The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-03-02
The Democratic Party and
State Credit.

property amounting to $290,000,OOO,
when assessed at half its real value.
exclusive of one thousand dollars
of personal property, exempt in the
possession of each taxpayer; yield
ing a revenue at the low rate of
forty cents on the one hundred
dollars, worth of property about
$I,15O,OOO; with a tax on dogs
amounting to 100000; a privilege
tax amounting to above $4,000; a
revenue from railroads amounting
to more than 100000; a revenue
from Clerks of Courts, Banks, In
surance Companies, &c, of $I08,
600, and a rental from the Peniten
tiary of aggregating above
81, ,8OO,OOO*-is declared to be IN
able to pay the current expenses of
the State and interest on its debt,
the two aggregating abou. the same
amount, to wit, $1,80O,O0O. And we
are further told that the public debt
is increasing at the rate of nearly
three-fourths of a million annually
her bonds are hawked and peddled
about the country and go begging
at about forty cents on the dollar,
less than the paper of an ordinary
merchant of doubtful solvency
could be bought in any community.
Rich in resources, amply able to
pay as she is-proud of their State
as her people have ever been, she
stands now discredited and dis
graced before the country-pro
claimed over the State and the
country to be the victim of specula-
tors and rings-her people the vic
Tins of misplaced confidence. For
six years the Democratic party has
had in charge her interests. Two
years since its representatives met
in convention at Nashville and, as
they had done IN the two proceed
ing State conventions, denounced in
the strongest terms repudiators and
reputation in all its forms, adopted
a platform unequivocally pledging
the party and State to strict full
filment of its obligations, selected
a representative of the party, who,
as a candidate for the chief Office
in the State, should go into every
county to proclaim and renew these
brave pledges. In every county in
the State this same party selected
candidates to represent it and the
State, in her legislative halls, and
to provide for the carrying out of
these thrice announced pledges.
When the time came Cor the tax
payers of the State, to reject or en-
Jl0rse these Uretlitable declarations,
they were endorsed by nearly so,
600 majority. At the proper time
these trusted legislators made their
appearance at the capitol of the
State, and, sad to say, begun their
work of maintainingState credit and
State honor by taking from the eX-
ecutive the power of upholding
either; and after thus giving to the
people of the State this strongest
proof, that a majority of the repre-
sentatives of the party in power in
the State were untrue to the pledges
made by their party, left for their
homes-we trust to the enjoyment
of the undisturbed luxury of pri-
vate life for the future. With this
legislation one might have supposed
the measure of Tennessee's mOrtifi
cation and disgrace to be full, but
no, there was left for her, the open
letter of the Governor, he who had
been nominated by the convention,
so bravely speaking out for State
honor and State honesty, to pro
claim the principles and purposes of
his party from one end of the State
to the other, and endorsed in so
doing by so immense a majority, to
intimate that the people of Tennes-
see are unwilling to pay their debts
To one informed as to the condition
of the State, its resources and its
liabilities, it is of course useless to
say this disgraceful position before
the country is inexcusable. The
advocates of repudiation, or Of not
paying the States obligations
which means the same thing, in the
last legislature asserted that twenty
five cents on the one hundred dol
lars worth of property would be
necessary and sufficient to pay the
current expenses OF the State, and
proposed that rate, and to let the
interest on the bonded debt go un.
provided for, ON the ground that
the people were oppressed with ex
cessive taxation. The 10 cal tax oi
counties and cities which really
constitute the burden by which we
are oppressed, ifthere is any oppres
sion, could not be interfered with
by these wise law makers, because
the law authorizing them to con.
tract these obligations provided {
way to compel their payment. The
i State tax was forty cents-they pro
t posed 25 cents, by which the tax
E payer would be relieved of the pay
| ment of fifteen cents on the hundred
= dollars worth of property-or ont
e dollar and fifty cents on the on'
t thousand dollars-one Thousand
: dollars being exempt from taxa
e ton, a citizen worth two Thousand
e dollars, one-half in personally
|, would by this splendid stroke. o