The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1878-05-10
FOR the Times
The Bonded Debt Of tho State.

The Charleston Neps and Courier, on the 4th
of May, editoriay publishes the following par
agraph in connection with, and commentator
OF an article extracted from the Springfield,
Mass, Republican, in dsparagcment of the in
telligence and acquisitions of the upper Coun-
ties of South Carolina, us compared with the
lower ones.
"And it must be added, right here, that the
up-country cannot expect to be regarded in the
North rs the centre of liberal opinions. when
from the up-country comes the most ardent sup
port of such measures as the Usury law and
the hottest opposition to the ayaent of the
debt of the state, which the Democratic party
had solemn'y bound itself to pay to the last far
thing"
Now, just here, we would add, that the up
cmntry has been enslaved, victimized and i'm
poverished 10y the North and her agents and
advocates Of liberal opinions, until self prcscr.
va'ion forbiIs further usurious exactions and
no further payment of fraudulent or fcsfcited
bonds. The people Of the upper counties are toll
ers and tillers, not drones dawd!ers or drivel-
ers, or sharks or shavers, or shisters. They
know the value oftheir earnings; they know their
obligations to their Children TO their families, 10
their society and to their State. To all these they
arc faithful, earnest and true. They look not
for regard at the Nsr h--t ey know the North
regards nothing of theirs save their dimes and
d liars Their earnings do not enable them,
with the practice of frusal habits and stinted
outlay, to save per cent. They cannot afford
to pay usury, therefore they are the most ardent
supporters of the minimum legal rate Of inter-
est. They make the hottest opposition to tie
payment of the so-caled debt of the State, be-
cause il is illegal and fraudulent, from 1868 to
1878; the product of u,urpaion, force and rob.
berry; and has been thrice collected from the
PROSTATE people, cmbezzled by its collectors,
or perverted to the destruction and not the Sc
curity or good of the unfortunate ones who paid
it. Not dime Of ic should ever be paid again.
The old debt, Or bonds of the state, from 1860
back, that were issued by the State when il was
sovereign. were forfeited by this same North,
when they banded together, seized upon our
portion of the treasury, our part of the army,
and our part Of the whole property Of the coun-
try, and with them hurled upon us war, de-
struction of State Sovereignty, annihiation of
property, and left us nothing but a heritage of
poverty and lawloss eXacion. The North re-
pudiated our debt the North destroyed our
credit the North destroyed our sovereignty, and
thus released us from every civil obligation
and the state is no more bound to pay these
bonds than it is to pay its own citizens for the
destruction of their hundreds of millions of
property. which it was unat 10 to prevent. How.
then, can the honor and The credit of the state
be more involved for the payment of the one
than the other? What made the claims of bond
holders and the claims of fraudulent floating
debts more sacred than the claims of property
holders? The supporters and defenders of the
old sovereign State are, many of them, in bloody
gravcs-their old homes deserted or in possession
of their former slaves-how could these be made
to pay IL is the North, of liberal opinions,
which did it. This is the view Of an
UP COUNTRY FARMER,
TO DE CONTINUED.