The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1873-02-26
-GOLUl':M!.B':I.A.,S.. 9 M. !: c.:
Wednesday Morning. Feb'ry %, 1879
l. The mystery af tho Public Debt.

The Legislature has been in session
for more than three months. It will ad-
journ to-day, leaving many matters of
public interest and Importance unsettled
and unadjusted. The subject Of immi-
grafton has been before it for more than
month, but is now postponed to more
convenient season, for lack Of time, it is
said, to develop and perfect practica-
BILE plan for its encouragement. There
is also the question of the public debt,
about which 80 much has been said, and
80 little known. It's amount hns not
been ascertained and fixed. It is The
same bog; that can bear no pressure of
investigation; the same jungle, that no
eye can penetrate; all owing, perhaps. it
will be said, to want of time. Now,
time moves on. if the Legislature does
not, and here we are, at this day Of
grace, February 26. the day of adjourn
ment, and the one matter, more impor-
tant than all others, is left in precisely
the same condition that it was found by
the present Legislature.
It is curious and rather amusing to
notice how our officials coquette with
this question. Scott, in his last message,
placed the amount Of the bonded debt at
S15, 1851, ,327.35, upon the authority of
the Financial Agent. Kimpton, and the
State Treasurer. Parker Cardozo, then
Secretary of State, made exposures just
before the meeting Of the Legislature, OF
fraudulent conversion of at least Sc. .000,-
600; and maintained, therefore, that the
valid debt was that much less than the
rascals engaged in the fraud designed to
make it. Neagle, who. as Comptroller.
ought to know all about it, when he
issued the order for the levy of taxes,
which he was enioined from collecting.
seemed to embrace the same view, but
subsequently got back to the old figures.
In his voluminous message Of the 10Th
OF January, the present Governor gave
dissertation upon the power and
magnanimity of the General Govern
ment. an elaborate disquisition upon the
national finances and resources, the
debt and the mode of its liquidation,
and expatiated at length upon many
other matters. In all that space OF
paper and spread of ink he could find
none of either for the finances and debt
OF South Oarolina. A few lines near the
close were all, in which he said that he
could make no recommendations in re-
gard to the State debt until he had
secured the approval of those (who?)
who have engaged in the discovery of O
path of safety for the State out of the
labyrinth of danger in which she is in.
volved. He walked round the subject
as one that he was either afraid OF, OF
that must remain in statu quo, until
further developments or transactions
should make it e1pedient to consider it
more closely. His message was the play
of Hamlet. with the part of Hamlet left
out. In the Legislature itself. there
have been some genuine and some sham
efforts to ascertain the debt. The policy
of those who have the votes and can de
eide the matter.to suit themselves, has
been, and is, to keep it covered up, to
be brought out SIG. 600, 900 or $40. .OO0,-
600. as may. most rebound to their ad-
vantage at last.
Fof'a State to be this sort of piaything
in the hands OF political jugglers,' is
humiliating and provoking. We had
enough of that under the two terms of
Scott. We have been inclined to hope
that such legerdemain was not to be
practiced upon us any more. Compe-
tent and honest men would find no in
superable difficulty in their investigation
of the debt. The records of the Office
OF Comptroller, if properly kept. will
show everything. There is undoubtedly
set OF bogus bonds, which constitute
the impediment. The effort will be to
get them recognized at last. But they
must be thrown overheard, if the State
is to get justice. Once before in our
history, the same sort Of uncertainty
prevailed as to the debts and credits of
the State. but from an entiraIv d;fFarapt