Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-07-24

proper" should be used as applicable
to them equally with the other
debts, or else be dropped altogether.
The way in which it is now used
can only mislead. We pass over
the first classification, therefore.
The next classification divides the
bonds into
ANTE-BELLUM AND POST-BELLUM
BONDS.
This classification is intended to
enlist against a large portion of the
bonds the prejudices justly excited
in the minds Of Tennesseans against
the transactions of tine carpet-bag
government of Tennessee under
which, with Gov. Brownlow at its
head, the state suffered tyranny and
plumber from the close of the war to
the final Acknowledgement of the
whites in 1868.
We have certainly no love for the
Brownlow government, but ii lods
the government of the people, and it
can be no legal cancelling of bond
to plead simply that it was issued
during decentralization of Brown
low. Let fraud have abounded
ever so much as general feature OF
that government, the validity OF
any specified bond can only be inn
peached by proving actual fraud in
the issuance of that particular
bond. This has been done in a few
Instances, and those bonds have
been thrown out by the courts, and
are no longer included in the sched-
ule of the state debt. 1t has not
been attempted in any Others, and
they will be legally a part of the
state debt, at least until something
more definite is proved against
them than that they are "BrownlOW
bonds"
These, then, as well as the Others
are to be considered on their sepa.
rate merits, their validity being
neither improved or injured by the
simple date being before April, 1861
or after May, 1865.
But we must notice that in CLASH.
flying the bonds by date as above
the committee did one thing calcu
lated to mislead incautious or super
fetal readers. They classified or
the pOst-belIllm side of the record
nearly 5000 bonds which really be
long to the 0nte-6eLLltn1 side. These
bonds cover an amount of between
seven and eight million dollars
which, transferred from the one side
to the other, make a difference o.
over fifteen millions in the relative
dimensions OF the two sides.
The bonds we speak of were in
deed issued after the war, but they
were issued to fund an dnte-6elllGn
debt. They were as follows:
Issued in 1866 4g4l bonds to meet
interest ON the ante-bellum debt,
the payment of which had been
suspended during the war. OF
these there are still outstanding
2,246 bonds, amounting tO.......... 2l6,OOO
Issued under the act of 1868, to pay
interest and maturing ante-bel-
lum bOnds-569 such bonds out
Issued under the funding act Of 1873,
TO fund past-due interest and ma
tured bonds. OF these there are
outstanding 1861 bOnds-.............. ,S67, OOt
In all s7,782, OO(
This, it will be seen, though con-
sisting OF pOSt-6ell1ta bonds, repre-
sents an dnte-6elIltDl debt. When,
therefore, it is said that "there are
outstanding Of the 14,30S bonds
issued before the war as state aid,
only 8 1888, and of those issued since,
only $685." it is not to be supposed
that nearly half of the Gnte-6eLIotnl
debt has been paid, but only that
the bonds which represent it and
the coupons which represent the
interest on it have been called in
and other bonds given for their
amount. The whole of the ante
6elllml debt is still due, though rep
resented by pOSt-6elIlml bonds, and
those bonds compromise the great
body of our Indebtedness.
Their being dnte-beLJlIm or post
belltm1 bonds or debts, however,
whatever difference it may make in
the popularity Of our debt, makes
none whatever in its legality. So
much for the classification the va
rious allegations advanced in this
report against the validity Of the
several classes of bonds must be eX-
amined each upon its own merits,
and that must be deferred for a
future paper.