The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-05-31
COLUMBIA. CORRESPONDENCE

COLUMBIA. CORRESPONDENCE.
co1vss1A May2sth, 1sH. q.
] Ms. Ep1roRl 4Yopf editorial. inathst
INTlFL11aaSoER Iii of May the 9th, snpoE,
the action. of the Legislature II leyying
and appropriating sNO, 900 to- pays the:
interest on the; consolidated bonded in
debtedness of the State, so clearly misap-
prehends the purpose and intents Of the
bills passed by the lower House Of the
General Assembly, and also the reasons
which actuated the members who favored
the appropriation, that we feel it ineum--
bent upon us to disabuse yourlmind, as
we'll as the minds of such of our constit-
uents asmay shave arrived at the same.
conclusions as, yourself u go|s; gs!gi:e'
: You object todeaving tesa commission
of FIVE men to pass upon the vaidityeof
the bonds; and hclaim that no coupon.
should be paid until the validity of'the
bonds should be fimrly; established. ,mNow
ifyou will refer tolthe bill raising COM
mission to investigate. the validity of the
bonded indebtedness of the State, you
willsoe that the commission .isarequired
to investigate and report to the ebegisla-'
ture at its next session, and the Legisla-
ture having their report will decide and
pass upon the validity of each of the
separate bonds, and will order interest
paid only on such as are valid. Weven-a
ture to say that there isanot a single
member who. favors the,dappropriation
who desires the payment 'ofa single dol
lar before investigation, and, .whatois
more, every word uttered by them has
advocated suchta q course, and such a
course only. In this connectionqwe will
give the reasons for making the appro-
lpriation at this time. The original
bonded indebtedness of the State was
$4,000, OO0-ss,1ssOOo of which was
contractedcby the State prior to the be-
ginning; of the war. The Radical party,
during the session of 1873 -T4 passed an
act known as the CONSOLIDATION Act.a
The act specified what; bonds shonld be
consolidated, and thetspeci6cation i'm
cluded the entire debt known las the ante
i5elluns debt, amounting to 81, rs, 600, and
q certain class of bonds issued since re-
construction, including the bonds issued
during Gov: Orr's administration, in all
amounting in round numbers to nearly
s6,OOO,OoO more, or s12,Ooo,OOO in all.
The rest of the debt (bonded) was repu-
.diated-this embraced the conversion
bonds and the. Blue Ridge Railroad
script, together amounting to $1,000, 600.
Then by the consolidation scheme
$6,0OO,0 900 were gotten rid OF, which
made the entire amount repudiated and
compromised. ,s14,OOO,0OO, leaving a
bonded indebtedness still. due by, the
State of So, ,OoO, 900, or $1s8, 900 less than
the debt owed by the, State before the
war. Now with the consolid idsted debt.we
alone have to. deal with $4,000, 900, and
this is the debt the interest, of which
s27o, 900 is appropriated to pay, and .to
investigate which a commission is raised.
IF this. debt is to be investigated, the
question will naturally, arise, why levy g
tax to pay It until the Investigation ia
made I? The answer is plain and simple.
BY the consolidation. act itself the
State agreed if the ., specified bond;
holders iyeuld submit to "a scaling alil !! Of
their bonds at the rate, Fl, two old bonds
for one new one. the State, would pledge
itself to levy a tax Of two mills annually
to pay the interest, and, as . furthe,
security, pledged the. State to receive The
interest in the shape Of coupons for the
taxes for State purposes, Upon tbis hi
pledge Of the State the contract was en-
tered into, and the bonds were consoli-
dated. Now, as no State has q right, to
pass an act impairing the the obligations gtiff Of a
contract, we are poWerless to prevent
County Treasurers from receiving these
coupons when offered for taxes, and there
need be but little, if any, expense in
CURED by those offering coupons, for as
the coupons bear upon their face all the
evidences Of their genuineness necessary
to decision in their favor, one test case
in judicial circuit would cover all other
cases. That the people are too patriotic
to Use them is not to be relied oi'b any
manner Of means. Not more than one
third Of the people showed their patriot
ism by contributing to the Hampton tax,
and: if the other two-thirds would not aid
the government in it's direst extremity;
would it be expecting too much of them
when taxes were legally levied that they
would pay their taxes in coupons which
they could perhaps purchase : for fifty.
,censa on the dollar We 'though BIT not,
and concluded it would be risking too
much toilet the success of Hampton's
newly established government rest upon,
80 slender q foundation. The: next rea-'
son for iev1ying the tax at this time IS
this IF the bond -holdef has'the right to
use his coupons 'f65rr or payment for taxes, is
it reasonable to suppose they will select Ct
to submit their bonds to an investigation
unless there is some guarantee that the
interest win be paid when their bonds are
found to be valid VIII they not prefer
to hold on to d right they already possess,
and which cannot be- taken. away from
them, namely, to use them for takes, than
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