Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-08-13
HON. 5. ?. WILSON rOn aovERNoR.

~
We place at the head off columns
to-day, the name of Hon. S. +. Will
son,of Sumner, as a candidate for gov
ernor on the peoples democratic ticket
The convention, at Nashville, refused
to recognize the right of the people to
vote upon any settlement of the state
debt, made by the legislature. A
reasonable demand of the low tax
element was unceremoniously denied;
all they asked was, in effect, that no
settlement should be made valid until
ratified by the people at the ballot
box. The people can make and un.
make legislatures; their sovereign will
Is the supreme law of the state. A
party that cannot trust the people
who till the soil, and pay the taxes,
deserves to be defeated. The high
state credit men who favor an uncon-
ditional settlement by the next legis-
lature upon such terms as the bond
holders may agree to, had no CON
cesSions to make. They had large
majority, and might have been mag
unanimous, We tell them now more in
sorrow than anger that they made
fatal mistake. This question having
once been submitted to the
people by an act of the
legislature they will never yield their
jurisdiction. The state credit men
who urged the passage of the 5O-4
compromise bill, leaving the question
to popular vote, should not be sur
priSed that the people take them at
their word. AS between a legislature
Of one hundred men and the whole
people, in the settlement of a
great question like this, which
is to have a binding effect for
generations TO come, we will trust
the virtue, integrity, and common
sense of the people, first, last, and all
the time. The issue is joined; there
are two democratic candidates for
governor in the field. The LEDGER
was the FIRST democratic daily in the
state to open up on the funding
bill passed without the consent of the
people in 1873, and we feel impelled
to take the same position to-day and
to oppose any more funding bills, un-
less understood aud approved by the
people. When a proper and equita.
bic adjustment is arrived at,
there need be no fears
Of reputation by the masses.
They are honest at heart, and willing
to pay what is right if within their
neanS-but no more. One year ago
we agreed to the so and 4 proposition,
although doubtful whether the state
eally owed that much in equity. To.
day we must decline to agree before
hand to any settlement which may
be patched up between the
next legislature and the bondholders.
The low tax wing, as it is called, was in.
the minority in the convention, but it
will be majority party after the elec-
tion, Be that as it may, we take our
position sdvisedly and shall stand up
for the gallant one-armed ex- Confede-
rate soldier, s. T. Wilson, until the
9th of November. Happily this
division in the democratic ranks
does not endanger the election
of Hancock and English. There will
be no separate democratic electoral
ticket. To assure our friends all over
the state that we do not lead forlorn
hope, we need only to refer to the vote
on the so and 4 proposition last
August, which stOOd-accepted, 49,
772; rejected, 76,333. This was a light
vote, but it indicated the feeling of
the people at large and the over. conf
dent diCtatorial siprit Of the majority
in the late conventions is not calculated
to change them the other way. When
conventions, organized for a special
purpose, assume to be above the peO-
pie, it is time for the masses to be
heard from. They will speak in way