Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-08-02
MURFREESBORO.
State Senator Wilson Defines
his Position on the State
Debt.

MURFREESB0Ro, Tenn, July 81
State Senator S. f. Wilson spoke here
to-day. He commenced speaking at
1870 p. m. and said, in substance,
what follows:
The people of Rutherford county ,as
in other counties, must think for
themselves, and must investigate ma
tiunal and state questions; that when
ever the corps Of officials, state and
national, undertook to assert that
their conceptions, rather than the
will of the people, must be the sys-
tenn of statecratt, then the country
would begin its downfall. There
were three steps in the downfall Of
liberty.
l. Change of wealth from laboring
and producing classes to non pro-
ducing classes.
2. People in scufiling for an exist
ence, for meat and bread, have no
time to investigate and cannot know
what to do or how to act.
3. People must therefore rely on
the leading classes.
These three steps were premoni-
tions of the downfall of liberty. Here
the speaker illustrated these three
steps by reading statistics showing
that in 1850 five billions of wealth be
longed to the productive class and
three billions to the non productive
class. At present very small frac-
tion of wealth belonged to the labor
ing or productive class. The deyel-
opment of the bonded debt system
was the result of the first STEP The
reason the democratic party did not
put its foot upon the faulty English
system was because the leaders were
afraid that they would make some.
body angry. No such fear entered
the breast of jackson.
In the second step the tendency was
that the leaders had not done their
duty, and asked the people to believe
that they were not capable to think
for themselves and that they could
not investigate and settle the ate
debt. The people had sense enough
to elect a legislature, but not enough
to govern them when elected. The
people could not settle matters of
politics, and, therefore, they must re-
legste it to the leaders. Whenever
the people saw the whole official corps
of any country in favor of auy one
measure, then there was a reason that
the people should investigate. They
could not put their hands on a single
country wherein the people had not
secured liberty in spite Of the ruling
classes, e. g., house of commons in
England, habeas corpus, right of trial
by Jury. etc.
This will of the people could never
be suppressed. They might control
the next state convention, but their
power would be but for a day. The
people would rise sooner or later.
They had whipped in the battles of
the past, and they would whip in the
future. The system of transferring
the wealth of the country from the
la3oring and productive classes to non
productive classes was wrought by the
legislation of the country. That
legislation had developed the bonded
debt system, aud that fastened the
national banks upon the country.
The problem now is, not the devel-
opment of wealth, but its diffusion
among the masses.
The national debt, in his opinion.
was never intended to be paid. 1t
was too good thing for those who
owned them. The people should
make theleaders understand that they
were their servants. The government
rested upon the aspirations and will Of
the people. Men went about and de-
clared that they were for this and so,
and yet when they got to Washington
and Nashville their powers were para
lized. The people had constitutional
right to give instructions to their rep
resentatiyes, and their instructions
should be obeyed. The man who ac-
cepted an Office knowing the will of
the people and did otherwise when he
returned home should have the po-
litical life stamped out of him. The
man who took an Office knowing the
will OF the people and did it not, was
an enemy to free people. No peo-
pie ever made any progress that did
not do its own thinking. The voice
Of the people is oftener right than any
other tribunal.
The people were sometimes wrong,
but not often.