The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-12-07

after November
teThe State debt of South Carolina-.the debt
now existing-will be paid to the; last cent
whatever the General Assembly may do; but
no bayonet' bond for whatever reason Issued
will ever be recognized by the white people Of
the State" ~ aai
Referring to the Act of the, General Assembly
providing for the. payment of the interest on
our, State bonds in specie, the same paper says,
under date of December l, 1869:
eve can pay our debt as it stands. The
question, whether one year more Of Radical
rule will not so largely swell the total that the
people will, at the first opportunity, shuttle of
the weight of care, and repudiate every dollar
of debt contracted after the war. II
X
clad the Governor advised that the war
debt be paid-a debt contracted for the ad-
vancelnent of q cause in which our people en-
barked fortune, life and honor-an attentive
ear and willing heart would have met the pro-
posal, and the whole subject would have been
considered :, with y kindly and generous care. /.
"Every merchant or financier does see, or
will see, that thewhole. scheme is a job and q
sJwindle. Beyond this, there is the certainty
that the law of specie payments will assuredly
be repealed as soon as property holders and
honest men have a.majority in the councils of
tue State. This majority we shall have in less
than year."
: The cry of reputation thus raised by large
portion of the press, and continued, with a
shameless pertinacity, in the interest of small
and malignant political organization, has done
much to produce the recent depreciation of our
securities coming, as 1t did, at time when the
money markets were rendered peculiarly sensi-
tive and stringent by various causes.
The debt statement made at. the meeting of
the Taxpayers Convention, in May last, and
that furnished by me t0. the Gong gressioial Com
mittee, in September, were correct to the best
of my knowledge, at those dates. My informa-
ton as to the sale of bonds was then Decessari-
" limited to the amount reported by the FL
nancial Agent and Treasurer.
S2,200O00 of the amount of conversion bonds,
issued as above stated, were signed by me for
the express purpose of Withdrawing from the
market and cancelhng an equal amount OF
those issued and hypothecated under the Acts
for relief of the Treasury, the payment Of the
interest on the public debt, and for the Land
Commission. They were signed about the time
the Taxpayers Convention assembled. Sub
sequently, the Financial Agent represented
that The rapid decline in the value of our State
securities disabled him from getting control Of
the bonds deposited as collateral, and to relieve
which these conversion bonds were signed at
that date.
The action of that body, and of the Charles.
ton Board of Trade, in reference to the proposed
sterling fund loan, warning capitalists abroad
against its negotiation, and declaring that, if
negotiated, it should never be paid, had most
disastrous effect upon our securities, aud there
by compelled large and rapid increase in the
volume of our bonded debt. At the time the
sterling fund bill was enacted, / deemed its
policy wise one, and it was endorsed as a good
financial measure, by many leading fnancers,
both in this State and in New York. It's de-
sign was to replace our securities, already is-
sued, with uniform class of bonds, many of
such securities not being good delivery at the
Stock Exchange in New York. This loan was
calculated to commend itself to capitalists, for,
while it changed the form of the debt advan-
taeeously, it was guarded with the irrepealable
restriction that its proceeds should be "eDclu-
siuelv used IN exchange for, or IN payment Of,
the existing public debt of the State"
Its very terms thus show how unwarranted
was the action of the Convention in stigmati-
zing it as an intended increase of the bonded
debt of the State. In view of all the facts in
the premises, the sterling loan, thus discredited
in advance, was not put upon the market.
The gentlemen who guided the action of the
Convention, on questions of finance, expressed,
as a further objection to the loan, their want
of confidence in the Financial Agent in New
York. In evidence of the real purpose, and
the wantonness of these systematic attacks
upon the State credit, would mention that /
tliereupon proposed that they should designate
the syndics or agents for the negotiation OF the
loan, both in London and New York. l fur
ther proposed, with the unanimous consent of
the Financial Board, to guard holders under
this loan from loss through any possible sub
sequent action of the General Assembly in re-
gard to it, by entering into such stipulations
on behalf of the State with the syndics, charged
with negotiating the loan, that no further Le-
gislature could divert its proceeds without at
tempting to "impair the obligation of con-
tracts" thereby giving the Courts of the Uni
ted States jurisdiction, should question of the
kind ever arise, involving the rights of the
bond-holders and the faith of the State. in
stanced to them, in this connection, the decision
in the case of Minnesota, where, under SINH
lar stipulation, the rights of the bond-holders
were enforced by the Federal Courts, on e.r post
taeto grounds, even against provision IN the
Constitution of that State, adopted subsequent
to the creation of its debt. Nothing, however,
could change their. predetermined purpose
Had they and their allies displayed the same
diligence in cooperating with the Financial
Board for the negotiation of the sterling loan
that they have shown in their efforts to dis
credit the securities of the State, our entire
bonded debt would not now exceed $40, ,0O0,0 900,
and the State would have been saved near
s3,oOO,OOO, necessarily sacrificed in the negoti-
alton of its deprecated bonds. For them now
to complain of our immense bonded debt and
high taxation, and to claim commiseration for
these direct and inevitable consequences of
their own acts, is to initiate the criminal who,
having murdered his parents, plead orphanage
in mitigation of sentence On this question OF
responsibility between them and the State ad-
minristration, I invoke, and fearlessly await,
that just Judgment which always springs from 1S,
the sober second thought of the people. The
depreciation in our bonds, therefore, springs
from causes purely artificial, and in their ma
ture temporary. The State can, and will re.
deem, ali her obligations, to the last cent.