Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-26
COLONEL A. 5. COLYAR.
His speech on State Finances at Cochran
Hall Last Evening-An Investigation
Into the State Debt Question.
How it Should be Paid by the People of
Tennessee, and Upon what Basis OF
Settlement with Creditors.

1
pendents Colonel Colyar was introduced by
/ Colonel w. L. Avery, In a few happy and ap-
propriate remarks. Colonel Colyar did moi
go upon the stage; he spoke from the body Of
the hall, and walked up and down in front Of
the audience while so doing. HIS subject
was the State debt d subject which he had
fully considered, and he discussed it in the
calmest manner. During the progress of his
remarks he was frequently Interrupted by
hearty applause. The matter of his dis
course can we'll be understood by our readers
from the following synopsis:
| THE SPEECH.
| Colonel Colyar said, among other things,
the following:
| Our public debt the first of January will be a
fraction under $25, 600. Unless we gel
relief. we cannot pay the interest, nor can we
compromise the debt, agreeing to pay inter-
est on the new obligation If it is to ue paid IN
money. The reason is the crying distress OF
all classes of our people. The speaker OF the
senate, Colonel Nj 'Adoo, said to ne last
| Saturday and he is a man OF closG-observa-
tion-ihat but few men knew the extreme
| poverty of the people. Thus is true. The
| money doctors seem not to know the differ
ence between financial plethora and financial
| health. Apoplexy drives blood to the brain
financial disease drives money to the CEN
| fers. The people are too sick to use the food.
| By contracting the currency, and fraudulent
| Nv changing the peoples contracts, as well
| private as public, SO as to give the money
| power more than was stipulated in the con-
| tracts, the masses, IN few years, have been
| reduced to want Until we get relIef In len
| nessee, we can pay no interest IN money; If
| we can prevent dire distress, we will do we'll
| When the people of England were brought to
| want under the money power influence, by
| an al bitrary enactment to resume specie pay
| ments by contraction, and when all England
| walked up to the great CRIME that had been COM
Il Alf
| commoner, came forward and SAID relief from
| taxes is not enough, and, at his instance, one
pound, longtime notes were issued, and
| twenty million of exchequer bills were lent
| to the farmers by the government, and the
sinking-fund tax was suspended. But at
| Washington John Sherman, backed by the
war power of the government, backed by
220O banks, with 22OO bank presidents. and
| 200 boards of directors, and $3.50, O0O, 900 OF
capital and $500, 900 900 of deposits General
Jackson got scared at $35, 100000 Of capital,
with one bank and twenty-five branches and
S., 900 900 of deposits), backed by Wall
street and impudence IN congress without
iimit-John Sherman rises up and de1ies coz
gress; rises up, and with his lackey boys like
| Linderman and ChittendeD, by the aid Of
| screamers and stampers and great newsPa-
pers, all paid for with the peoples money, he
smothers and browns out the cries of the suf-
fering masses, and in defiant tones swears
the people of this country shall have no re-
lief. The people are commanded to make
brick without straw. Money-lending is
made monopoly and given to nobody but
bondholders. All who come with govern
ment bonds shall be crowned credit king,
and shall be allowed to lend credit,
but in no event upon real estate, and
this monopoly is sustained by lnhiblt-
ing States, counties. towns. railroads and
all private persons from lending credit. I'm
der this system Mr.. Sherman can say to the
capitalist, you are obliged to invest in gov
eminent bonds. l have destroyed all conf
dence. | have reduced real estate until it
has no cash value. | have broken down all
the industries of the country, and you dare
not go to manufacturing. By sbrinkage from
contraction, merchants and other traders
lost last year, in failures, three hun
bred and thirty millions of capt.
tai. You have but to look on every
side of you to see the effects of the tornado
The millions on millions of capital lost Is not
the worst evil. From the virtues and safety
of industry to the vices OF ldleness, millions
of people have been turned. Many are made
infdels by what they suppose to be the prov
idence of God; families are broken up, So
clety is dlsorganized, the poor come to hate
the rich, and the rich organize to get the Ia
Dor of the poor. Fortunes by the million are
thrown away, and not only extreme poverty
takes the place of plenty, but anguish takes
the place of enjoyment. Business men are
all disheartened farmers lind their very la
Dor, like the fruit of the Dead sea, turns to
ashes; manufacturers, mechanics and labor
ers are all in the same boat, nearing the
port of bankruptcy, with the bond
holders standing idly 10y, ready to take
charge of what little effects are lett;
the old die of grief, and the young are
respondent or dissipated. That this is all
done TO increase the riches of those who have
fixed incomes, and to give them dominion
over all property and labor, no man doubts
who has examined the facts. Instead of con-
vening the Legislature to compromise the debt
and levy tax to pay the interest, the gov
ernor, from my standpol t, might we'll have
been utilizing the power and influence which
his office gave HIM in invoking cooperative
agencies to defeat and overthrow the death
dealing policy of Sherman. 1t the people
from the west and south Can be brought into
concert, and their agonlZlng wall turned upon
Washington, Mr.. Sherman and all the hire
lings of the money-power would be driven,
like the swine possessed Of devils, into the
sea. This great wrong OF changing the peo-
pies contracts; of pauperlZng whole ma
ton at once; of making two millions OF men
beggars, going from house to house asking
for "a crust of bread; ct stopping the wheels
of industry N every shop; OF turning the
children of whole Sta.es out of the school
house and sending them home to grow up IN
ignorance; of giving bankruptcy instead OF
blessings to whole communities; OF sending
to every family melancholy instead OF
mlrth; in making forty million people slaves
for five million, removing at on e the blessed
promise of hope from people whose ener-
gles had no bounds is crime, the punish
meut for which may be civil commotlon, that
Will prove disastrous to all alike. Hence,
say the governor of Tennessee might well
have used his influence in invoking co-cpera-
tive agencies to fight this great power IN New
York, which, up to this time, has used con-
gress with as much ease as combined capital
uses board of directors. Certainly the gov
ernor of the State most deeply Interested
might well unite In bringing about the COM
bined and cooperative action OF the masses
against this great crime. Public opinion not
spoken is unavailng, but its blast Is as effect
I've on silent demagogues as the huntsman's
horn on the sleeping kennel. In my opinion
he who holds hi9n trust at this time, and IS
true to the people, Is as much bound to
arouse the masses and devise plans for work |
and relief as the protector OF a beleIeuered |
city is to arouse the sleeping people when the |
enemy is coming In at all the gates. | have |
not doubt but Tennessee can protect herself |
from ruin by local currency bottomed on |
taxes and put out In place of cancelled |
bonds; and if this can be done, instead of |
converting the legislature to take care of the |
b ndholders, it might have been convened to |
take care of people who are IN danger every |
day of having their house pulled down on |
them. And what l mean Is this, that if Mr. |
Sherman undertakes 10 the interest of capital |
untaxed and with fixed incomes as contradis- |
tinguished from property, to put this country |
on gold basis with Its ten billions of debt |
public and private, thereby converting the
masses into peasants, it must be with a full
knowledge that large standing army is to
be put over the people, and this is the end of
free government. OF course, every intelligent
man must know what is meant to be done.
under the pretext OF a sound currency Gold
can no more be made the basis of business in
prosperity with less than two hun DIR ID millions
all told than a secular ruler can feed five
thousand persons with seven loaves and two
small fishes, and have twelve basketsful left.
Nobody can do it but He who is capable of
working miracles. Mr. Sherman knows this,
but he also knows that to establish perma-
nently an aristocracy there must be prepared
a peasantry, and that a peasantry can only
be prepared by long, Protracted humiliation