Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-14
BLOATED BONDHOLDERS.
Honesty is renuessee's Best Policy.

Honesty is Tennessee's Best Policy.
To the Union and American.
In the canvass just ended, / heard and
saw many things said and written about
the "odious funding BILL" the .'abOmina-
bic funding law" etc, etc. Not being a
politician, had nothing to say about said
funding bill till after the election. In all
my reading and listening, l could find no
specific objection urged TO the funding bill;
the writers and speakers simply dealt lib
orally in adiectives such as ''iniquitOus,"
'Odious,' "unjuSt,' '.ring," ''close corpora
ton" etc, etc, never once stating what
was wrong in the bill.
As | understand the bill which passed
the last session Of the Legislature, it SIM
ply amounted to this: the State of Tennes-
see had neglected to pay the interest on her
bonds till the amount Of interest due had
become incOnveniently large. Not feeling
able to pay this large amount
down, the State gave her bonds for
it, thus saving her credit. l owe
my neighbor 1000, for which he has my
note bearing interest at 10 per cent.
promise faithfully that the interest shall
be paid annually. When the time comes,
and passes, and do not pay the interest,
he asks me to give him my note for the
500 additional l owe him, bearing inter
est at the same rate. Now, as an honest
man, can refuse? If L paid him the 500
as agreed to do, he could readily lend it
out at 10 per cent; shall l hold him re-
sponsible for mn failure to fulfill mig con-
tract? Shall turn round and call him a
abloated bond-holder" because he holds my
bond, and boast of how work for nag
living, and, therefore, he may whistle for
his money? Does the fact tina. work for
my living give me the right TO cheat my
neighbor? 1t is no answer to say that some
of the outstanding bonds were lie
cal unless all of them were so.
Can I innocently refuse to pay
my Just debts because there are parties
making unjust claims on me? Neither
will it do to sail out against the holders OF
these bonds and say they do not have the
interest of eur Slate at heart. They may
have or they may not, it is a matter of no
consequence whatever, so far as this sub
jet is concerned. a man has nv note for
$1,000, when he sues me for payment, can
L plead the want of patriotism of the hold
er as reason for non-payment? What
has the moral character of the bond holder
got TO do with the justice Of his claim, in
the name of reason? Neither will it do TO
say that these holders did not paw full
price for the bonds. Is it claimed that a
promise TO pay one dollar on the part of the
State, only means a promise to pay fifty
cents Could plead against paying the
81 600 note above mentioned that the
holder bought it somewhere for only $500,
and was unwilling TO pay more than it
ooSf bina9 TS there q cOurf Of iuSfipa on
the earth that would for moment listen to
any such plea? Alas! what an amount Of
silly bOsh, labeled ''profound statesman
ship is belched forth periodically at the
s'dear people" / do not own a single
bond, nor any share of one, nor am at all
interested pecuniarily in the market value
Of these bonds; so no onecan charge selfish
motives upon me. None Of my intimate