The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-08-24
CIRCULAR LETTER
To the voters Of Gibson Coua,y.

have been solicited from various
portions of the county, through the
public press and otherwise, to become
a candidate for the Legislature, for
which | am profoundly grateful, and,
although l have no aspirations for
legislative hon0rs, am no Office seeker,
believe "the Office should seek the
man, and not the man the Office, and
although ana very distrustful of nay
ability to discharge the arduous
duties ESQ responsible trust, vet, |
believe tits the imperative duty of eve
ry patriot in a great crisis like the
present to come to the rescue, and
serve the people in any capacity 10
which he NAY be called. And as IT
has been determined to hold a prima-
ry election in each civil district of this
county. on Saturday 10 Sept, for the
purpose of deciding who the people
desire to serve them, | am willing
if am your choice to serve you, and
will esteem it an homer to de so, and
if elected your representative will do
the very best can for your interest,
vote for and advocate all measures
that | believe will contribute to reform
and to the prosperity of those | may
have the honor TO represent.
Permit me, fellow citizens, before
closing this address, to submit my
views in reference to our Safe
debt, how created; suggestions
for retiring cur bonds, and other
matters or questions of public interest.
find that no question is exciting So
much interest in the public mind all
over the the State as our Bonded debt
and how it is to be paid. 1t is the
all~absorbing topic from Carter to
Shelby, and the man who can devise
the best plan for solving the compli-
Gated problem that will be honorable
and satisfactory to all concerned, and
without depressing our people, will be
entitled to the gratitude of every tax
payer, and will win for himself the
enviable and proud distinction of pub
lie benefactOr.
find from an examination of our
Comptroller's report to our last General
Assembly, that most of the debt we
now owe was contracted before the
war, for steek in State Bank, Turnpike
roads, Railroads., State Capitol and
Hermitage.
1t appears that the bonds were le~
gally issued and legally sold and APP
proved by Cannon, Polk, Jones, n.
:. Brown, \. V. Brown, Campbell,
Trousdale, johnson and Harris. Who
can for a momentdOubt the honesty and
patriotism ofthese distinguished gentle
men? Who is prepared to question the
business of the claims of our creditors?
Nearly all the bonds created from
1882 to the war were sold at or near
their face value. Most of those that
were created and sold at greatly be-
low their face value under BrOwnlow
and Senter's administration have been
retired. Then why all this croaking,
and effort to prejudice the minds ofthe
people against the men who furnished
the means to build our State Capitol
and develop the resources OfOur State?
While never owned adollGr IN State or
National bonds, get / think ,ce should do
our duty regardless of puJIic clamOr OF
any thing else. | believe it dishonora>
bic to repudiate a just debt, public or
pirate, and | sincerely trust that Ten
ncssee will never tarnish her good
name by refusing to pay her just debts
so long as she has the ability to do so.
The report of Comptroller for 1875
shows our state debt to amount to S21,
220, 505, and including school bonds
of 81, 10000 make Il total of 1913,
720, 50J and interest to this date
makes our debt amount to upwards of
S27 100000. S4,157, 900 of this debt
appears to have been contracted since
the war, and of this amount 50, 623,
600 are due from solvent railroads,
leaving 4 balance of only 81, 1914, 900,
about which there seems to be any
doubt.
Now, Fellow Citizens, after demon
strating very clearly how this debt was
created, and the business Of the claims
of our creditors, the question arises,
how shall we dispose of it? We cer>
tainly are not able to pay the debt or
interest now, and Igreatly fear aerer
,cW be. Our slave property amount
ing to $4,000, 900, and in part
basis for the debt we contracted, and
20,000,000 worth of land we
then claimed to own, with mortgage
on every railroad in the State to pay
our State debt, was considered an am
pie guarantee to all bOndholders and
the State. However, the interest in
most of these roads owned by the State
has been snapped off, for bonds of
but little value. This was a poor
trade, especially for the combined wis
dom of the State, and | am clearly of
the opinion, if any more such
trades are contemplated by the
State, we had better select
a "Are'cder' and "$iorper" set Of fnan-
ciers. What is our condition now?
The war came up, swept over our
State, houses were burned, cotton was
burned, stock, wagons and provisions
were taken away without any compen-
sation; public property was destroyed;
900 of slave property who
were liable for taxes, were made as
free as you or |; our labor system has
been seriously damaged and disOrgan-
lied, consequently our lands have. de-
preciated i'll value from thirty to fifty, |
per cent as well as in production, most |
of our people have been made. poor by !
the war, cur aational.tax amounts to !
at least SO, 800, 600 per annum. This,
with our county tax, most assuredly |
forbid any increase of our State tax at !
present. Again, what must We do |
ltepudiate, verify no! what can we do? !
do right, pay all We can, maintain at
all hazards the integrity and COED |.
name of our people, acknowledge like |