St. Landry democrat., 1879-06-14
'E'be Constitution and the State
Debt.

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recommendation made by the minority
present the only honorable solution OF
this question. Owing to cur defective
and Derricious revenue laws, the finan-
cjal condition of the State is to-day i'll Il
ruinous condition. The State pays no
body. 1t has dcfaultcl for long time,
towards every one of its creditors; but
| tIis is not to be wondered at, when we
reflect that the Delinquent tax list OF
| the State amounts to nearly thirteen
million dollars. The time of the con
! yention. we think could be far better
,cmploycd in providing ways and means
| to bring this immense sum INTO the
public Golfers and in hedging about the
collection of taxes, with such safe
guards rs to render a recurrence OF such
state of things in the future an i'm
possibility, than in resorting to such Il
subtcrfuge as is now proposed to settle
with the creditors of the State or rather
to rob them, for no other thinking man
can characterize the scheme of the ma
jority as anything else than an attempt
to rob the public creditors.
"Honesty is the hest policy" says the
old adage and it is just as applicable to
the State in its sovereign capacity, as
to the individual. To bring back re-
newed prosperity to the state we
need is immigration. To secure I'M
MIGRATION, we must have capital, and
in order to secure capital, We must
preserve inviolate the faith and honor
of the State. This we can do by COM
promising with our creditors, just as an
individual when be finds himself unable
to meet his obligations to the letter, but
we can no more repudiate our obiga~
tions, than could an individual, and if
we attempt it we will meet with the
same fate. We will he compelled in the
the long run to pay i,tsnGlnal and
interest nolens g0lens with the sane
stigma attached to us as Il State,
that would be attached to the indi-
viduaI, WHO had been defeated in an
unsuccessful attempt TO sVindle and
cheat his cpeditOls. The result ot Ie~
pudation will be fatal to every ma-
terial interest in Louisiana. We have
already been scourged by war, flood
and pestiEence. 1t now only remains to
resort to reputation to utterly ruin
and PROSTATE us beyond hope of reooyely
or recuperation. 1t will cause capital
to flee from US; it will destroy credit,
public and private; it will PROSTATE
con- Bleree it will place us before the
world, as people devoid of a sense Of
the sanctity of the obiigat,qn2 Of con-
tracts; it will put us under the ban OK /
the money power; it will cause the COM
mercial world, in fine, to raise the black
flag against Us, and ostracise us from
every money centre OF Europe and
America, In the national congress oBr
enemies, combining with such of our
present friends as reputation will have |
disguised with us, will strike dead |
every act proposed for our material |
Development. We will be told to look |
out for ourselves: to rebuild and repair,
if we can, without money or credit, our
ielapidated and ruined leyees, il we |
wish to save our alluvial lands from |
food and desolatioD, and prevent them
becoming the home Of the alligator, |
he fruitful laboratory, WHENCE shall |
ssue the miasma, bearing pestilcnce |
md death on its wings. II we wish
steamship lines or railroads subsidized,
% restore the pEO&trated commerce of
New Orleans, we will be told C 10 it
The import duty on foreign
sugar will be removed, and in Il few
7ears the Louisiana producer, under
'old by the foreign prodloer, even in
,ur own markets.
The destruction Of public credit in
olives the destruction Of private credit.
The New York merchant will cease to
dVance the New Orleans merchants;
he New Orleans merchant will cease
0 oadvance the country merchant; the
ountry merchant the planter; the
lanter the laborcr, and hence our la
'or Will soon be worse deranged and
emoralized than eger heretofore, and
n the end will leave the country and
hen without capital or credit or SYM
athy Of the outside world, how are we
0 replace itH Give rs capital or its
quivolent credit, and if the premouiy
Dry symptoms of the Kansas fever.
ew manifesting itself over Louisiana,
hould deveiope into an epidemic and
II our labor migrate, we can simply
IS place, with other and perhaps a !
|,eaper and better labor. But how are
'e to do this, poor as we are, without
xtraneous assistance and capitale We
ennot do it. 1t is impossible. These s
re some Of the material ills, we may
from reputation. Ratif thus
ltal to our every material interest, how !
i'll it effect us politically? 1t will prove I
le death kuell of the Democratic party {
Louisiana it will necessarily cripple
nationally in the great struggle of {
80, and laying aside every other con- |
deration, this sioHla turn the scale 5
favor of honesty and crush repudia- +
on with its hydra head. The people !
Louisiana. have injured too much, t
I'VE made too many sacrifices, by any
olish act Of theirs to handicap the 6
ational Democracy, to use the Ian c
lage of the New Orleans Democrat, I
hi, any such tnad ne nanutliation when &