The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-10-18
MissouRTs FINANCES
Under Two Years of Liberal Man
agement.
BY F. A. NITcHY, OF JEFFERSON CITY,

party was entrusted with the adlinistra-
ton of the government Of our State, there
was bequeathed to it a State debt Of
Democratic origin, amounting to over
thirty-eight millions of dollars ($3S,596,-
665). The State was so disorganized.
that from one hundred and fourteen
Q14) counties only ninety 600 were in
that year required to pay State tax the
demand on the State Treasury, were so
enormous, that small bonds Of from one
to twenty dollars were devised and issued
to the militia in lieu of payment, and no
interest whatever could be paid upon our
large bonded debt, nor had it been paid
since the beginning of the year 1861.
Discouraging. indeed, must the situa-
ton have appeared to any other than the
most hopeful hearts. Nearly one-half
of the entire State devastated by the in
vadero or by the prowling guerilla-an in
habitant of the very neighborhood in
which he carried on his atrocious mis-
d~eeds-with commerce crippled, agricul-
ture in many a county scarcely attempt
ed for fear Of the bushwhacker, mining
and manufacturing totally cxtinguished,
the wealth of the State reduced fully
one hundred millions Of dollars in the
course of four years, with no credit
abroad, but with an unfinching faith in
ability of the loyal people to redeem the
State from its prostration and its disgrace
such was our position on assuming the
administration.
An able Legislature, composed ofmen
who felt it to be their duty to devote
their time aud energies to the work of
rescuing our State from its sad condi-
ton, such a Legislature as never before
had graced the halls of our Capitol,
joined with executive officers in deyising
means and carrying out wise measures
to effect the redemption of the State from
utter bankruptcy. Three succeeding
Legislatures, also Republican, though
not excclling in talent the first, followed
in the same path, and if the one of 1869
did not originate as pany measures of
retrencbment as it nigh. Or ought to
have done, yet we find that as the end Of
the last Republican administration, our
State debt had been reduced from thirty
eight TO less than twenty-one millions of
dollars (Sl7, SIT, 200, exclusive of the
bonds loaned to the Hannibal and St.
Joseph Railroad Company, all tie ac-
cumulatcd interest on our bonded debt
had been paid-all claims os our militia
had been discharged, even 10 the un-
righteous demand of the pawpaw oreani-
zat;on of the last Democratic admins
;iat:on-the State school fund had bcea
increased by almost a million from $685.
9D4 to 81 ,674,9S6, and this, too, without
adding new burdens upon u shoulders;
the interest CT our State bonds was be-
ing promptly raid when due. and the
measure Of orr credit had risen in the
money market from I'll 20 81 ; the assessed
wealth Of the State hal increased from
$2G2. U00, 600 in 1865 to s359,0OJ,0U0 in
1879; the country was prosperous, the
administration of justice prompt, the
taxes reduced from nine to five mills.
ana money in the treasury to meet all
demands. and To invest a large surplus OF
more than 100000 in retiring our
bonds.
Thus We lsfl our State finances in a
prosperous condition. cause OF pride
to the Rcpubiicag ~nar,y-when, with the
new year Of 1871. the Democratic party
succeeded 70 the administration OF opr
afairs.
Although, even among lis aGhcrcn:s,
there arc some few men Of clear ideas
and financial knowledge, yet the MAORI
~ Ct our democratic law-g!vers have
proved themselves incapable Of directing
The sfflirs Of a prosperous State.
When the loquacious leader Of financial
talent in Ike lower house proposes. and
a sage committee of this holy recon-
mcnds in all earnest to donate TO the
school fund three millionsin bonds which
are not in the possession of the State,
but Of its creditors-or 10 apply the
money which will be furnished by the
Haanital and st. Joseph Railroad Com
par to whom these bonds were loaned,
not to the redemption of those SANG
bonds, but TO the school fund, and yet
considered such a course as paying and
retiring the bonds-it is difficult to sup
press a derisive sarcasm. The same
scli-impnrtant Democratic spokesman Is
selected TO put forward and to push a
scheme for saddlinr a new debt of
eighteen millions ofdollars upon us for
the purpose of donating such n sum to
proposed railroads of very doubtful ne
ceSsity, bu; with q certainty of throwing
the whole State into IA wllirl of airy spec
ulations which can end but dlsastrou ly.
Happily. the Senate Of last Legisla-
ture nirped this dangerous scheme III the
bud. 1t added this to quite a number
o fnob.e actions Of defense against the
Incompetent and corrupt Democratic ma :
jority Of the lower house: The credit
of the State was injured by the unsettled
policy and tho a~ntagonism between the
Governor and his political allies on the
question whether to pay the maturing
bonds in gold or in s%iiyer,f as promised
upon their face. or with paper currency.
1t has, within the short period OF its
sway, done nothing to reduce our debt,
but it has actus,ly increased it by the
emission of bonds and certificates ir the
amount of SI,3bl, 900. Thus we are
made to feel that We are again ruled by
the same party which created our i'm
mensc debt prior to 1867. No sooner
has it assumed the powers of government
in our Stae, than it is again at its old pol
icy of creating debts for a succeeding Re-
publican administration to pay.
In its needless extravaganza it has
gone Oh appropriating large sums of pub.
lie money until it has actually drained
the treasury dry.
The drafts Of the State Auditor upon
the treasury cannot be paid, because the
Democratic government lett net a dollar
in the treasury applicable to such rurpoa.
ses. Never since the first hard times of
a young State-forty years ago-has
Missouri been so d~isgraced that the cur-
rent opens of its administration could
not be paid for want CT fnnds. The
appropriations made by this Democratic
Legislature amounted to- S9i5,S4f ia
1871, and to 81, 2 ,920 in the year 1872,
for the same purposes for which the Re
nandoJ in 1864. S56S. f03.