Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1873-04-01

;uHluiateu INTEREST. Anu applying kul0
ansuage just quoted, "it is r,ecessa sy 70 tie-
,isc sonaeftiag." 81
Our opponents have offered. nothing ex.
,ept the proposed charter for the railroad
ing. Referring to this s1h3ect 1gain on
page 292, this same honoredz hlstoeian pro-
pounds this question: "How, indeed, was
e possible that debt should not have been
contracted when one party was impelled
BY the strongest motives to borrow, and
The other was impelled by, equally strong
motives to lend ?'i Indeed, are We not in
the precise condition here described? Have
we not the strongest possible motives to in-
crease our debt 3? Have we not every rea-
son to do SO, In order to take breathing
spell and be freed from the four and q half
or five millions now due?' Again, right
here listen to what the great historian says:
~ stutcsmun might well think that some
part of the wealth which was daily buried
or Esuandered might, With advantage to
State, be attracted into the Treasury
Much has been said upon this floor In ref
erence to candidates for Congress, and the
part certain gentlemen hoped to take in
the future control and government of the
Iscall the attention of those who
are aspiring, to the language of history that
q statesman might we'll think of" this
mode of relieving our State Treasury from
its embarrassments just as the statesmen of
England did relieve the Treasury OF that
kingdom. Members of the House will bear
in mind that the history of England was
appealed to In this matter. oq 2, s"U Unto Caesar
the appeal has been made, and unto Caesar
let us &c" History has been inuoked, let
us take the voice of history. And what is
it? Listen, I beseech you, as the historian
declares: "It was often asserted, at q latter
period, by Tories, who hated the national
debt most of all things, and fBishop1 Bur-
net most of all men, that sBurnet was the
person who first advised the government
to contract national debt. Don't you
see the same spirit against public debt,
then, that is evinced here? Don't you see
that the same angry utterances were rife
then that we hear now? 1t has been as.
serted since this debate commenced that
the funding policy began with England /,
aud proved disastrous to the interests Of
the people. 1t was the 10Th day Of Decem-
Der, 1892, that the House of Commons re-
Means, and a proposition for loan was
adopted England borrowed this policy
from Italy, France, and other countries.
And it is recorded of Holland that she
owed bonded debt, on which the inter-
est was so promptly paid, and the bonds
had become so popular, that s.when any
part of the principal was paid the public
creditor received his money with tears,
we'll Knowing that he could find no other
equally secure" And, let me
say, before proceed, that what makes the
credit of the individual, or the State, is not
so much the ability as the Willingness to
pay, and especially is it true that the pub
lie creditor never expects nor desires the
prineipal--if the interest is paid, that meets
the object of his investment-his purpose
is accomplished, he is satisfied. And why
Is it that the men of money seek to invest
in public, at lower rate Of interest, rather
than in private securities at a higher rate !?
The answer is plain. An individual may
become bankrupt, he may squander his
fortune he may lose it by accident of fire
or otherwise. He may die and lease an
insOlvent estate. But States are immortal.
They live forever. Nothing but revolution,
and overthrow impairs their ability to pay
interest, aud that is all the
capitalist wants. / shall refer to it again.
To recur to the English debt but for a mo-
ment, it is spoken of as "the greatest prod.
ICY that ever perplexed the sagacity and
the pride of statesmen and
80 .......-,,.s i
And says Macaulay, "At every stage in the
growth Of that debt the nation has set up the
same cry of anguish and dispair At every step
asserted by ,0ise men that bankruptcy and ruin
ire at hand. But what encouragement does
history give these Projectors of evil that their
;ad prophecy will cometo pass? None, what.
,vcr? Macaulay proceeds to say, Yet still
he, debt went on growing, and still bankruptcy
great contest with Louis xiv was finally ter
minated By the Peace Of Utrecht, the nation
,wed about forty millions, and that debt was
considered, not merely by the rude multitude.
lot merely by fox-hunting s4uires and coffee
house orators, but by acute and profound
,ently cripple the body politicp Keep up with
no, if You please, as have only time to read
What is q much better speech than can make,
IN this subject, althsughsYrittan ia foreign
and. and without any refsfence to the public
lebt of Tsnnessse. But &ys historian,
me a sreatna ae Sv nI bs
wise and jgnorant alike. wealth Increased the
lation become richer and richef.n
Again, after the war Of the Austrian success
on, the debt of England rose to eighty millions.
Then these same false prophets proclaimed
bounced that now, at all events. the case of
england was desperatei Yet the signs of in
reasing prosperity, signs which could neither
10 counterfeited nor concealed, ought to have
atisfed observant and rejecting men that
lebt Of eighty millions was less to the England
hat was governed by Pelham, than debt Of
orty millions had been to the England which
vas governed by Oxford And here let me say,
hat in forty years from to-day, the time the
unded bond is proposed to run before maturity,
shen our iron beds will be dug up, our zeal
'anks opened, our zinc and copper brought into
se, and the mineral and other resources of the
tate developed, Tennessee will be better able to
,ay twenty millions than four at the present
inc.
And, to return fora moment, the debt of Eng
and. under her constant use of thesw0rd, rap /
dly swelled to hundred and forty millions
)h, now, you croakers-ye prophets who imag-
ned, like the enemies of this bill, now seem to /
imagine. that the time had come at last when
hey could see their predictions ofeyil fulfilled:
Men of theory and Of business almost unani-
nously pronounced that the fatal day had now
eally arrived. The only statesman who
i'd not share in the general delusion was Ed
aund Burk" Can we wonder that there are
hose now deluded in refersnce to similar pro- |
ortion? Indeed, it is not strange that while /
early everybody labored under this delusion
n England, here, in the State of Tennessee, it
, but small minority Of her public men ? |
wen the celebrated PHILOSOPHER David Hume