Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-31
MISSISSIPPI'S DEBT.
known as the Planters Bank Bonds,
May Possibly be Paid Some Day.
as They Ought to Be,
On Terms Alike Honorable to the State
and Satisfactory to the BOndhOId-
ers-Repudiating States.


Our attention has been called to a COM
| munication published recently in the New
Orleans Times Democrat which is going the
rounds of the press, North and South, signed
| ct. G. NJ" to be found in another column.
1t is a comment upon published remark OF
Governor Lowry to an interviewer, that the
| entire bonded debt of Mississippi Is S51S $50,
and that the bonds are at par, and could be
| Cancelled at once, but that the value placed
on them is so high that they cannot be OBJ
| tanned at reasonable rate. The writer OF
| the communication says that "this statement
| Is at variance with the facts as Understood by
| others" He refers to the Planters Bank
| bonds, and in contradiction of the governors
statement, quotes the language of the illus
! trious philanthropist, George Peabody, in
nus be4u~st of fund for educational pur-
| poses in the Southern States.
The criticism Of the writer on the Ian
guage of Governor Lowry is, to say the least,
disingenous- The governor was applied to
| for information as to the recognized debt of
| the State. In his official capacity he can
know no claim as binding obligation which
is barred by the constitution he is sworn to
support For the purposes of the inter-
viewer, his statement was literally and
strictly true.
The Constitutional Prohibition.
The payment of the Planters as well as
the Union Bank bonds are Iprohibited by
the following amendment to the present con-
stitUtion, inserted in 1876: "Nor shall the
State assume, redeem, secure, or pay
any Indebtedness, or pretended indebt-
edness, claimed to be due by the State
Of Mississippi to any person, association, or
corporation whatsoever claiming the same
as owners, holders or assignees~o OF any BOND,
or bonds, now generally known as Union
Bank bonds. or Planters Bank bonds"
For the information OF our Northern
friends, who imagine that everything what
they regard evil has come from the Dem
ocratic party in the State, we will mention
that the foregoing amendment was adopted
and submitted by Republican legislature.
1t was, howhver, engrafted upon the consti-
tuition by the Democratic legislature that
succeeded the downfall of the Republican
regime.
No Reason for Repudiafing Planters
Bank Bonds.
Though the payment of the interest on |
the debt had been suspended for some |
years before the war, the Planters |
Bank bond4 had never of the State.
1t was done in 1874, when the be- |
fore been directly repudiated by the people |
people had been bankrupted by the war, and |
after the colored element, poor and unused |
to the responsibilities of government, had |
become part of the body polite. Nearly |
all the Southern States were either openly |
repudiating or scaling their debts, some of
the prosperous Northern States having set
the example. Candor compels the admis-
sion that we know of no reason beyond that
of adverse fortune and inability to justify
the reputation of the Planters Bank bonds.
As Mr.. Peabody says they must not be con-
founded with the Union Bank bonds. Their
validity rests upon wholly different basis.
The Clause of 1892.
The very clause in the constitution of |
1882, which was the supreme law of the
State until it was superseded in 1859 by the
present constitution that forbade the passage
Of law pledging the faith of the State for
the payment of any loan or debt, except on
the conditions therein named, and which
were palpably violated in the case of the
Union Banks bonds-contained the following
provision:
Provided, That nothing in this section shall be
sotiating further loan of 81, 500 600 and vestng
charter OF the Planters Bank of Mississippi.
1t was upon the faith of this expression
Of the sovereign will of the people, engrafted
upon their organic law, that the loan was
and upon which the interest was
regularly paid for a number of years, as
stated by Mr.. Peabody.
They May Vet be Paid.
True the people, under the conditions of
restitution and bankruptcy occas1oned by the
war. amended the constitution SO as to pro-
for the settlement of the debt, but
his does not necessarily put an end to the
question. The same sovereign power that
passed the amendment can revoke it if it
,hoose. The generation that created the debt
las long since passed away, and other gen.
rations have come upon the stage of action;
,ut the State lives, though under altered cir
Whether the debt will be ulti-
nately settled upon terms honorable to the
State and satisfactory to the holders of the
'onds, under the changed condition of affairs,
a question we will not undertake to decide. |
t has been drug in the market for years,
nd some of the present creditors no doubt
btained their share of it, at a very low
gure, and could afford to be very reasonable
n their requirements.
Repudiafing States.
Meantime, let those who carry large notes
n their own eyes not fret about the beam in |
he eyes of their neighbor. Some of them
i've in glass houses, and plenty of stones are |
t hand. There is faint of reputation on
he escutcheon OF Pennsylvania. The Mas
legislature refuses to redeem her
Obligations with the Troy and Greenfield
sailroad Company. Minnesota repudiated
er securities for money to build roads ,
hitch are running prosperously. Iowa, IL !
-ealths, have glass houses; and as for our i,
sters of the South, who like Mississippi, .
ave passed through the horrors of desc !
ating and blighting war, need we refer to :
hem! Alabama, with debt scaled from
100000 to $7,O0O,OOO; Georgia with her
100000 repudiated; South Carolina S15,- |
100000, North C2rolins, Texas, Louis t
ANA, aud Tennessee, and the good I
Id mother of States and of statesmen, I
'irginia herself Like Mississippi, they :
ave all passed through the valley of a |
rrible affection; but, alas there is nothing
} impervious to the appeals of suffering s
the shylocks who make an idol @
the "yellow slave" that "knits and breaks
sligion, blesses the accursed, makes foul
,prosy adored, elevates thieves, and gives t
lem title, knee and APPRECIATION with sem C
tors on the bench" {