Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-10-21
POOR TENNESSEE i
Petition Presented From One Of Her Saf-
ferng Creditors.

ferhng Creditors.
Nashville Banner, Oct. IA.
The following was found posted
on the gate-post of the capitoi
grounds this morning.:
To the Governor and Legislature of Tennes-
see:
] petition you and the honorable
Legislature to institute some meas
ure for the restoration of Tennessee
credit, and for the repayment of
debts incurred by your State. Your
petitioner lent to the State of Ten
neSsee sum of money, for the pur-
pose of some public improvement.
The amount, though small to him,
is important, and is a saving from
life of toll, made with difficulty
and privation. LII the State was
struggling against the barrenness of
nature, /, with others, who are suf-
fering under this refusal to pay,
would be contented to wait for bet
ter times; but it is proposed to
commit the fraud of reputation in
an era of prosperity and in State
that is numbered among the most
prosperous of the Union, after the
wise investment of the borrowed
money in railroads and turnpikes,
of which the repudiators are every
day reaping the advantage. 1t is
an act of bad faith which (all the
circumstances considered) has no
parallel and no excuse. 1t is most
painful to your petitioner to see
Tennessee citizens excite, wherever
they may GO, the recollection that
they belong to dishonest people,
who pride. themselves that on hay-
ing tricked and pillaged who had
faith in the obligations. Little did
your petitioner and other creditors
expect it, and sad is the spectacle to
see you rejected by every State in
the Union and Europe as a State
with whom no contract can be
made, because, none will be kept;
unstable in the very foundations of
social life, deficient in the elements
of good faith, men who prefer any
load of infamy however great to any
pressure of taxation however light.
Your petitioner also deplores the
total want of shame with which
these things have been, or are about
to be done; the callouS immortali-
ty with which honest people have
been, or, are about to be plundered;
that deadness of the moral sense
which seems to preclude all return
to honesty, to perpetuate this new
infamy and to threaten its extern
ton over every Southern State.
To any man of real philanthropy
who receives any pleasure from the
of the world, the re-
pudiation nf the public debt of the
Southern States and the shameless
manner in which it has been talked
of and done, is the most melanchol-
ly event which has happened dur
ing the existence of the present
question. Your petitioner sincerely
prays that the great and good men
still existing among Tennesseans,
by teaching the people the deep
disgrace they have incurred
the world by agitation
of this question, will restore them
to moral health, to that high posi-
tion they have lost, and which, for
the happiness of mankind, is so I'M
portant they should ever maintain F;
for on Tennessee are now turned
the eyes of thinking men to see how
far the mass of the people can be
trusted with the management of
their own affairs, and the establish
ment of their own happiness. Let
but Tennessee repudiate her debt or
any part of it, and the money trans
actions of the State will become a
by-Word among all nations. Your
petitioner is no enemy of Tennessee.
I loved and honored honest Tennes-
see when she was honest and re-
spected her obligations. He writes
this now because he hates fraud.
Tennesseans have arrogated to
the right of sitting in
Judgment upon the property OF their
creditors-of deciding who among
them is rich, and are the poorer OBJ
jects of compassionate payment;
but in the name of Mercury, the
great god of theirs, did any man
ever hear of debtors alleging the
wealth of the lender as reason for
eluding the payment OF the loan
But the only good part of this bad
morality is not acted upon. The
rich are robbed, but the poor are
not paid. Persons not in the secret
are inclined to consider the abom-
Unable conduct of our State to pro-
ceed from exhaustion-"Phey don't !
pay they cannot pay;" whereas it
is known that the State is teeming
with wealth and that tax suffi-
cient to pay off the debt can be paid
and never felt by the people.
Yours. A CREDITOR.