The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-02-08
The Proposed Re-adjust ment Of
Southern Indebtedness.

The movement initiated by not few
Of our leading bankers, merchants and
business men with a view of devising
ways and means to improve the credit Of
such Of the Southern States as are hupe-
lessiy in default, must commend itself
To the he-suppert of all who are desirOus of
seeing that Section of the country re-
stored to something like the prosperity
which It enjoyed anterior to the cigil
war. 1t is matter that, on broad
view of the subject, concerns the rest
of the country quite as intimately as tho
Southern States themselves. Their
| business in terests are so closely bound
up with ours that go one will presume to
draw q distinction between them. 1t is
! impossible to forget that they were once.
+ our best customers, and there is no good
reason why their relationship to as in
that respect should not be restored. The
| States 5hamselves, unfortunately, are so
over burthened with obligations Of one
kind and another that they are scvrceiy
i position to help themselves Hence
if they ara TO be helped out of the Fut,
the helping hand must be stretched from
tthe creditor auarter. These c6uvictjons
! appear to have been vsrT generally en-
teFtained by the gentlemen who partici-
pated In the Clearing House meeting; and
| il the Southern debtors are, as doubtless
/ they VIII be, disposed to meet them in
/ the same spirit, 1t is quite within the
range Of an early possibility that some
| scheme viii be mutually agreed upon to.
realize the Important object sought to be
attain d.. It IS a great pOint gained st
/ the start, that the Imperative necessity
t for. some such action is so widely, reeog-
nized and thas 6le preliminary move
ment should be in the han1s Of men who
are SO tbouraughiy familiar with all the
4 circumstance oftthe case, and whose
individual Interests run in the came line
with those Of the eauntrY itself. As We
have aiready observed, they fresiy recog-
MIS- the fset that the financial embasrass-
ment of the States alluded to is 1argely
due to the acknowledgement CONNER.
| eial depression, and that as people we
| can hope for no positive or perman ent
pro perity until every member of the
/ Z niOn ism a conditi0h of solveRcY and
ifnaucial health. They are also free to
acknogledge that many of these debts
! are OF such magnitude that their pay
men is a matter Of simple impossibility
| Being pract ell mep, rhereiorei they have
4 aad resource to practical Ire medies. The
course they havo adopted IN appointing
II q committee to confer at an early day
I With the States in arrears, in order to
lsugeest some plan. . f adj djustment upon a
basis that shall be eonsiderate of the in
terests of all parties concerned, strikes
US as the one best calculated TO give eff
feet to their wishes The mission of
this committee, we are bound to presume,
will be executed 10 the same liberal and
7 comprehensive spirit which has led to
its formation. The vital point to be de-
termined Is, what is the measure of IN
debtedness to which the defeulting
States can with certainty be relied upon
to respOnj2 When that Is ascertained,
the way 10 harmonious understanding
will be clear. Ws dare say it will be a
work requiring no little intelligent re-
search and patient industry; bat as it
must have the hearty cooperation Of the
debtor States, it will be free from serious
4 EN- baFrassment- As Indispensable TO
the succesa ct The plan ought not some
step be taken to guard against the aocu-
5 mnlaiI0n Of new Indebtedness On the
part of these States and to that end
: might it not be adYisabls to ms st upon
---say constitution restraining them to a
fxed-Emi Ths advantages of this pre-
caution ara obvious, 1t would be a