The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-03-29
The Remedy for Holders Of Discrsd
tied State Bonds.

! The Remedy for Holders Of Discrs,
tied State Bonds.
q American Register, Washington, d. {
The supreme court has called
malt In the march of Capitalization
Two justices were amazed, eve
: dumbfounded, by it. The rest wer
steadfast. The opinion of tn
chief justice is clear, logical, an
accurate exposition of the country
, organic code, and that congress
man, MIR. Moore, of Tennessee, res
soned well when he anticipated thi
decision, and proposed an amend
ment to the constitution unde
which an individual. directly O
through the Intervention of on,
state, might sue another in fedora
courts. This decision made, an,
this proposed constitutional amend
ment being neither possible MOI
desirable, money-lenders will hatd
| ~ resort hereafter. to devices OF
their art in order to secure posses
sion Of state bonds in violation o
state laws like those of Tennessee
which declared its railway bonds tc
be void if sold for less than theil
face value The railway builders
and money lenders conspired in this
case to evade the statute. The
bonds, in some instances, when the
holder could not sell, where shy
pothecated, at forty cents on the
dollar, and this, in the dealers eyes,
was no statutory sale" The rail
way speculator received the forty
cents, and the LENDER of the
money still holds the bonds, and is
furions when the state proffers on.
~ fifty cents for each dollars
worth of this papers. We dcplore
the loss of fifty cents profit which
the shark anticipated, but cannot
help thinking that withlthe statute
before him, when he became the
holder of the bonds, ne is most for
tunate when suffered to recover
twenty per cent. more than he ex-
pended, with interest. State credit
and honor should be stainless; but
there can be no dishonor incident
to the payment of all that state
honestly owes, whatever may be
written on the face of a bond, which,
in this case, is no evidence whatev-
er of state Indebtedness.
When, Shy act of God or the pub
lie enemy" rs the law saws an
becomes unable to pay,
his creditors compromise with him.
Armies, deemed bp the churches
north any south, when praying for
them, Gods special avenging
agents, desolated Tennessee. Lin
coin was pronounced the special
vicegerent of God by churches and
good people when be obliterated
half the wealth Of Tennessee by a
stroke of his pen. Carpet baggers
and the robbers of the Bank of Ten
nessee were surely ''public enc
mics" when preYing upon the vitals
of Tennessee. The tariff and inter
nal revenue systems only exhaust
and return nothing to "unprotec-
ted" Tennessee. Surely such laws,
in one sense, are godlike ~ and
since the state, plundered by them
to utmost poverty, its cotton-pro.
ducing farmers under them making
one-fourth less money than toilers
in any industry in any nothern
state, as shown by census returns,
there subsists and results every
Justification for the
conduct of Tennessee. These cred
itors of the state, and Mr.. Moore,
as their representative in congress,
sought to deal with q state as with
a citizen in courts of common law.
Let them not weary in well-doing
and settle with Tennessee as they
would with private citizen crushed
by providences of God and impov-
erished by codes and carpet-bag-
gers which he resisted but could not
lnollify. We deplore causes and
adhor forces and agencies that be-
gat Republication; the bondholders
and their representative newspapers
only deplore Reputation itself The
difference between US is trifiing,
and We are can't help thinking that
they will most cheerfully, now that
the supreme court has spoken, &C
cept terms profsered by Tennessee
and Virginia.
European holders of these bonds
deserve popular sympathy, but not
more than the swindled and inn
poverished people of Tennessee. In
fact, charity should begin at home;
but there is no charity discoverable
in the press representing eastern
syndicates that sold these .lawless
bonds to innocent European pur-
chasers. These last were never
told how one half the territory of
was wrenched from her,
that eastern syndicates might be
gratified; slavery was abolished and
Virginia impoverished. These for
eign bondholders could hardly
know aught of local statutes max
ing bonds voidable if sold for less
than their face value, and it seems
JIldI uWEllcISl III AuStcfOdn aiiu Eu-
gland do not yet know that share
of sovereignty still suhsists in
statehood, which does
not bend very reverently in the
presence of minions Of Federal
courts. Those innocent Dutch have
been swindled and are to be pitied.
But upon whom should they vent
their rage? Surely not upon Ten
nessee. The state declared in its
public statutes that its bonds were
void on fixed conditions and those
we're palpably violated. The
Dutch, therefore, instead OF squan
dering twelve thousand pounds, as
they propose,in vain attempts to sue
states, should bring those who sold
them the bonds to the bar sof JUS
tice, and not suffer the press, speak
ing for the American vendors of
these securities, to mislead them.
Instead, therefore, Of profferlng
empty sympathy, we can only ad-
wise European holders of valueless
bonds that they stand in the shoes
of those from whom they derived