Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-11-03
Flr Premiums.,

nounce the names of the fortunat
contestants for above premiums, bu
on calling at the office of Messrs
NJ. III. Clark & Bro, late in the at
ternOon of the 1st inst, found tina
not a single member of the com
mittee appointed by the Hon. NJ
d. Davie, to examine the claims
and award the premiums had put
in his appearance. To our sur
prise also, we found that but few
claimants had presented claims fol
the premiums. The members of the
house were sitting there with some
$500 90 spelling on their hands, and
nobody to pay it to. This almost
utter indifference on the part of the
Grange Committee, Grange Masters
and Changers, is hard to understand.
What will be the final action, and
disposition of the money, we can
not just now tell.
Poor Excuses for NOn-Rayment.
The Baltimore Sun, a very able,
honest conservative journal, makes
the following comments on the quib-
bling excuses of those who would
have their States rob their creditors
in order to Tighten the burdens of
taxation:
In discussing the question of the
payment of State debts in the South,
there is not generally much opposi-
ton to paying the bona tide debt of
any State, but in the States which
have been so prOfusely bled by car
pet-baggers some practical and CO.
gent points have been made in favor
of throwing off that portion added
by the adventures since the war.
There are others who, without refe-
renee TO the manner in which the
debt was contracted, take the ground
that the debt of a Southern State be-
ing based on the property of the
people, and the property contained
in slaves being taken away by the
Federal Government, should be
scaled in the proportion of slave
property to other property before
the war. The Charleston Journal of
Commerce points out that this over
looks and ignores the fact that the
labor capacity of slaves, the slave
property, has only been transferred
from the former owners to the slaves
themselves, now constituting citi-
zens and taxpayers of the State. In
our neighbOring State Of Virginia it
is believed the great majority of the
conservative people are opposed to
"repudiation," as are the candidates
whom they have nominated for
State offices. 1t would be eXtraOr-
binary if this were not the case, for
not dollar of the public debt of
Virginia has been created by carpet
bag governments, but is simply
what she owed before the war began,
with some accumulated interest for
a valuable quid pro quo, which was
applied in the construction of public
works which she built with the Dor
rOWed money, and of which she has
had the full benefit ever since. This
way of looking at the thing does not
seem to have occurred to all in Vir-
ginia who are in favor of tampering
with honest debts. We have heard
of an old gentleman in that State
who was always a model of integrity
in private affairs, but who had come
lately to be somewhat demoralized
on the debt question, and was re-
minded that the State had within
its borders the property for which
the borrowed money was expended,
and was asked if they intended to
refuse to pay and keep the property
also? He candidly confessed that
he had not thought Of that before.
Some Of the regulators do not seem
more disposed to think of that or
any point of good faith involved
than the African chicken thief, who,
being reconstructed with by COM
paniOn who was helping him to rob
a hen-roOst, on the ground that he
had conscientious scruples against
the work they were engaged in, re-
piled, Gland me out another chick
en-we'll discuss the moral question
All this applies, how
ever, to Tennessee, which is now
no effort to pay the interest
on her debt, even more directly than
it does to Virginia.