Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-07-16
THE CONFEDERATE DEBT.

The Washington correspondent
of the Boston journal, under date
of the 10Th, ult., has the following
summary of the recent acts and
movements at Washington
The President continues TO veto
the bills to pension Union soldiers,
and the House committee on war
claims has still under consid Grafton
the bill to aid in the paymeI It of the
Confederate debt. Judge William
Fullerton today submitte d to the
House committee on war claims u
brief Of the bill now pc nding be.
fore that committee, which he
claims, would aid in SO curing the
payment of the cOnfed crate debt.
The brief is short one. Some Of
its main propositions are these !:
1t is not claimed thaS the United
States became liable for the Con.
federate debt, either ~ contract.
ing party or because it had any
agency in creating 1t. The seced-
ed states, however, cyeTally pos
sessed power to cont ract debts in
dependently of tho United States
and to provide the means for pay
ing them. What the States of the
Union could individually lawfully
do any number of them combined
may also do, and become Jointly
and severally liable for their obliga-
tons. No want of power to con
tract a joint liability by the Con-
federate States can, therefore be
urged against the validity of the
confederate bonds or the liability
Of the states that issued them. Nor
does their liability to pay such
bonds depend upon whether they
were in nor whether they possessed
the right or the power to secede
from the Union. If in the Union,
Notwithstanding the attempted
secession, then their original pow
ers under the federal constitution
were in full force and if out of it
then they were separate cOnfed-
eracy, with all the attributes of an
independent contracting power.
After the war, the states which
had seeded returned to their al
legiance. The money which they
had borrowed had been used tor
purposes which they approved.
Between the holders of the con
federate debt and the states Great
ing it there existed a binding obi
cation with which no third party
could interfere, much less discharge.
Notwithstanding this, the United
States, by an exercise of arbitrary
power, in the constitutional amend
ment, provided that "neither the
United States shall assume nor
pay any debt incurred in aid Of in
surrection or rebellion against the
United States, but all such debts,
obligations and claims shall be
illegal and void" This prohibitory
constitutional clause, so far as it
restrained the United States from
assuming or paying debt Great
ed for its destruction, was wise
one. But in declaring at the same
time that the Confederate States
which had created should not pay
their Just and acknowledged liabil-
ity, the government not only act.
ed unwisely but committed stu
pendOus blunder. 1t not only re.
lieved the guilty party from a just
liability, but it was a wanton de.
struction of a debt it did not own
and with which it had no rightiul
concern. The only reasons that
can be assigned for passing this F.
to the constitution are /
without any force whatever when /
urged in behalf of the United /
States. The Confederate States /
neither asked for nor were entitled .
to exemption from their liability /
TO pay it. IL follows that the cf.
feet Of this amendment to the con-
was, first, to eXtlnguish
the confederate debt, and secondly,
at the same time, and as cOnse-
quence, to create a new liability for
damages against the United States,
by the value OF the prop
erty so wrongfully destroyed. The
liability here asserted, therefore, is
not for the confederate debt, but
for the damages inflicted upon the
holders of it for its extinguishment.
This, in brief, is the argument
presented by Judge Fullerton, who
states that lie represents "the
creditors of the so-called COnfed-
crate States OF America and the
most astounding fact IN connection
with it is that the Democratic
House is considering a bill which
has such a possible meaning, and
to receive arguments up
on it from the recognized attorney
of the English holders Of the con
tederate debt.