The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-02-23

EO4GOKS IOuTQals
| am glad to see, from late numbers
of your paper. and the Terre Haute
Express, that the imminent danger to
the State, of which you and I sound
ed the first note of public warning,
some two months ago. in your col
umns, is beginning to attract the earn
est attention Of the people. That
there is great danger that cancelled
debt of some fifteen millions of dol
lars will be foisted upon the tax ray
ers of Indiana, no man at all ae-
quainted with the corruptions attend
ant on legislation in this country of
late years, will or can deny. Indeed
it is the opinion of shrewd Indiana
politicians that nth the corruption
fund at the disposal of the political
managers of this Wabash and Erie
canal fund conspiracy, the conspira-
tors will be irresistible. Such an
opinion is anything but fatteriDg to
our public morals. l. myself, do not
share the OPT On. | believe, and
know, that the people can, and will,
if properly led, signally defeat this
most rascally attempt, by faction of
their own old leaders. to defraud them
so foully.
There can be no moral wrong in
nonresident spectators and fnan-
ciers using all legal means to fix the
debt, now chagable only on the Wa
bash and Erie canal, however large
that debt may be, upon the State of
Indiana, which once owed the debt,
but was, long since, discharged from
1t IN the most solemn manner. Such
efforts, by such men, cannot be called
conspiracy. But that Indiana poll
tlcians, the professed or would be
leaders OF the people, should band
together, as some of them have, for
such purpose, purpose which they
know is opposed to the will of the
| people and which cannot succeed, as
they we'll know, but by bribery and
corruption of the deepest dye. This
is a conspiracy of the most rsscally
type. They may disguise it to suit
| their own tastes and consciences.
They may put it upon the ground that
our old bondholders get no value in
the canal and lbs public lands. and
that the furnished honor of the State
should be redeemed from the stain of
the old repudiation-it cannot alter
the case. 1t is not the old bondhold
ers nor their heirs, but new men. sharp
and greedy spectators, and truck ling
politicians who are to be benefited by
the conspiracy.
When Indiana first failed to meet
the interest ON her public debt, in
that gloomy period of thirty years
ago, we, her citizens, who eompre-
hended the misfortune all felt sorely,
lrredeemably disgraced, aud we would
have made great sacrifices had it been
in our power to repair the broken
credit of the State. When a few
years later by slowly returning fnan-
cial prosperity, and by aid of land
| grant from the General Government,
the State was able to meet the de-
mands of her bondholders through
Charles Butler, their agent, by assum
ming of the payment the principal and
interest of one half her debt and
| transferring to them, in satisfaction
of the other half, the Wabash and
Erie canal and its Congressional land
grants, our rejoicing was alleged by
shame that public necessity had
compelled US to pay an honest debt in
any other way than according to the
original contract. But the debt was
paid, fully paid, In accordance with
the express stipulations of q vast ma
jority of our bondhOlders. They i'm
mediate y took possession of the canal
and its lands by their trustees and
gave up their old State bonds and
took new State bonds for one half of
them and the canal, and its lands for
the other half, and so the settlement
was free, fair and fiual. Ii from any
default of their trustees or without
their default, the property which
they took in payment of one
half the debt disappointed both
the State and the bondholders
In proving unremunerative. that
cannot alter the case. If,
indeed, after lapse of nearly thirty
years these canal securities should be
found generally in the hands of their
original holders or of their impover-
ished heirs, it is possible case might
be made out showing an equitable
claim to some measure of legislative
relief. But not In any shape that it
is now possible to put it, can an hon
est legislature, in the absence of ex-
press instructions from every con-
stituency, consent to entertain the
subject for a siRgle moment. Indiana
cannot now by any act upon this sub
ject amend her own honor or the for
tunes of her original creditors. If
therefore we would now save the State
from a deeper humiliation than we
have yet passed through, legislative
job so oppressive to the people and
so Infamous in character as to justify
a revelation, we must just now and
henceforward, in our political plat
forms and nominations for all State
officers. legislative or otherwise, suf-
fer no possible pretext for misunder-
standing on this subject.