Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-02-26
TnE LEGISLATURE.

the perversity Of the Legislature in pur-
suing a course plainly inimical to the
best interests OF the people Of the State
demands at our hands even a tardy re-
monstrance. Both houses hsve, in
duced thereto by something akin
10 what the superintendent Of the
insane asylum would call passional
emotion, pursued the public credit as II
Ex-Governor John e. Brown was the
embodiment Of the honor Of the State
as he was during his administration,
and il Was the right thing to kill it, to
murder it bsrbarously and wantonly.
Some Of the resolutions and bills intro
duced for this purpose have been so bald
OfRny other purpose than the infliction OF
blow at policy that had elevated
Tennessee TO q front rank among the
States Of the Union that We have held
our heads in shame, and in the hope
they would not be pushed to q final con-
clusion, have carefully foreborne COM
ment. But the patience OF the people
is exhausted, and we feel called upon at
las! to enter a solemn protest against
this dangerous toying with their inter-
ests-with their most important inter-
ests by the house and senate. Nothing
in the way Of plan or policy was ever in
this State better advertised, more plainly
discussed, or generally acquiesced in
than the funding bill, which was the
pivotal measure Of the late ad-
ministration. Passed by the last
legislature, and made the chief sub
ject o. campaign aud Of newspaper
comment throughout the State, Gov
ernor Brown carried it out in good faith,
aud under the management Of Comp
troller Burch made for US q clean bill,
wherein, for the first time since 1851,
we could read our financial condition and
know what we had to meet Of princi-
pal and interest to satisfy our Legitimate
creditors and maintain the credit Of the
State. This act, thus enforced, and &C.
cepted by our bondholders. in good faith,
il is now sought in mere wantonness,
in a spirit Of personal spleen and preju-
dice to revoke and 10 substitute for it
one Of three bills, now on their passage,
either Of which is a death-blow at the
fair name and fame of Tennessee since
they are carefully framed to ex-
clude the payment Of interest.
And mcst humilistiDg to re-
member, this is proposed by Demo-
cratic Legislature, the members Of which
were elected to their places by the same
voters who from Shelby to Carer had
sustained the admirable financial policy
of John c. Brown. 1t cannot be that
the one hundred thousand men who for
four years sustained that gentleman
stultified themselves when they elected
Porter, especially in view Of their sol
emnly passed resolutions to sustain the
credit OF the State. No. Governor Por-
ter, himself, in his message, regarding
the State credit as of primary import
Ance, warned the legislature ihat it must
be maintained And yet, in the
face OF his warning, in the teeth |
OF the resolutions OF the Democratic |
state. convention which indorsed |
Governor Browns administration, |
and that pledged the party to the main
tenance OF the State credit, we have
petty, splenetic resolutions providing |
for payment only OF the current expens.
es OF the State, and still others for pay |
ment of current expenses and SO much |
of the interest as can be after the ex-
haustion of the annual collections from |
a rate of taxation carefully calculated |
TO do that and no more. Never in the |
history of Tennessee were the interests |
OF the State so sbsurdly tampered with,
or the strength Of a dominant party so |
recklessly jeopsrdized. And this Is not |
sill, In face nf the solemn TemOnstrance |
81 the commercial, which is the largest |
raT-paying and the most fiourishing Of
- G the interests of the State, the house
We, Ierday repealed the conventional
rate of interest act which |
here in Memphis, as well as
in NasiTVille, Knoxville and Chatta-
pooga has been found an essential to
growth and prosperity-as if it were
not bad enough that these communities
are laboring for growth despite consti-
tution that is q monument Of reproach
10 every citizen in the State. Mer-
chants, bankers, mechanics and busl-
ness men generally are asking, what
does the Legislature mean by thus strik-
ing at our best interests, in spite OF the
party pledges on which its members
were elected? Why, they ask, will the
Legislature thus cripple US in credit and
eapital? Is it merely to aggraVate
the stagnatiOn in business brought ABOUT
INV Grants impolicy? We cannot be-
Iieve it, and yet We are at loss to &C
count for it. Never did legislative body
ush on 20 blindly from bad to
worse, as IL intent upon the ruin Of the
State they were elected to protect and
defend. But, besides these blows at the
State credit, and this measure to drive
capitsl out Of the State, We are threat
eped with another bill as stupidity begot-
ten, having for its object the abolition /
~. the Office Of superintendent OF public /
i,,st, uction-A stab evidently at the pub
lic scb,. ,ol system, which has proven so
odmirabls an aid in the labors of our |
i,,n,Igration agent, encouraging intend
ing emigrants in Europe to believe that
at least in respect Of public education we
are equal TO tbs most favored States OF
the Union. Thus, We are not only to be |
branded on the martS OF Europe and the |
Union as utterly without honor: as
Democratic State going back on
n ~mocratic pledged faith; as
s,s,a 30 ignorant and 80 ootuse
a. 10 r,,f1s. to bid for the idle capital oi
the world by q premium OF four per
cent more than Shat used to be the
legal rate of interest, but are 60 steeped'
stupefied and overcome by That ignor-
spce as TO be declared enemies OF the
public schools, tie only means OF gen
'.rsl enIightenmentb besides the press. But
tbis i not all. The bar of Memphis, in
Eerior in no respect to the Legislature,
and certainly well advised OF its own
needs, supported by the general voice OF
the reop!e and 10y the Ledger, ana
s,.,goucbe. as well ks the APPEAL, re-