The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-08-01
sc THE REGULATING PRESS,

"THE REGULATING PREss.''
We refer the New Orleans Democrat
to its issue of the 18th of April last, for
an article on the question of the States
indebtedness. From that article we
make the following extract. Will the
Democrat ssrepudiate" the extract?
But who has proposed Reputation?
No voice within this State. All that
determined upon by the people of
Louisiana, is a just and honorable ad-
justment Of the debt, in the language
of Mr.. Webster, to the ability Of the
State to fulfill its engagements. This
adjustment the Times and the bond
holders have bitterly opposed they
have stood upon the letter of the bond;
they have held that the homes and
property of the taxpayers should be,
If necessary to pay the debt and inter-
est, sold over their heads; that the
sovereignty of the State should be
trampled under the heel of the Federal
Judiciary, and the constitution, the
sacred charter and bulwark of our lib
critics, overturned before one jot or tit
tie of the ..ebt should be abated.
w AOAt1 OA &AC Ott8S4 ASSAtN3 S&tSSS
the property of the people ought not
to be either confiscated or impaired for
the benefit of the bondholder, and that
there is no power on earth that can
control the action or Judgment of the
State in arranging and settling the
debt upon great political and economi-
cal principles determined by itself.
The Times now accepts this position,
and as it has represented tho bond
holders, we assume that they are will
ing to meet the representatives Of the
people and consent to a just and honor
able settlement of the debt.
And, at the outset, tho bondholders
here and abroad ought to be reminded
that no people have displayed q fairer
disposition or made greater efforts to
pay their debt to the last cent than
those of Louisiana. 1t is needless now
to go over the history of the debt and
to again repeat ANhat no man or journal
has ventured to dispute, that for most
of the Indebtedness now hanging over
this people and expressing every
branch of trade and industry they have
received scarcely dollar of benefit,
and that the debt represents simply
the shame, ruin and impoverishment
of Louisiana. We pass all that by,
and we find that in spite of that fact
the taxpayers have done everything in
their power to satisfy tho public cred
itors. From 1866 to 1873 tho State has
paid to the bondholders, in hard cash,
collected from the planters, farmers,
property holders, merchants, mechanics
and laborers, as interest, nine millions
three hundred and sirty-ote thousand
ts,tt1 ninet.y:ts dollars. The appropri-
ations for interest during that time
have amounted in ali to fully twelve
millions of dollars; the State owes the
difference between the two sums, and
many of the coupons representing that
difference have been funded into con-
soils. These are grim facts for the
bondflolders to contemplate, and they
tell tho whole story of the impoverish-
ment of Louisiana, our loss of public
and private credit, the prostration of
trade, and the uestitution of our work.
ing classes.
Here, then, we have, not n case of
reputation, but of bankruptcy; and
honor, political necessity and com mon
sense and justice demand that, it the
bondholders refuse to come forward
and enter into a compromise, the State
shall cast the broad and impcnetrable
shield of its sovereignty around it's cit
liens and protect them from further
impoverishlnent and their remaining
property from contiscation.