Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-06

the people OF Mississippi for any tergiversa-
ton he might make. In HIM was the whole
t0rerunnIng of the present moral degradation
OF his people. He began life as a Wing,
was elected governor as States rights man,
and assisted to pass the Union bank charter,
giving that political institution a capital OF
SIS, 100000, and issuing the bonds of the
State to raise that capital. This was in
February, 1888. Ten days afterward a sup
Elemental act was passed making the State
stakeholder to the amount of $5,0O0,0 900 in
the Union bank. This gave currency to the
subterfuge that the State had changed it's re-
latlOn to the bank, becoming a debtor instead
of an Indorser. Under this legislation to
borrow money q set OF commissioners has
tened to borrow it. The act was the act of
the whole people, themselves rotten with dis
honesty and mendacity. One of the repudia-
tors, }. +. II. Claiborne, wrote of his fellow
citizens IN his life of General QGlttman:
The members OF the Legislature would
have been mODbed if they had not passed the
supplemental act to hasten the borrowing
operation; the governor would have been
mobbed had he refused to issue the bonds,
and the commissioners appointed to dispose
of them would hardly have escaped If they
had not hurried away to find market and u
purchaser"
The same author describes, apologetically,
the condition of a society which would insult
and murder legislature for not running into
debt under duress:
''Those were the days of summary justice,
the days of drumhead court martials, cross
roads executions, lynch-law, the pistol and
the bowie-knife; high public funchonaries
fellowshipped with criminals, and judges
spent the Sabbath at the gaming-table.
No wonder that the proceeds of the loans
were soon squandered, and the bank, robbed
by the best morality IN the State, sank into
| insolvency. Then the same governor,
III Mutt, who signed the bill and executed
the bonds, shouted the loudest for repudla-
ton. 1t was communicative most shame
lessiact IN the history of christian people
and the faith Of widows, guardians ana or
phans IN republican government received a
shock over the world. General Quitman,
with one hundred and sixty slaves, and $500
900 of property besides, wrote about this
time: 81 owe 5000, and have Endorsed for
S44 600 more, with revenue of $45, 900. |
cannot build greenhouse for my wife or buy
a new piano for my daughter; when l meet
the christian Shylock if | can conveniently
dodge | do. If there be any set that | heart
lily despise II Is those who plume themselves
upon their riches, and regard a man who
happens to get IN debt as a criminal" Yet
this man was an anti repudiator-one of the
minority. At the time the chartered bank
ing capital of the State was $56,000 000
M Mute, to be elected again, anticipated any
action of the Legislature, and repudiated by
proclamation, though he had signed every
bond with his name.
Poindexter, Quitman, Prentiss, Binga-
mars, Sharkey, and others, endeavored to
make Roadway against dishonesty, but the
sovereign people struck them down John
c. Calhoun wrote Indignantly: Il pledge
myself that South Carolina will pay pune
tually every dollar she owes, should it take
the last cent, without inquiring whether it
was spent wisely or foolishly Should she
not, l would dlsown her!" She. too, has
been scaling" her debts. The Mississippi
court of chancery, in 1858, and the court OF
appeals also, unanimously held the State la
ble for the payment of the bonds, but the
majority Of the voters denounced those
courts, dropped some of the judges, and
carried the State. Seven years afterward,
Mississippi slung herself out of the Union in
a fit of deliriuD' tt'emenS, and sought to bor-
row money from mankind in vain. From
this study it Is plain: First, that a dishonest
population IS not averse to borrowing.
Second, that they will kill their law-givers
rather than not borrow. Third, that rulers
who will make laws subject TO DULLES and
cut Threats have no shame about repudiating.
Fourth, that people with no morality can
have neither success nor credit.