as 1t is by calumny. is
still SO vivacieus and tireless in action that
our profound admiration is extorted. As a
scape-goat. the " rebel element" can "tote I"
more. even unconscously, than a double
barreled, high-pressure dromedary. The
bonds Of Tennessee are not, we must confess,
the best securities in the world. They were
issued. those Of recent date, by men who pay
no taxes, and who, as legislators, were repre-
sentatiyes Of men who never expect to pay.
They were issued to perpetuate the power and
reward the favorites Of a wIetehed faction.
whose master. Brownlow, was an insane zealot.
and whose agents were unmixed knaves. The
bonds themselves we're used for selfished and
corrupt purposes or squandered among bank
ruptrailway corporations. We who now WELD
power in Tennessee derived neither pleasure
nor profit from these expenditures, and are
conscious of no very weighty obligation in
point of public and private morals which may
impel us to pay. II ia simply a question of
publicpolicy, which always demands even an
excess of honesty. 1t happens, too, that
mighty ring of Radicals in New York were
roped in very innocently by their love and adj
miration for Brownlow to become monopolists
Of these detestible bonds-bonds. as they are,
of silver and gold, bound around the limbs of
the State and of the people of the State, and
making us the yeriest slaves of bondholders.
Peter Cooper's ring holds the paper. Peter is
the most benevolent Of men. He almost out
rivals Mr.. Berg, the hippophilisti and as Ten
nessee has been ridden almost to death by
Radicalism and school fund thieves, we hope
that Peter will not be hard on the patient asses
Of Tennessee, who have borne very quietly
enormous burdens, and have rarely kicked
against the pricks. Peters ring it was that
furnished the sinews of war to Brownlow's
thieves and adherents, and Peter $ ring is said
to hold ten millions of new Tennessee bonds.
Occasionally it sells and buys ia Wall street,
the vendor and purchaser being, perhaps, in
every recent instance, the same person or ring,
represented by both bulls and bears as agents.
Taxation, as fixed by the recent rebel Leg
islature, cannot pay interest on the State debt.
and there is no reason in fact for the recent adj
vance in quotations of Tennessee securities.
But the point we were aiming at is this, that
Butler and his organs speak falsely when they
ascribe the diminuation in value of Tennessee
securities to the supposititious rebel va
ment." Kentucky is the most Infamous un-
reconstructed rebel State in the Union" and
yet most wonderful-mirabile dictu-its bonds
are the highest in the market The credit of
Tennessee when Isham Harris, of seven heads
and ten horns, and eyes like braziers, and
tail that drew after him a seventh part of the
stars Of heaven, and did cast them to earth
even Tennessee securities while Harris reigned,
: the very living soul and embodiment of the
rebel element" were at premium. There
is not a human creature, with intelligence
enough to keep outside an idiots asylum, who
does not know that the Southern States owe
all the financial calamities ofthe hour and the
depression ofsecurities to the selfish politicians
of Washington. who destroy millions Of prop
erty values that States may be enslayed to
blacks, and that Radlcalism may thus use
these States in the next scramble for the Pres
dency. The rebel element" has nothing to
do with the scheme Of knavery. The wolf ac-
cused the lamb, far down the stream, of mud
dying the sparkling water Beast Butler and
Congress fill the South with woes and discon-
tent. and then, that they may have pretext
for devouring us, ascribe to us their own mis-
deeds and crimes. Fut Massachusetts, under
the domination of military despot, annul
her codes, and see in what her securities will
be worth more than those of Tennessee The
calamity we deplore is the knavery Of Radical
ism.
MONEY MARKET.-County and city scrip sell
at &c., and dealers buy at 1ie., while Tennes-
see money is worth 7l@79e. Tennessee bonds
old, $50; new, 5ll9. Eastern bills are taken
at par, and checking by brokers at a discount
to customers, and q is charged outsiders.
CorToS.-The market was firm Saturday
and characterized, it was thought, by slight
advance on Fridays prices. Orders are few
and light. and but little speculation enlivens
the market. Only iOI bales were sold Satur-
day. Middlings, 2ll9@22lsc; low middlings,
21@2l14c. and 211zc; good ordinary. l9lS@90c 1;
ordinary, Ice; mixed, l6@2lc;, Peeler, 2l54c.
-