Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-09-07

seeks TO coerce all boRdhekless 20 fund un
der its provisions by its utter failure to pro
vide fer the payment OF interest on that par
which is unfunded.
SENATOR HARRIS,
after discussing national issues at some
length, took up the State debt issue, which
he handled in his usual mastery manner
He said that from the beginning of the sgi-
tation of the question he had stood with the
Slate-credit men, but recognizing the fact
that he was but one Of the fifteen hundred
thousand people of Tennessee, each one OF
| whom has as much right to be heard upon
the question as himself and recognizing the
fact that the fundamental principle Of a re-
| publican gofernment was that under the
constitution, and by constitutional methods,
the majority shall absolutely control all
political results, he yielded 50 much of his
opinions upon the question as to harmonise
with the great majority Of the party, in order
that its power may be perpetuated as the
! means OF
MAKING DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES AND POLL
CIEs SUCCESSFUL,
| upon the success of which depends in great
measure, if not entirely, the rights of the
State, and the promotion of the highest in
terests of the whole people, subordinating
the less important to the vastly greater i'm
portaut considerations. In answer to Senator
Jackson's plea that it is dishonest 10 the
State and her citizens not TO sustain the
sixty and-six settlement Senator Harris said
that at the June convention jackson had
consented when he offered his fifty-and-four
resolution TO the P Platform Committee TO dis
honor himself, his State and the whole peo-
pie; that when he said at Erin, and at Tren-
ion, that in the contest between Bate and
Hawkins,
HE WOULD VOTE FOR BATE,
he again consented according to his own
theory 10 dishonor himself, his State and his
people, for in that declaration he Eubordi-
mates the State debt question 10 the success
Of Democratic principles and abandoned the
platform of Hawkins and his ally, RUSSELL,
and stands upon his (Harris's) platform,
which lie to subordinate the State debt ques-
ton to the success of Democracy, principles
vastly more important in their conseq uenees
than any possible view that can be taken of
the State debt. In answer to a point that
the June platform did not propose to do |
more than make proposition, and il that
proposition is not accepted by the bondhold- |
ers the failure TO do more is reputation and |
nulli6cation, Senator Harris called attention
to the section of the sixty-and-six act, which |
Senator Jackson charactsrizes
AS A SACRED ACT
based upon the consent of all (uot more than |
OF the bondholders, and which act |
prohibits the payment of any interest or the |
making Of any provision fer any bonds not |
funded under it. The June platform does
not prohibit the Legislature from making
other laws if the proposition authorized is
not accepted, while Jackson's sacred act tells |
the bondholder, in explicit terms, he must |
fund under its provisions or no provision
shall be made for him. In answer TO the sug-
gestion that judgment could be gotten against
the State, in the United States Supreme
Court, and that the court could sppoiut
commissioner 10 levy, collect, and apply ii to
the payment of the judgment, Senator Harris
declared that it was monstrous proposition,
tending to Capitalization, and ignoring the
right and the sovereignty of the State, and
had never been pronounced by the widest
theorist; that the power to tax was the
HIGHEST POWER OF SOVEREIGNTY,
and was the power to destroy, and asked
Senator Jackson if he would admit, if the
Federal government, or all the departments
could levy, collect and apply rev.
snues in State for real or pretended State
purposes, that the attempt to do so would
be the most startling usurpation that the
audacity of Republican recklessneEs had
.ver ventured upon. That the suggestion
was absurd in the last degree, and however
much it NAV have alarmed his colleague, it
has alarmed no enc else. Senator Harris
aid that his colleague knew, and would not
venture 10 deny, that RUSSELL mad no more
,hance for election than he had to pluck the
un from the armament and crush it under
lis little heel, and that his colleague knew
hat every Democratic vote that was cast for
RUSSELL but increased the chances OF Repub-
lean success; that he regretted TO find Sem
Itor Jackson engaged in an earnest effort to
lraw votes enough from the Democratic
candidate to secure the triumph of Repub-
icanism in Tennessee.