Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-11
The County Debt.

The greatest evil of q republican form of
government is that the people will not attend
to their public duties. We say that this is a
government Of the people, managed by
the people and for the people. This
is true in theory, but in many cases 1t
turns out to be false in fact, through the
apathy and Indifference which our citizens
display in regard to public affairs. II at all
our primary and public meetings every
citizen of the district was present 1t would
be impossible. for u few designing men to
shape things to their own ends, and none
but pure men and deserving measures would
succeed. These reflections are aprOpOs in
the consideration of the means to be used for
the settlement of our county Indebtedness.
Every taxpayer In Lafayette county Is deep
ly interested in this matter, and it Is his
duty as a citizen, and US a business man, to
attend the meetings which are necessary to
a solving of the problem. If a man who
pays one hundred dollars per year railroad
tax was told that he could make ten dollars
by merely riding to Lexington. there are
lew men who would not take the ride even
from the farthest limits of the county ; but
when a question arises in which he has an
opportunity Of saving forty dollars per
annum for the next fifteen or twenty years,
and which requires his cooperation and
countenance to carry it out, he is supremacy
Indifferent to the result and pays no atten-
ton to it. As has been iterated and reiter-
ated In these columns, there is no business
for one day, on your farm, or IN your shop, |
or in your store which is SO important as at
tention to this subject.
Ascertain the day pom which the meetings |
will be held in your township, and do not
be content with gong yourself, but See that
your. %neighbors are appraised of the time,
that they may also be there. We have care
fully weighed the subject of the compromise
as it Is proposed to be submitted to the
people. and though we might have hoped to
do better, we strongly advise the people of
the county to ratify it ut the polls. We will
thereby tell the world that though we have
been outr,geousiy imposed on in the fraud
ulent issue of many of these bonds, still we
are willing, if the bondholders will give us a
fair compromise, to pledge ourselves to pay
the renewal bonds, interest and principal,
without fail. Some bondholders say that
they will have no better security in the new
in the old bonds /; that Judge this, that
or the other says these bonds are valid and
Will eventually be paid, &c, &c. The Judges
above alluded to do not have to pay these
bonds; the people of Lafayette county do.
know whether or not there was fraud
In their issue, and they have declared that
there was time and again. An attempt
TO, resist the payment OF the bonds would
costly and probably end in defeat,
but If ruin lies in either alternative
there can be no great difference which is
accepted. While we earnestly advise the
people to offer the compromise, we as earnest
and sincerely say to the holders of the
bonds that they can do no better than accept
it.. The people of this county never agreed
% pay the present debt; II the compromise is
made it will be by their consent, under o
aw Of the state, and the bonds will be I'M
Questioned in any court, and what is of more
will be unquestioned by those
Who have to pay them. All sorts of property
las shrunken in value in the last few years.
md it would be harder for Lafayette co unty .
low to pay a debt of one million, than II
would have been to pay a debt of two millions ;
n times such as we had seven or eight '
ears ago. The county does not want to be :
at law, neither do the bondholders, =
retards the growth OF the county, prevents !.
IMMIGRATION, paralyZes commerce, banishes
renders lands of no value and :.
agriculture, and by all these evils :
educes our ability to pay. On the other
and the holder OF the bonds desires to get :
is income without trouble, it is for that he
invests his money. Let us then see If there =
no halfway ground up on which we can all :
leet ahd settle this important question y
.