The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20


and oeek to repudiate tho disputed Con-
solidated debt representing indebtedness
created by the Radicals. Could there bo
a stronger evidence than this Of deter
mination, not 70 do justice, but to reduce
the volume Of the debt at any costw OF
| course, All acceptance Of the Consoida
ton Act after eliminating the frauds from
it involves the reduction of the good
debt to fifty ccnts on the dollar This
has s.lready been done, and the States
honest creditors have not, by petition or
othcrwi asked the Legislature 10 take
| up the new bonds and return their old
| ones. II is true that some blatant advo-
Gates Of the fraudulent debt have dis
cantcd upon this as justice with view
Of getting the sympathy of the people Of
| the State for the fraudulent debt; but to
| prove that, with rare exceptions, they
have not been consistent, it will only be
| necessary to turn to the Act Of March,
1878, where they will be found to have
voted to repudiate onchalf Of the honest
| floating indebtedness Of the State The
present Legislature, therefore, finds that
| the honest debt Of the State has been
scaled down TO City cents on the dollar
both by Radicals and by Democrats; :;
and then the question presented is, Shall
u fraudulent part be paid because the
honest creditor has been compelled to
| take half Of his debt? 70 our mind the
| debtor who is unable to pay more than
half Of his honest debt. has no moral
right to pay large graluity on prctcn-
dcd debts which he never owed. II
mouM de an act d morai dcyrmiation on
tie T,rt Of the ,Stute, in our opinion, 10
pay The (rumiulcnt Jonis.
Then the Nems an! Cyuyicr says:
The Bond Commission made thoir re-
port, aud it was agreed, III n compromise,
Of Claims, the whole Of the Consolida-
tion debt reported against by the Com
mission. We can conceive that, even up
to this point, there was room for IL faint
bolicf i'll the honest purposes Of the sup
sion. Test cases were made up, and
pending the delivery Of the decision Of
the Court Of Claims the Legislature met.
An effort was ut once made to lcgislatc
the Court Of Claims out Of existence, for
the reason that it WAS feared that the
Court would adjudgo the disputed bonds
TO be valid obligations OF tho State
Having declared their willingness to he
governed by the decision Of the Courts,
| having formed Court where the whole
| matter in issue should he tried and hny-
| ing elected the Judges Of that Court, the
| larger number Of the Anti-dcbt party
| sought to cxtinguish the Cour. i'm order
to prevent it from rendering decision
| contrary to their notions. Our Anderson
contemporaries, we believe, (thc INTEL
LIGENcER certainly did,) gave effective
support to the attempt to abolish the
Court. They rcpudiated their own
| chosen tribunal in advance of its decision.
| As il happened, the Court Of Claims de-
cded adversely to the disputed bonds
Fhis does not satisfy our Anderson
friends and their allies The bond cases
now go up to the Supreme Court of the
! State, and the declaration is broadly broadly !
made that, Us with the Court Of Claims,
the decision Of the Supreme Court will
not be regarded, if it be in favor Of the
bonds. In other words, the determine
tion is to rcpudiato tho disputed or un-
recognized bonds, whatever tho law or
the equity Of the case may provo to be.
We did favor the abolition of the BOND
Court. We did not favor its creation
and had nothing to do with it. After its
establishment the evidence of the State
was incomplete, Oh account of the failure
Of tho State to prCcare Kimpton, rs tho
State of Massachusetts refused to give
him up; there was only part of tho
bonds disputed before the Court, and tho
State therefore litigatcd before this Court
at u disadvantage, because the disputed
bonds not represented would not be con
cluded by the suit; and, also because
the opinions Of Judges Willard and Has.
kell of the Supreme Court were known
to be favorable to the bond holders. II
is no disrcspcct TO these Judges to say
this, for Judge Willard has expressed
himself in the Morton, Bliss & Co. case
and Judge Haskeli's views were made
known before he went upon the Bench
Therefore it seemed folly to DO litigatinl
q question upon which tho views of &
majority of the Supreme Court wcrt
known in advance. 1t would. consequent.
ly, have been better, in our judgment, to
take Tho whole question into the hand.
of tho Legislature, and meet out cqun
justice to the State and all of her crcdi
tora. II this aras rcpudiation, then u.
fdrorcd population, and are still in favor
Of it.
The Ne,cs and Courier also attempts tt
} illustrate the reputation tendency of the
editor Of the INTELLIGENcER by citing
again the phosphate question, and says
In fine, such newspapers as the Ander.
son lNrELLIdENCER and Journal, anC
the Abbeville Medium, encourage the
people to set themselves above the law
Their doctrine in finance is, that the
State submits to tho decision Of the
Courts when they relieve her of n liabil
, ity, and spurns their decision when they
confirm disputed liability. Nor is this
confined to matters of france. At An.
derson last week n committee, of which
the editor Of the INTELLIGENCEn was 8
, member, reported to mass Meeting 4
, series of resolutions in which the posi-
ton was taken that the companies en-.
|, gagged in the manufacture of commercial
fertilizers should "be deprived imn,ediate
! ly of any and all privileges to dig, mine
or manufacture commercial fertilizers,