The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-08-16
REPUDIATION.

REPUDIAIION.
The people of Tennessee, by majority
of fifteen thousand, have voted down the
proposition to compromise the bonded
debt by reduction of the principal one
| half and of the rate of interest to four per
cent. Nearly all the newspapers in the
State, and most of the prominent polit
clans of both parties, advocated the COM
promise, but the majority of the tax pay
ers seem to have thought differently.
The meaning of this vote is, the total
reputation of the bonded debt of Ten
nessee. . .,
We have no doubt that the people of
Louisiana, next winter, will vote down, by
yet larger majority, the proposition sub
mitted by the Constitutional Convention
to compromise the bonded debt Of that
State. This will be tantamount to the re-
pudiation of the debt for the rejection of
the proposition will tie the hands of the
Legislature SO that it cannot levy tax to
meet the interest. The city of New Or
leans will escape her huge bonded debt by
surrender of her charter, the new con
stitution having laid the groundwork for
such measure t=..-
The spirit will prove infectious; it will
spread over the whole Union. States will
repudiate, that is, refuse to make provi-
sion for the payment of the interest or
and principal of their bonded debts; towns
and cities will be edemunicipalzed; counties
will be blotted out. Public securities will
become as worthless as French assignats
or Continental money. 1t is doubtful
whether the bonds of the Federal Govern
ment will escape, Notwithstanding the
provision of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The spirit of reputation is in the hearts
and minds of the American people, and it
will find vent in appropriate, effectual ac-
ton. Bondholders and fnndmongers strive
against it in vain; orators and newspaper
editors declaim and write against it in vain.
They might as we'll try to beat back one
of the great cyclonic storms that periodi-
cally sweep across the Continent with
lady's fan. 1t will rush onward-right
on; it will leap the broad Atlantic, and
the splendid fabric of paper wealth which
the fundmongers of Europe have been pi-
ling up for century, will be swept away
Leaving not rack behind
The ninth decade of the nineteenth
century will be known as the Eta of Re
| pudiation, the Peoples Jubilee.
The last decade of the eighteenth Gen.
tury witnessed the overthrow of Feudal-
ism in France and most of the European
nations. Soon after, the Funding System
began the building up of new aristocra-
cy-an aristocracy of idle, non n-produc-
tive, paper wealth-an aristocracy more
powerful, more oppressive, more heart
less, more farreaching and grinding in its
exactions than the feudal aristocracy it
succeeded. For three quarters of cen
tury, its power has been gradually grow
ing; it has dictated the policy of govern.
nents; it has sucked the life blood of ma
tions. 1t has become the worlds cruel
task master: every accession to its power
and wealth but adding to its greed, its ar
rogance, and its exactions. But the day
of its doom approaches: the next decade
will witness its overthrow, It's annihilation
By its own blind and cruel greed, it has
:. hastened its destruction. 1t procured The
decentralization of silver, and the contrac
ton of paper issues and commercial cred