Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-12-05
THE FRUITS OF RADICALIsRa
JUDGE BOND.

The proceedings now being had and
to be had in the United
States Court at Raleigh, constitute
atal llll Of Indictment against the
Radical party in North Carolina. If
.he efforts there being u.ade and to be
made to force our pc pie TO pay inter-
est o. the Special Tax Bonds shall
pro, e successful, the ruin of the State
VIII be complete.
1t will be remembered that the Spe-
cIal Tax Bonds, so-caIled, are certain
rail road bonds issued by the Legisla-
ture % lS6S-'69. That body was en-
tirely controlled by the Radical party
Each act OF that body authorizing the
issue ~ raj road bon0s contained a
proylsl,sn ievying and directing th%
cole ct,on Of II special Lax to meet the
interest Oh the bonds therein author
lied. For this reason the bonds came
to be commonly called Special Tax
Bonds" In pursuance of these acts OF
Assembly, so-called, the special taxes
therein levied were collected in the
year 1869 and paid into the Public
Treasury. In 1870 the Conservatives
having come into power; the Leginla-
ture directed the Treasurer to appro-
pirate the money to other purposes.
Mr.. Reverdy johnson is now in
Raleigh asking the Federal Court to
compel the Treasurer to replace that
money to the credit of the Special
Tax bondholders and subject to their
order. And having done this, it is
Federal Court to grant further order
in effect to compel, from year to year,
the collection of the special taxes lev
led in the acts of Assembly authorizing
the issue of the Swepson-Littleaeld-
Holden Special Tax bonds.
If the acts authorizing these
bonds are valid laws of North
Carolina there is no need for the
Federal Court to apply any coercion
or compulsion to the present or any
future Legislature, for no further leg
islation is necessary. The acts Of the
so-called Radical Legislature of 1868
go, authorizing the issue of the Special
Tax bonds, expressly direct the levy
ing of particlar tax specifying not
only the amount thereof, but the
property from which it shall be col
lected, and the present and all future
Legislatures will be utterly powerless
to prevent its collection, i, the Court
shall grant the order. It will only be
necessary for the Auditor of the State
to direct the sheriffs to collect these
Special Taxes from year to year, and
if they refuse to collect them, to order
the United States Marshal to collect
them, as is now being done in the
county of Carteret.
The Special Tax bonds amount TO
more than eleven millions of dollars.
What will be the result to the people
North Carolina if they shall be COM
PEELED to pay the taxes levied to meet
the interest on that huge debt, debt
for which they received no considera-
ton? The answer is easy. The
sherifTs will refuse to collect the
money, and the United States Marshals
and their deputies will spread in
swarms through every county in the
State, selling everything before them,
for homestead and exemption laws will
then be of no avail.
This is no mere fancy sketch. but a
true picture of the condition of North
O-->l:-~. !f +I.~ ~-1nr IN collect the
Special Taxes shall be endorsed by the
Fedora Court. The only thing that
now stands between the people of
North Carolina and utter ruin is the
Federal Judge Hugh L. Bond, now
holding Court in Raleigh. We all
know who and what this man Bond is.
He is the man who disgraced the
bench, who disgraced the country and
who disqraeed the civilization of the
age in which we live by declaring that
"the sword was due process of
law" He is the man who so conducted
himself and SO conducted the Court over
which he presided that the distin-
guished Mr.. Bayard, of Delaware, pub
licly proclaimed upon the floor of the
United States Senate in open session
ut Washington City that as an innocent
man he would rather run tho gauntlet
of the bullets of a squadron of cavalry
Court. He is the man who has been
President Grants favorite instrument
in expressing and outragingthe people
of the Carolinas under the social ed
reconstruction laws. And this man
Bond is all that stands between us and
the ruin brought upon us by the Radi
cal legislation Of 1868 80. Will he
disown the authority Of the carpet
baggers and scalawags and negroes
who made up the party of which he
was and is such a prominent member
and which controlled the legislation of
that corrupt body a.? It must be a
strong case that makes Bond go back
on his party.
The people of North Carolina have
now to thank the Radical party for
putting them at the mercy of Hugh L.
Bond, and they will remember too
that it is just at this time that Gov
ernor Tod r. Caldwell, the head of
shat party, urges the Legislature to
pass laws taxing the people to pay
what he is pleased to call the public
debt
p. S. Since the above was i'll type
we have received special telegram
from Raleigh giving the decision in
this case. If it shall be confirmed at
the final hearing, then will our worst
fears be realized. The ruin of the
State, through Radical Legislation aud
corruption, will be complete.
= - II, TAKE 1T OK, AND KEEP TAKING |