Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-02-25
1'ennessee's Disgrace

Courier-Journal.
/ In all our political history there
are few chapters so covered with
shame as that in which is recorded
| the progress of reputation in Ten
nessee. The debt of the State was
| not fastened on her by aliens; the
money received for the bonds
which she refuses to pay was not
squandered; the State itself, though
devastated by war and kept back
by slavery, is not poverty stricken
but is to-day able to meet every OBJ.
legation without placing any heavy
burdens on the industries of the
people.
Tennessee has been made the vic
tim of the demagOgue; of the pOlit-
ical adventurer of the financial
shark; of the bribe giver and the
bribe taker. She has been betrayed
not by carpet t-baggers and interlo-
pers-but by her own honOred sons.
Men in high places have stopped to
dIshonorable practices have tam
pered with her good name; have
speculated on her dishonor have
maligned her and have slandered
her; have made and broken prom
ises to her; have deceived and mis-
led her, and now even her highest
court surrenders to the mob, stabs
the public credit, decends TO legal
iugglery, makes instead of inter-
preting the law, subsequently bows
to what it is told is the demand of
the people, and in defense of State
sovereignty joins the rabble in its
maledictions against "the bloated
bondholder.
On the 1st of January, 1878, the
debt of Tennessee amounted to
$23, ,212, sos; to this four years in
terest must now be added, which a
year ago had brought the figures to
about $27 100000. This amount,
which represents Sc, ,0O0, 900 past due
interest, the Legislature, in 1881,
proposed to fund in new bonds, dol
lar for dollar, bearing interest at
the rate of three per cent.
The greater part of this debt was
contracted prior to 1851, and a large
majority of the bonds were issued
by Cows. Andrew Johnson aud lsh-
am G. Harris. They were issued
principally under an act to encour-
age internal Improvements, and as
a result Tennessee has the best sys-
tenn of railroads in any Southern
State. After the war some of these
roads were sold in order to satisfy
the States claim; were bought by
the State and transferred to new
companies and owners. In the case
of the Louisville and Nashville the
bonds issued to that company were
long ago redeemed in accordance
with law, the company paying into
the State Treasury sum sufficient
to cover all such Indebtedness.
The attempt to force the railroads
to pay the bonds the second time il
not the least humiliating in the
long catalogue of disgraceful devices
of lot of Incompetent and untrust-
worthy leaders to shirk the pay
ment of the just obligations of the
State. Judging from the recent
performances at Nashville, the con-
summation of this scheme for the
State to plunder the railroad COM
panies was only prevented by hav-
ing the case tried in the Federal
courts, where it was promptly de-
cided that the bondholders had no
rights which they could enforce
against the railroads.
The debt stands against the State
it is a just debt, and the debtor is
amply able to pay. Tennessee has
a number of bold, honest and up
right leaders, but she is also cursed
by a school of politicians which,
while protesting love for "the dear
PEOPLE," undermines the very fOun-
datfons on which the safety of a free
State must rest. These men have
been the makers of strife, the as
sailers of public credit, the Knockers
of virtue and the betrayers of the
peoples trust. Last spring every
device was used to prevent the
adoption of the 1908 compromise.
Bribery, threats of violence, at
tempts to poison, deadly assaults
and other acts which would excite
outside of Italy In her
darkest ages, were used, defended
and made light of. To the spirit OF
the demagogue has been added the
cunning greed of the Speculation
and gambler, and the lobbies of the
Legislature have so reeked with
crime that every honest Tennessee
an, every one who remembers her
past glory, hangs his head in
shame.
Nor were these evil practices con-
fined to the legislative lobbies.
Made desperate by the adoption of
the 1908 compromise and the prob
able removal of the disturbing
cause from politics, these men
who, when the public mind Is clear
and the public conscience clean,
must retire to private life or beg
for bread on the streets began
their assaults on the courts and in
the courts using the forms of law to
the injury of the State. AT every
point, until Saturday, they had met
defeat, and the public mind was
settling down to the conviction that
the danger was over and that a
new dav had dawned
From this delusion there has been
a sudden awakening. Just where
the peoples alliance was strongest
it has failed. There was fear that
the cant of the demagOgue, and the
loud clamors of the mob, would
have a hearing on the bench, or
that a fictitious "public demand"
would move the Judges. Yet we
have a decision that overthrows
this law; that undoes the work of
years; that destroys the security
the State had given to the bond
holder. This is not all, nor as far
as the court is concerned is this the
worst. On this decision depends
the value of nearly thirty millions
of dollars by it is determined the
market value of the securities of
the State. "Long" and ''short"
spectators, big and little gamblers,
have been watching eagerly for
some intimation in advance as to
what the decision of the court
would be, and to the shame of Ten
nessee, be it said, they watched not
in vain. Several days ago the re-
pudiators in politics and the
''shorts" in speculation knew the
character of this decision. In all
the course of these proceedings
nothing more humiliating, nothing
more alarming, has been developed.
This fact outweighs the Importance
of the decision itself. To make it
more humiliating we have only to
recall the fact that little more than
a month ago the same court, on
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