Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-09-25

ity of the state bonds is defensible /;
we only say that, if it were, the ques-
tion of paying the state liabilities,
it should not be determined on any
such matters of special pleading.
This question is not before a Risi
0riiLs court it is in the court of con-
science, and in that court the only
point to make is that the people
voluntarily incurred the debt and
ought to pay it. So far is it from
being true that the people were in
weighed into the debt by governors,
Legislators, etc; that more than once
they were warned in governors
messages not to go too deep in this
Issuance of bonds-it was the people
who urged it on, the officers who
from time to time said ''go slow"
But it is said that the people did
not get consideration tor their bonds,
and to show this we have heard
both Savage and Wilson reiterate
''the state does not own single
railroad, and therefore ought not to
pay for any.
There might be some sense in this
plea if it had been intended when
the bonds were issued that the state
should own the railroads. She did
not desire to own them she had
tried her hand at that in the case OF
the Hiwassee and the La Grange
railroads, in which she became d
large stakeholder and lost both her
stock and her roads. She tried il
again when she put in receivers on
the delinquent railroads after the
war, and found herself losing money
on them at the rate of half million
year, and was soon glad to sell
them for what they would fetch
The original transaction was nc
scheme for the state to build and
own railroads, but to lend its credit
ON good security to companies who
would own and run them subject t.
specified conditions. The project
for the state owning railroads is the
project of men like Bismarck, who
desire that all power shall be cen
tralized in the executive govern
ment, but in free countries it ha:
never paid for state, county or city
to own railroads.
But at least it is said that wheI
these bonds were issued it was rep
resented that the people would have
to pay no interest on them thai
sufficient security had been taker
for the railroad companies to dc
this.
That is quite true, and, had the
circumstances remained unchanged
no doubt this would have been done
But who could have anticipated the
devastation of the war, which swept
away the bridges, tore up the rails
left the very cuts and fills to wash
away, and destroyed the rolling
stock so as to render the property
on which the security was based
worthless? The state did all il
could; it settled with some of the
railroads dollar for dollar, receiving
its own bonds in payment for the
bonds which it had loaned it seized
and sold out others for what they
were worth, and so cancelled over
twenty millions of its bonds, but
necessarily had the others thrown
upon its hands to pay.
When a man puts his name to
note for a friend, he does not expect
to have it to pay; he expects his
friend to do it; but if his friend be,
comes bankrupt, he knows that ne
has it to pay, that it is just he should
pay it, because the holder of the
note would not have credited hi:
friend but for his endorsement. And
so the state of Tennessee, which is
only another term for the people oil
Tennessee, owes this money to those
who accepted the seal of the state
and the signatures of its governors
as security for the hard money
which they advanced upon those
| bonds, and should it refuse to pay
them, will incur the indelible dis
grace and the ruinOus loss of credit
which isthe consequence of so dis
honest a course. And after all, the
state has value received. We have
the railroads running through our
state, which more than double the
value of our property, bringing
much of it into profitable cultiva-
ton which would otherwise be
worthless; and these advantages
would more than cOunterbalance
our loss if we had to pay Oft dollar
for dollar every bond we have ever
issued, with compound interest ac-
cruing. We have the benefits of
transit and traffic, not SO cheap as
we hoped, but still for much less
than they are worth to us, and
neither reason nor justice will per-
NIT us to pay the holders of our
securities for the money which was
used in attaining these advantages a?
The people of Tennessee owe this
money and are too honest not to
pay it..