The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-03-07
Speech OF Hon. w. C. Brown in aht
HOaso OF Representatives on the
Bond Question.

HOnsc or representatives on the
Bond Question.
Mr. Brown, Of AnderHon, obtained the
floor and spoke as follows; 1t is with
degree of embarrassment that ] approach
this momentous bond question. but
feel shat it is q matter in which every
member ought to act calmly and dispas.
sionately. II has been said that the
Democratic party is solemnly pledged 70
pay every debt that IL outstanding
against the State, but emphaticaly
deny this. deny that VIC are bound 70
pay any fraudulent debts. The Green
campaign did not bind us to pay these.
Coming on down to the convention in
August, of which convention had the
honor to be member, and n member of
the committee appointed To draft plat
form Of principles, let's see what was
done. At that convention an executive
committee was appointed, but they had
no power ol to bind The the people Of ra the State
no power to go beyond the platform
convention. 1t 10 true the Wallace House
passed certain resolutions, and great
stress has been placed upcn them by
those who have spoken on the opposite
side. but what was the state Of the co..n-
try whom these resolutions were passed
The object upperinost In the minds Of
nil the good people of the State was to
defeat Chamberlain and mis- horde OF
thieves. We would have been justifiable
in making any promises in order to get
ont of their clutches. / would have
voted for anything TO defeat Chamber
lain. But were these promises bindingf
Everything was confusion and commo-
ton. Nobody knew what day would
bring forth. At that time in the rays of
the morning sun glittering bayonets
W. re shining, upheld By Grant and his
minions. Can you toll me that anything
we did then cah bind us nov! Why,
we would have done anything to relieye
OBJ beloved State. / stand here to-day
pledged TO pny all honest debts. The
committee, after the most careful and
conscientious laboring for nearly six
uonths, examining everything that could
snrow light on the subject, have made a
report showing their conclusions after
Investigating the whole subject. Now,
can We, who have only looked at the sub
ject in ci,rsory manner, pretend to set
up our judgment as against theirs? We
ought to bo bound by their report be-
cause they understand the subject much
better than we possibly can. No law
can pass an act in which fraud enters
Frauds yitinte any contracts. Suppose
Chamberlain should have presented fifty
millions in bonds they would have TO Ge
consolidated, whether issued legally or
illegally, II we be guided by those who
urge upon us to pay all the debts. Do
yoa think, air, we should pay those c0u-
ponB which were stolen from the State
and covered and consolidated? These
bonds are not legal obligations against
the State. The law required that one
million of bonds should Se issued and
they Issued two millions. Now. should
wc be compelled to pay this additional
uil.iaa? Theee bonds were Deposited
in vaults here aad then shipped to New
Yo.k-
In May, 1871, tho tax payers conven-
tion proclaimed that this million was is
sued fraudulently. Every paper in the
State published To the world that these
bonds vera frauds, and that'the people
of the State we're not going to pay them.
Mr.. Brown here read extracts from reso-
lutions adopted ut various public meet
ings and conventions. showing che de-
termination Of the people Of South
Carolina not to pay eny debts contracted
in fraud. And yet, in the face Of all
these warnings of .ne tax payers, he
went on to say, gentlemen &c: up here
and call the holders Of these bogus bonds
innocent bondholders. These scoun-
drels were aiding aud abetting the Radi-
cal party oil the time; and yet we Sear
them oaiied innocent tfcditors. They
hsA eserv nnnnr.r:nitt of discovering
whether the bonds vera genuine or not,
and If thay bought worthless claims, It
was their own doing, and they are the
only ones that should suffer. Ia it pos
sible Ior any honest man to suppose that
these spsculators were ignorant of what
they were doing when they bought these
bonds for fifteen, twenty-five and thirty
sents on tlis dollar? What ground coald
there ha for hennihg mp The dehta2 In
is reasonable that we should come here
and consider as sacred the bonds of
these bloated bondholders The ques.
tion narroWe down 70 this, whether we
ahould aacrifice tho bloated bondhclders
or force oiir honest people 10 pay two
millions of fraudulent debts? IN iE rea.
sonable that we should 60 on and not
sustain the report Of the committee?
they come in with an admirable report.
Ia it right that we should not accept this
reportf Pause and think, genttenlenl
1neTe In another point of view in which
this should be considered - political =
Whick Is one which do not like 10 con.
alder, but imust do 1t. The Democratic
party cannot afford to carry sach . load
ies this fraudulent debt. IL yen place
that ioad on as, men from ell parts OF tho
State viii tiso M and refuse, to pay 1t:
The fisountaineefs, those sturdy sons of