Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-28

substitute Tor the coupon feature can be
found. But IN fact there is scarcely a Demo-
crat IN the State going over for expediency
sake who would stick through 4 presidential
canvass, when the great question OF centrali-
cation or decentralization Is up, a. it viii be-.
Ii the Democratic party once made mis-
take in Its advocacy of States rights, which
our Republican friends say is the case, all
well-balanced men, not carried or Influenced
by party ties, must zee and admit that our
greatest danger Is Capitalization, now openly
advocated or winked at by the Republican
party. Extremes beget extremes, and for
many years the Republican party has been
slowly but surely drifting to Capitalization.
Ii is the interest as we'll az the duty of Ten
nesseans TO stand by the terms Of the surren-
der at the close of the war, and these terms
certainly implied that States rights, in the
sense then used, of State sovereignty, was
never again to be advocated or insisted upon.
But surely the surrender Of this doctrine in
good faith does not Justify Capitalization in
the sense now practiced by the Republican
party
The important question is, can the Demo-
cratic party be united upon a plan for the
settlement of the debt? Unless it can be, no
settlement can be made that will stand, and
we are TO wear ourselves out in this IN
gracious, unbecoming and self-devouring
struggle about paying debt.
Why may not the Democratic party unite ?
What is our true interest? Are not all will
ing to make some concessions to accomplish a
thing which saves us from a struggle with
ourselves, from feuds of the bitterest kind,
involving and disturbing our friendships,
and casting blight upon all our industries?
Who cannot say this for the good of the
State: l believe we owed the debt and were
able to pay it; or, | believed we did not
justly owe it, but many people honestly differ
with me, they are as good as l am and have
the same right TO their opinions that i do,
and | ses that unless concessions are made
there can be no settlement, therefore / will
even make large concessions.
Let us Keep away from the past struggles,
look things square in the face and see what
a just and fair man would do with his own
affairs.
Tennessee can't afford to be otherwise than
just. The whole world regard us a. owing
the money, and If we abandon all discussion
as &c the right and power of the State to
make the debt and deal with existing facts,
We will be better off Our people differ
widely as to our equities against the debt
but have we not reached point where we
can get an abatement which will certainly
cover all equities? If SO, why dispute among
ourselves about questions which are not ma
terial.
This paper will certainly maintain State
hold our bonds. But the greatest harm we
could do our creditors would be to advocate
in their interest what is impossible, settle
ment which cannot be carried. We have in
Tennessee, vast resources, but undeveloped
they do not pay taxes, and while we have
vast resources, we are an agricultural people
with nothing but our lands, our manufactur-
ing interests being in their infancy and our
changed condition, the immense war losses
NAL 10 an od emf IA nd
As a State-credit paper, differing widely
from many OF our citizens, in the interest of
the whole, we will give no ofense to those
who differ with Us, but Will advocate a re-
union OF the Democratic party and settle
ment of the debt based upon public opinion,
which is infinitely better for our creditors
than coupons.
People who deal with each other in mat
tiers of business had better be frank, and our
creditors had better be told plainly the diff
culties which State credit men have to con-
tend with. Many of our creditors believe
their State-credit Democratic friends ought
to unite with the Republicans and settle. ii
they will reflect moment they will see the
difficulty in this. The Republican party in
Tennessee is not what the Republican party
is in the Northern States. As in Virginia,
the Republican party here is made up, so far
as 1t is visible and active, of Federal office
hunters, and such was the tyranny of the
leaders when we were disfranchised and I'M
der military rule for years after the war had
closed, that a new generation will have to
come before the Republican party can have
any moral power, and before any settlement
they would make, through divisions in the
Democratic party, would have that support
necessary to sustain it.
1t is true, if the Democratic party can't be
united so as to make a settlement, such is the
intense anxiety of many people, not Repub-
licans, to get relief from the odium and
charge of feigned bankruptcy, that thousands
would temporarily act with them in order TO
get settlement, and they would again carry
the State, and if some plan could be devised
for funding blythe legislature through its ,
own committees, and while in session, with
out the aid OF any board or State officer,
then, even though coupons were attached,
much more serious question would arise than
did on the 1908 case. AS the courts could
not touch the legislature while it was being
done, it would be for the Federal courts to
say whether the coupons were contracts and
whether they had been impaired.
The American has always BEEN State
credit paper and its standard will not be
lowered, but it will in good faith accept the
decision in the 1908 case as the law, and go
% work in good earnest for a settlement by
he united Democracy.