The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-07-18


many Judges should have become pablie
property. There ID something lljcompre-
| hensible about 1t; for / take it that our
Judiciary, as at present organized, are not
fond of parading their "views", before the
public upon questions sG6;s IL be adjudi-
/ Gated by tasM.
But to proceed. Is it presumed that
if the Court of Claims should try. the
validity of these bonds, tho Supfeute
Court would not hoVe t. ieview their de-
cisions rots not the joint resolution,
Witch creates the Court of Claims, dis
tinctly, and in so many words, provide
an appeal from its decision to the Su-
preme Court OF the Statef
1t is scarcely imagined that the INTEL.
LIGENCER supposes that if, the decision
of the Court Of Claims should be adverse
to the bondholders- 3 huuld they ID be-
fore it-they wotld Es 70 we'll satisfied
with tie fesult, that they would waive
thelf right of appeal. And is it within
the widest range of possibility that the
decision of a cause on appeal from that
Court, would differ from that which
would follow an appeal in similar cause
from any Circuit Court, or from Judge
Mackey's Circuit Court in particular; I
Certainly not, and The ptcsdmption is
unfair in the extreme.
The editorial further charges generally
that these proceedings are against the
policy of the State, because by instituting
them the relators refuse to accept the
Court which has been provided by the
Legislature for the trial of such cases.
There is nothing in the mandamus cases
which can be construed into such re-
fusal. The relators are merely continu-
ing proceedings begun before the crea.
ton of this special Court They are
simply endesvoring to enforce what they
conceive to be contract, in the manner
established long before Court of Claims
became necessary part Of the machinery
of State government. This Court at best
could not avail them. There is no power
given to it to grant writs of riapdanius.
It cannot, and the most earnest advocates
of its fitness for every possible emer-
gency, in which the consols are con-
Cerned, never claimed that it could de-
stroy the Jurisdiction of the Circuit Court
in such cases. 1t utterly fails to give the
relief required, and no public policy, nor
any other consideration, can require suit
ors to 90 before a Court which cannot,
from its very Constitution, give them the
remedy which they seek.
It seems to have become fashionable
and there must be something very pleas
ant in the fashiou--to suppose that be-
cause one happehs to have become the
unfortunate owner of State Bonds, in the
ordinary course of his investment, that
he must sacrifice every legal right attach
ing to that ownership to what is termed
a State policy. Surely it does not seem
that Democratic reform necessarily means
the surrender of rights which many years
of inyariable custom and practice have
guaranteed and secured.
The questions concerning the bonds
must be decided at some time; they must
eventually be decided by the same tribu.
nal; and as far as regards the State, it
surely cannot be to her hurt to try her
own case before Courts which she has in
stituted, whose Benches she has filled,
and to whom she delegated jurisdiction
in cases like the present long before the
emergency which gave rise to the crea.
ton of new tribunal. 1t can make
little difference to her, as far as the ulti-
mate effect on her finances Is concerned,
whether the coupons of these bonds be
now received for taxes or whether after
an indefinitely prolonged litigation, in
the Court of Claims, that Court should
decide all the bonds valid. And the in.
vestigation can be made as thorough in
one Court as in the other. If the object
sought in concentrating all litigation in
the special Court be to gain time, it is
scarcely an argument which the State is
justified in using against her creditors.
It is again suggested In the editorial in
of the evil which it is imagined would
result from such proceedings as those re-
Gently had in this city, the taxes be made
payable in January, so that the July
coupons could not be rendered in pay
ment of them. Certainly this is an as
founding proposition. What would be
thought of an individual who would thus
endeavor to avoid his contract? Would
such distortioning and disarrangement
of the circumstances surrounding the
making of it avail him as defence in q
suit to compel specific performance of it ?
Or, even if it would so avail, would the
moral obliquity be any the less? If we
are to have continuation of the reform
so grandly begun, by all means let us
have it thoroughly. Let us so meet the
issues, which must be decided at some
time, face to face, squarely and fairly in
the mode which immemorial usage has
sanctioned. And let US not counsel the
State to pursue course which we would
surely condemn if followed by one of her
citizens. IF our State is to pay these
bonds, and is to receive the coupons for
taxes, the sooner she begins to discharge
that obligation the better; and the
knowledge that the obligation is upon
her is the first step towards its discharge.
There can be no more speedy way in
which for the State to arrive at that
knowledge than that adopted by the
| Charleston bondholders.
One word in conclusion upon the "pa-
triotism" of this affair. In the tender
made To the County Treasurer by these
bondholders, of which the coupons con-
stituted not more than one-third part,
were Hampton tax receipts, representing
many hundreds of dollars, showing that
these gentlemen had not been backward
in the payment of the voluntary percent
age of tax authorized to be collected by
| t6o Wallace House in the time of the
States greatest distress. These receipts
we're in fact for much greater proper
ton of the tax than the ten per cent.
called for.
Had there been any lack of patriotism
in the motives and actions of these much
abused bondholders, surely they would
not have subjected themselves to the risk
of the great pecuniary loss which would
have befallen them had Chamberlain re-
tained possession of the State House.
And now when they come into Court
of competent jurisdiction, in the manner