Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-23
THE CONFEDERATE STATES BONDS

The English holders of Confederate
bonds have organized systematic, de-
termined effort to procure the liquida-
ton of these obligations.
\ full understanding of their pur-
poses and proceedings will convince the
incredulOus American, who is accuS-
toned to pOoh-pOOh the possibility of
any payment of these bonds, that there
is behind the movement something
more than mere talk and empty agita-
ton.
These English bondholders mean bus
ness; and while we withhold any eX-
preston of opinion upon the merits of
their case, il is fact of some signifi-
canoe that they are acting under the
advice of some of the most eminent
jrrrists of England in making this de-
mand.
They are acting, as these eminent at
tOrneys advise them, under the well eS-
tabliShed and recognized principles of
international law, upon which number
of presidents are cited which have a
strictly parallel and fOrcible application
TO their case.
We are not certain but that so emf
nent an American lawyer and states
IMAM the AllC AlOh.
SON, recognized, to some extent, the va
lidity of these claims, in formulating
what is known as the REvEEDY JOHN
SON Treaty, which was made in an at
tempt To settle the Alabama claims, but
which treaty, if we remember correctly,
was rejected by Congress chiefly because
of the recognition of these Confederate
bond claims.
Moreover, the faith of the English
bOndhOlders in the ultimate success of
their claims, has recently been demon
strated by the purchase of all the Con-
federate bonds that could be obtained in
| this country.
These bonds have been registered and
placed in the hands of an executive
| of bondholderS, whose headquarters is
in London, and whose duty it is to in
augUrate measures to procure their pay
ment, and who are acting, rs We have
said, under the advice of the most en-
inent attorneys of England, with an I'M
| limited amount of means to back them,
and whose purposes are declared to be
| that of obtaining settlement by friend
~ means if they can, or by legal meas
Ures if they must.
uueT ttlS stdlt vi liClS IL DttOulSS
an interesting inquiry to understand
upon what grounds these Bondholders
will seek to establish their demand for
liquidation.
1t is we'll understood that these Con-
federate bonds are the legacy of the
civil war waged between the Northern
and Southern States from 1861 to 1865.
In the heart of the struggle-two years
after it opened-the Confederate States
sent Commissioner to Europe with the
object of raising loan.
Before subscribing to the loan foreign
capitalists took the opinion of the emf
nent jurists Lord HUGH CAIRNS, and
Lord Justice COTTON upon its legality,
and obtained from them the following
opinion:
"We are of the opinion thatit will not
be violation of any law ofthe country,
or of any principle of international law,
to advertise the loan in this country"
Thereupon capitalists in London,
Paris and different parts of Europe, sub
seribed literally to the loan at the rate
of $50 per E1O0 bond-the rate proving
that it was regarded by them as not on
| ly business transaction but valid one
having the sanction of law.
The security for this loan was large