Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-02-17
Nashville Banner.
GOVERNOR BATES MESSAGE.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives:
The auspices under which you
have met, as Legislators, are hope
full, yet gravely embarrassing, be-
cause, among other things, of the
state debt question with which you
are to grapple. This embarrass-
ment has been increased, since your
assembling, by the official defalca-
ton of Treasurer M. Il. Polk, to the
extent, according to the report of
an investigating committee, of $685.
600, which, together with the pay
ment of $l20,0OO, as interest on the
bonds so recently funded under the
law known as the 1906 act," has
left us with comparatively empty
treasury.
Tennessee is embarrassed by an
onerous debt, and her people are
poor. The past is full of financial
error that will require time and
wise legislation to correct. You
and / knew, when elected to our
respective places, that our task was
difficult and our trust delicate. We
have assumed the duty in good
faith, and must perform 1t with un-
wavering fidelity. We owe to Ten
nessee, in this hour of troubles, our
full energies and best efforts to re-
lieve her honorably and justly, if
we can. That her good name has
been traduced, and her credit af-
fected, is true. But those who un-
derstand the history of our situation
the antecedents and immediate
surroundings-the motives which
actuated her people, and their eff
just and right-have no unkind
criticism for us. Regardless of
whatever may be said of those, and
their satellites, who have been
preying on our misfortunes for their
own gain, and who never hesitate
at unconscionable advantage, let us
be equal to the occasion and, do JUS
tice alike to Taxpayer and ere iitor
in executing the peoples viii, by
paying all that we believe we justly
owe, and equitably adjusting that
i'm dispute. This. kind Of record
will turn slander into shame and
defy the crucial test of time.
He follows with catalogue of
the different funding acts, the his
tory of which is familiar. He also
sets the amount and character of
bonds funded under the act of 1882,
which has already appeared in the
report of the funding committee.
He says:
"As current history and subse-
Quent events have shown, not one
of these five. funding acts seems to
have grown Out.of an expression of
the will of the people, or was ac-
quiesced in by them after passage"
The people of Tennessee seeing
constant and systematic efforts to
foist upon them laws touching the
state Indebtedness that were unjust
and distasteful, and having wit
messed with regret and mOrtifica-
tion the schemes and practices of
corrupt speculatOrs and lobbyists,
as they heartlessly preyed upon the
crippled credit of the state, took the
matter into their own hands, as
they ought and had right to do,
and for the first time have express
ed their will through the ballot-box,
on the 7th of last November, to ten
der terms of settlement of our in
debtedness to the creditors of the
state, which, under all the circum-
stances, every disinterested and
right-thinking man must regard as
just and honorable to all parties
concerned.
1t is known as part of the pOlit-
icO-tinancial history OF Tennessee
that the most perplexing questions
out of the state debt.
The amount of the debt, the ma
ture and extent of its obligations, as
we'll as the epOwer of the state to
deal with it, have contributed to
produce much confusion in the leg
islatures, in the courts, and with
the people.
Various attempts were made to
adjust the debt, but as they all pro-
ceeded upon the assumption, not
only that the assent of the creditors
should be obtained preceding any
proposition by the debtors, but that
it should be obtained of a majority
of creditors before legislation could
properly be enacted, the efforts
were fruitless, and the debt, with
its accumulated interest, remained
as before, the unsettled subject of
controversy.
know of no principle by which
enc creditor can consent for an
other, unless by delegated power,
or some joint obligation or Other
community of interest exists be-
tween them, growing out OF the or
iginal contract, subsequent agree
ment, or, if in court, by the order of
the court.
In the case OF our bonded indebt-
edness, each bond purports to repre-
sent a distinct agreement, accOr ling
to its terms with the holder, and is
independent of. any other bond,
class or number of bonds. Hence,
no set of bondholdeYs, though a
majority of all, whether there ex-
listed a community Of interest or
not, can effect the rights of another
bondhOlder or majority of them.
The consent of the parties, nor SUBJ
ject matter, neither being under ju-
risdiction of court, cannot be set up
and acted on arbitrarily. The most,
under such circumstances, that
ought to be done, is for the state to
tender a proposition of settlement,
and let each creditor act upon it as
he deems best. A large number of
creditors, claimed to be a majority,
having heretofore rendered propo-
sitions of settlement of this disputed
liability, at a rate which recognizes
our equities, opens the question for
equitable adjustment; and l submit
it is in perfect order, and consistent
with honor and propriety, for the
debtors, VINO feel that they have