Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-09
Our Creditors.

1t was once regarded us a great
kindness for one man TO take anoth
ers paper and pay him the money
on ii, with the promise ON the part
of the debtor that the money should
be repaid with reasonable interest
at specified time. The creditor
was esteemed in such instances the
friend of the debtor. Such might
have been the case years ago when
the State of Tennessee asked her
citizens and the world to trust her
plighted faith, take her paper, and
furnish her money to build her
/ splendid capitol, her railroads and
her turnpikes. She asked for the
means to develop her resources by
opening up lines of communications
:. for her coal and iron interests, high
ways for her growing commerce,
and new fields for the, enterprise Of
her citizens. Many Of her citizens
eagerly sought the opportunity to
show their trust in the honor of the
volunteer State, and the commercial
world to prove that ii did not ques-
ton her honor, gladly sought her
bonds as an investment.
With the money thus raised she
! increased her wealth and taxable
properly many T0iG.-l Towns, villa
ges, and cities have multiplied with
her uneXampled railroad system.
Iron mines have been worked, fur
naces and rolling mills placed in OPP
Grafton; and manufacturing enter
prises have been quickened in all
directions. Commerce has its es-
tablished channels, property of all
Kinds has increased in value and
millions have been added to the
wealth of the State by her liberal
system of internal improvements.
But now that we have received the
benefits there are people who would
defraud those who .befriended us i'm
our infancy and built us up into
rich and powerful commonwealth. |
Let us draw a parallel case. "A rich |
man loans his poor neighbor money
as he needs it, at six per cent, until |
the poor man is made rich also, by |
the judiciOus use of the borrowed |
money. Now that he is rich he be- |
gins to scheme for the ownership of /
his friends money so kindly loaned |
him. He loves the possession of ii, 4
and postpOnes as long as he can the /
day of payment. Finally he char
ges usury, and fraud, and brings up .
a Set-off and embarrasses the man |
who befriended him, in every pos
sible manner. The lender saws "you
charge me with fraud and usury,
etc. now l will leave the settlement
of this matter to your father and
your brother, your own family, and
their decision shall be binding"
If the former should decline this
proposition what would public opin-
ion say? That he is a scoundrel of
course. We have our State judiciary
constituted by the voice of the peo-
pie, clothed and fed out of the State
Treasury, and yet the men who
would make the charge of fraud
pretext for reputation, decline to
have the truth of the charge deter
mined in our own courts. With q
magnanimity that should shame
these men, if they were not dead to
such honorable emotions, our credi-
tors propose to remit twO-fifths of
the debt if we will secure the bal
ance. We are not asked to pay the
whole. 1t is not the demand of a
Shylock as repudiators would have
you believe. We are as much bound
in law to pay all as to pay a part.
1t is a generous concession that our
Legislature could have accepted
hOnorably, and should have accepted
without hesitation. But no; the
people must be further educated i'm
communism and dishonesty by pra-
ting demagOgues who are as desti-
tute of sense and honorable motives
as their teachings are contemplate
and degrading. The man who can
esIId al iH not pay Ms sl7lst1 n dis
honest rascal, and the hand of every
honest man should be turned against
him. The man who teaches the
people that repudiation is relief to
a State, and a proper remedyto seek,
is corrupter of public virtue, an
enemy to public morals, political
libertine who, with sweet treachery
on his tongue, would befoul the
character of the State, a knave who
would with professions of friendship
wound the honor of the people in
its vital part, and sow the seeds Of
Villainy in the minds of the rising
generations, teaching them the Spar
tan code of morals, which made
theft the leading feature of public
education. We are drifting along
without protest, discussing the lar
gest amount that we can probably
compel our creditors to yield up,
and the disciples Of reputation who
always work under the guise of dem
agOgues are quietly sowing the seeds
that must bring forth crime and
disgrace as its fruits, if permitted to
go unchecked. 1t is time for pro-
test; it is time for honest men TO
speak out who do not want fraud
and dishonesty to become the rule
in all business transactions. Dis
honesty never prospered any man
long, and it will damn any common
wealth that tolerates it.-Jdckson
SIM.