Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-04-12
TENNESSEE AND HER CREDIT
Obs.
The New Situation.


held in Nashville on Friday, the
4th inst, have placed the debt
question on a new basis. As a mat
ter of principle, as question of
right and wrong, of course it stands /
exactly as it always has stood, for
such questions are Interchangeable.
The whole debt is PROFESSIONALLY /
due, and our creditors are wronged I
as long as they are unpaid they /
are wronged when Il compromise /
giving them less than their rights is
forced upon them by giving them
the alternative of that compromise
or nothing.
We are not now, however, going
to argue the question ON its moral
grounds; we have been doing that
for three years, and, in doing so,
have exhausted our powers of argu-
ment and protest; we have Crap
pied with antagonists, defied enc
mics and even offended friends by
doing so we have been classified as
enemies Of the people because we
advise them to pay their debts, and
as partisans of the bondholders be-
cause we refuse to treat them as
enemies for having credited the
State. Nay, the stupid Islander has
been thrown in our face which
assumes that journals taking our
position are bribed and subsidized
by the bondholders. But this last
is a small matter; dirt like this
does not stick on journal like ours,
and we are able to disregard the
calumny Of ribald demagOgues who
deal in SANDER as their most availa-
. BILE stock in trade. We can afford
to ignore the attacks of antagonists,
of enemies and slanderers, and if
this were all we could make but
little claim to having sacrificed our
interest aud feelings to the principle
we have been vindicating. But it
is not all (; we have offended friends
as well as exasperated enemies.
The only difference we have ever
had with the leaders of the Demo-
cratic party in this State, has been
when they thought it right to sub
ordinate the debt question to what
they deemed more importadt ma
tional questions, while we contend
ed that as Tennesseeans we could
not treat it as subordinate to any
thing. Wehave never spoken of it
before, and we only do so now be-
cause we think it gives us a right
to be listened to by those whom we
are now addressing. We have long
and often spoken for the bondhold-
ers; we now speak to them, com
mencing with statement OF facts.
1t is known that our Legislature
passed a bill the main features OF
which are that it proposes to com
promise the bonded debt of the
State at fifty cents on the dollar, the
new bonds to bear interest at -four
per cent. The bill was brought tC
this form by an amendment of tho
State credit party substituting fifty
cents for forty cents on the dollar
and it was by their action also pro
vided that this bill should not be
submitted to the people of Tennes
see for their acceptance unless pre-
viously accepted by the bOndhold
ers. the State credit men believing
that without this prOviso the bill
would be plain reputation. Thu
bill. then, was a compromise effected
between the State credit and tn
low tax men.
Soon after this bill had been passe'
and signed by the Governor, meet
ING of the State credit party wa
called at Nashville to conside
whether that party could take an.
farther steps in reference to the nev
position in which it was placed b.
the adoption of the compromise w
have described. This meeting W
thought it our duty to attend, an,
proceeded to Nashville for the pun
pose on Thursday, the Sd inst.
On consulting with our friend
there we found that more than on
meeting had been announced 10
the next day (Friday, the 4th,l an
il will be seen that in fact thre
meetings were held on that day
The meeting of the State credi
party to which we had been sun
moned was announced for II \. n
and another, a nOn-partisan NEE
ING. for noon. We of course pre-
Sented ourselves at the hour set fC
the former meeting at the plac
appointed for it, which was tn
ladies' ordinary of the MaXwe
House. There we found assemble
a number of the most inauentiS
men i'm Tenpessee, both those recos
nized as such before the war an
liltSt WHO Lave tOiliC AlAAc ~ bA4A
nence since. EX-GOv. Neill
Brown was there, and Edwin EW
ing; Fleming, of Knoxville; Jame
Of Chattanooga Henry Cooper, {
Nashville; Col. Sykes, Of Columbi,
than whom nobody has been so Gc
i've in keeping alive the State cred
principle in Tennessee, and man
Others. We found that the chic
question under discussion wa
whether the men there assemble
should take a separate and ind
pendent course, or whether "
should attend partisan NEE
inc to be held in the Capitol Il
hour afterwards, aud act with tina
by far the majority were in favor
9he latter course, the few who oil
iected doing SO On the ground tn;
they could not tell beforehand whI
might be the action of that meetiE
or whether its proceedings woul
De such as to justify their cOncu
renee. Il was represented on tn
other hand that il was eXTemel