New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-08

great Democratic majority. Is this justice
Treasurer Polk, it may be presumed. did not
intend to rob anybody when he began to specu-
late, or when he borrowed public money to heip
friends or to buy Mexican mines. lie fully ex-
pected, of course, that ali would go WE'LL that
he should get the money back, and more anu
that the State would never be the poorer or
the wiser In such belief he had a temptation
which makes his offence, great rs it is. alto
gether less dishonorable and less mean than
that of the voter who has refused to pay even
the small fraction of the public debt which he
had first forced creditors to accept lest they
should get nothing at all. For the voter has
never intended to pay the repudlated deot; he
did not dishonesty borrow for temporary use.
but openly stole, simply because he had the
pOwer.
Dishonesty of the people does not justify OIL
cial dishonesty. But it does go very far to cause
that crime Human nature being what 1T is, the
man who has continually to deal with an utterly
dishonest and shameless public opinion Is ex-
ceedingly apt to become corrupted himself. In
politics. as in physics, the stream does not rise
higher than its source. The standard OF official
integrity will never be higher than that which
the people themselves maintain in their own
dealings. They have no right to expect it, II
they do not despise themselves for taking and
keeping what does not belong to them, they
have no right to expect that any official de-
faulter will care nything for their censure. A
public opinion which does not brand repudia-
tor as a mean and rascally person, with whom
it is not BETTING to associate can have no terrors
for one who has merely been unfortunate In
stock or mining ventures. The people of Ten
nessee cay they would willingly pay what they
agreed to pay if they had been more fortunate,
anu If Polk had made money it is very certain
that the Treasury would not have been robbed
by him. This may be said in his favorj he was
really unable to pay, and the state was not
There has never been n time when IL WAS not
entirely possible for State OF 100000 peo-
pie, which produces yearly 500, 900 tons of coal
and 100, 900 tons of iron, has 165, 900 farms,
100000 horses and mules, 10000 beef cattle,
zoo, 900 sheep and 1000, 900 hogs, and raises
10000, 900 bushels of corn, 100000 of
wheat. 400, 900 of oats, 80 600, 900 pounds Of
tobacco, and 400, 900 bales of cotton, to pay the
interest in full on larger debt than Tennessee
has ever had The defaultng official could not
nav the defauting State would not pay; and
there is wide difference.
The poison of dishonesty was in the State
long before Polk became State Treasurer 1t
was made manifest when the Legislature helped
the City of Memphis to rob its creditors by re-
pealing the act which gave that city corporate
existence. 1t was manifest when the State took
money from its railroads for the full payment
of claims held against them by bondholders,
and then robbed both roads and creditors by
refusing to pay. 1t was apparent in the default
in 1875. aud in the forced compromises 4"
which dishonest sentiment in that State has
compelled creditors to accept unless they pre-
ferred total population. More recently, it has
taken the still meaner form of reputation OF
the latest compromise. That such State gets
robbed by It's officials is not matter over which
self-respectng and debi-paying people eau
be much surprised.