Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-11-10
THE CASE OF THE TEXAS PA
CHIC ROAD.


he Texas Pacific Railroad Company
On account Of the stupendOus frauds
Of the men who controlled the I'm /
ion Pacific road. 1t is said, with
some show of reason, that money |
and land and government endorse
ments have hitherto benefited only |
men at the expense of the !
people, and had better not be grant
ed to similar institutions with a
result. But what the Texas
Pacific asks is something quite diff
ferent from what the Union Pacific
received. 1t asks that government
shall do nothing more than guaran-
tee the prompt payment of the in
terest on the bonds issued by the
company for the construction Of
what remains of the road unfinish-
ed; and to secure the United States
Government from loss in this mat
ter the following arrangements are
proposed: The company proposes
to issue 3 per cent. gold interest
bearing bonds to an amount of not
more than $4,000 a mile, which will
be less than 30, 600, 900 for the whole
distance between Fort Worth and
san Diego, and for security the
bonds are only to be endorsed by
the Secretary of the Treasury ON a
sworn statement of commissioners
that so much of the road has been
built, and that then the endorsed
bonds delivered back to the COM
pany shall not exceed in amount
the money actually expended on
the road. On this completed por-
ton of the road, and also on the
lands owned by the company, the
Government is to hold a mortgage,
and it is provided that they are not
to exceed an average of $50, 900 per
mile for the whole line. Thus the
Government il secured from loss
by mortgages on the &C ADleted por-
lions of the road as fast as it is built,
and the endorsed bonds are to be
issued no faster, and then there is
an additional mortgage on IS, 000, 600
acres of land owned by the COM
pany in New Mexico, Arizona and
California. Furthermore, the Sec
rotary of the Treasury is to retain
-, O0O,0O of the company's bonds,
or more in case the cost of the road
is less than 100000.
These, then, are the terms. The
Government is asked for no subsidy
whatever; it is asked to guarantee
the interest of $5O,OO0,OOO of bonds
at the rate of not more than s., jO0,-
goo a year, the bonds for which are
not to be given all in & mass at once,
but only day by day as the road is
completed on which the securing
mortgage is laid; and the Govern
ment is additionally secured by Il
mortgage on Is, OOO,O0O acres ofIand.
There is no similarity between this
scheme and that by which the IN
ion Pacific swindled and is still
swindling the Government out of
millions.
But it is sometimes objected
to us as party that the old
established principles of the Demo-
cratic party rule us out rs Demo-
Gratis from going to the Federal Gov
eminent for aid in earring on inter
nat Improvements. 1t IS fair Objec-
ton and we will answer it. We
might get round it by saying that
the present Democratic party is not
the old ORte-6ell,m Democratic par
ty any more than it is the old Wing
party, and cannot be held to any
opinion because that opinion was
held by Democrats before the war;
and this would be a sufficient an
swCr if we were speaking for the
party simply rs party man, but,
speaking a. an individual, the an
swer would not serve US, for this
editor has never been disposed to
conceal or disaVOW the fact that, in
those happy days before the war, he
was a Democrat according to the
strictest construction of the Calhoun
section of that party. Now, Cal
hOun was unquestionably opposed
To the doctrine of internal improve
mpnts, though even he made an eX-
ceptiOn in the case of the ocean,
and in his latter days extended this
exception i'm favor of the MiSsissip-
nj river, which he maintained was
rather To be treated as a prolOnga-
ton of the sea, in which all the
States were interested and which it
took the force of all of them to man
age, than rs local stream in which
one or two riparian States were con-
cerned. Whether he might not
have taken the same view of rail
road connecting the two great oceans
which bound our Continent, had the
proposition been offered to his mind,
we have no means of knowing; but
it is certain that the many of Cal
houn's interpretations have by the
memorable logic of events been set
aside and will never be acted upon
by this nation. He, for instance,
would he rather qUiXOtic Calhoun
ist who should in this present day
contend for notification as lawful
under the Constitution because Cal
houn made splendid arguments in
favor of il. Facts are stronger than
logic. and this nation has settled
several questions against CalhOun'S
by facts OF the very hard
est sort ; it has i'm this way pro-
against Modification and in
favor ofinternal improvements, and
is acting upon that very decision
every day; and the very men who |
are shrieking against giving the ma
TONS credit in favor of the South |
ern Trans-continental route, or a
dollar of the public money to the |