Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-03-25
For the Chronicle.
OUR STATE DEBT.
Shall it be Paid, or Repudiated

of the affairs of my native
State. Owing to this fact have read
with considerable interest your ed
itorials in the CHRONICLE in regard to
her financial condition. They have
afforded me both pain and pleasure.
Pain, to have recalled to my mind the
sad financial condition of our noble
old State, and pleasure, to know that
at least one leading newspaper within
her borders has courage and manliness
enough to speak out boldly its own
honest opinion. ana what is really the
opinion of every honest tax payer in
the State, who has any opinion at all.
One of the great troubles is, that so
many of our people have failed to keep
themselves posted in regard to their
State and county affairs so long that
they have no opinion of their own
They groan and grumble about high
taxation and yet they will take no
trouble upon themselves to have them
lessened-some of them not feeling
enough interest in the matter to go to
the polls at election time and vote.
How many families in the State that
do not take State newspaper, the
only really true source of information
in regard to the management. of her
affairs. Then again, how many who
subscribe and pay for some trashy
literary paper from New York or else
y re, that instills nothing but nom
Sc. ; sinto the minds of their children,
to he exclusion of one of their own
State papers that would teach them
what every child who is able to read
should begin to learn-a knowledge of
their State and county affairs.
But you viii please excuse me for
depression, and permit me to say that
/ heartily approve of your editorials
upon the subject of the State finances.
and most especially that part which
says keep the doors of the peniten-
tiary wide 5pensfq the reception of
thieves and defanlters,' and l think
you might have added, repudiatOrs. |
wish your paper containing them could
enter the interior of every homestead
in the State, and the same sounded in
the ears of all tax payers until they
were aroused up to "a knowledge of the
Importance of taking some action in
a matter that every one should consid-
er part of their own interest.
/ hope that you will continue the
good work that you have inaugurated,
regardless of the slim attempts that
may be made by weak minded people
to plaster over and white wash, or the
hue and cry of repudiationist who are
trying to reduce our bonds to low
down rate, and it may be for pecuniary
ring speculation. Sometimes | think
that large number of people do not
understand the full meaning of repudi-
alton. If one of their neighbors, whose
taxable property was worth ten thous-
and dollars, was owing them a just and
honest debt of five hundred and re-
fused to make any arrangement toward
paying it, either now or hereafter,
simply because it was in their power
to refuse, they could then very plainly
see the meaning of reputation. | am
no bondholder and own no bond OF
any kind, either State or National, but
I wish the State to pay her just and
honest debts, because | think it right
for her to do so, and that she is able
to do so. An individual whose in
debtedness did not exceed FIVE per
cent. of his assets would be deemed
fully able to pay his debts. The State
is not an individual, but it may be
termed corporation or sovereignty
owned and controlled by a number of
individuals. Each one of these in
dividual owners is as moral ly and hon
estly bound for their proportion of the
debts of this corporation or sovereign
ty as they would be for their individ-
ual debts. Any person who would not
pay his just individual debts without
a law to force them to do so may con-
sistantly be Tin this easel a repudiatiQn-
ist, but a person who would willingly
pay his just individual debts, though
there was no law to force him to do so,
cannot be one without being moon
sistent. As the State is sovereignty
with no law to enforce the payment of
her debts, it is presumable that her
creditors or bondholders, in accepting
her promises to pay, based their con-
fdence entirely upon her honor and
not upon her property. The people
of the State, through their chosen re-
presentatives, issued the bonds or
promises to pay and have received,
more or less, the benefits of the money
derived from their sale. If any of
this money has been Wrongfully ap-
propriated, the fault must be charged
to the people or their representatives,
and not to the bondholders.
Now as the people have authorized
the issuance of these bonds and sold
and received the money for them, it is
their duty as guardians of the States
honor to see that that honor remains
as it so far has ever been, bright and
untarnished, priceless jewel, which
when once lost can never be regained
Some people propose compromise or
scaling of the principal or interest of
the debt. They both mean one and
the same thing-repudiation-for just
the amount taken off by either is simp-
ly that much repudiated. Compro-
! mise is illustrated almost every day in