Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-03-11
WHOLE NO. 2,413.
Tennessee Bonds.

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The payment of the State debt is
still the burning question in Ten
nessee, and the journals ofthe State
continue to be full of discussions on
the subject. There are no avowals
of a desire fer Reputation on the
contrary, Republicans and Demo-
Gratis alike appear to be honest in
their wish to effect a settlement sat-
isfactory to the creditors and honor
able to the State. But the element
of partisanship is becoming mixed
up in the question, and this produ-
ces complications which should be
avoided. There are three parties in
the field-the debt-paying Republic
cans, who wish to use the feeling in
favor of paying the debt as a means
of placing themselves in power
the deht-paying Democrats, who
have the same wish for themselves,
and the debt-payers pure and SIM
pie who would favor combination
of the two parties, or any coalitation
so long as it resulted in the pay
ment of the debt. We leave out of
the account the non-debt-payers, for
the reason that they seem to be very
few in number and devoid of all
influence. The Democrats insist
that they form q very large majori-
ty of the people of the State, and
that any settlement of the debt not
proposed by and carried through by
them would be apt to be far less Sc
cure than one of which they were
the sponsors and directors. We
suspect that there is ground for this
opinion. But the people OF the
State should not delay action much
longer.
We do not know to what extnnt
"the delegation of prominent citi-
zens OF Tennessee" who arrived
here two days ago for the purpose OF
comforting with the bondholders
really represent the public senti-
ment of the State. They make,
however, some important state
ments and suggestions. The Gov
ernor, they say, will not call an ex-
ira session of the legislature unless
the bondholders make some distinct
proposition as to what they will
accept as settlement and they
added that this proposition must be
on some new basis OF arrangement.
The delegation represented that any
attempt to give an absolute security
to the bondholders by pledging
specific revenue would be futile, as
it would be open to the objection
which had swayed the decision of
the Supreme court in the recent
case. There appears to be a seri-
Gus difficulty in the way of arriving
at any unity of action on the part
of the bondholderS in consequence
of the fact that these bondholders are
divided into classes-those who
hold the bonds as permanent invest
ments and are willing to let things
take their course for while longer,
and those who hold them only for
speculation, and who buy them one
day only TO sell them the next.
Then there is inteuected into the
matter another element of perplex-
ity-the proposition that the man
who paid IS for his bonds as per-
manent investment and has since
held them should have more for
them than one who bought them
at 40 merely for speculation. This
is put forth as an equity but 1T Is
an absurdity. United States bonds
were bought at all sorts of prices
during the war--some for invest
ments, some for speculation. But
no one but crank has ever sugges-
ted that discrimination should be
made between the classes of pur-
chasers. The present state of the
Tennessee question is not at all clear
nor satisfactory. But that the
bonds will all be paid in the end is
not at all doubtful.