The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-04-14
y-HE SPECIAL TAX BONDS.

According to the New York Times q
nice little plan Is icing worked II to
secure recognition and payment by the
stat.s of the soath of the fraudulent
bonds which wee isued in their names
by the s~ei,iawa: End carpet-bag legis-
lators who had charge of these states
governments during reconstruction
days. The Times says:
The recent decision Of the supreme
court of the United States in the case
of South Dakota against North Caro-
Ira has brought forth a proposition
tina all the accumulated interest be
surrendered and a settlement bend De
accepted for the principal. TO carry 2
per cent. To bring this about a COM
mutee has been formed. with John G..
Carlisle as chairman and deposits are
requested to he mads. at the United
States Trust Company. - Wall street.
Certificates are to be issued in ex-
change for bonds deposited.
The bonds above referred to are Of
a very different character from
those on which were based the
suit by South Dakota and those held
by Shaffer Brothers on which the state
made a fair and just compromise and
paid. These bonds were issued and
sold by the state and went into the
hands Of bona fide purchasers. The
proceeds of the sale were used in max
ing permanent Improvements in the
state. Their validity was qucs
toned by the state. h stood ever
ready to settle with the holders of the
bonds on a fair compromise. This at
titude of the state was declared in the
act of 1879 providing for a settlement
of the state debt and in acts Of subsc-
quent legislatures extending the time
wherein | exchange Of these Ond
might be made for new ones under the
original %refunding act.
In none of these acts has the legisla-
ture recognized he validity of the
other class of bonds or intimated that
the state would pay them. On the con-
trary she has declared as emphatically
as it is possible to do that she does
not recognize their validity and that
she will never pay them. These bonds
constitute no debt against the state
no more than if they had lever exist
ed. They were a fraud upon b state
from the beginning. They were fraud
ulently issued and f~raudulently dis
posed of. The purchasers of these bonds
took them with knowledge of the fraud
with which they were tainted.
The fact that the state settled by a
compromise the bonds held by Shat
fer or that the supreme court Of the
United States declared her liable for
those of the same issue held by South
Dakota cannot be used as a basis for
an argument. that she should recog-
niZe and compromise those fraudulent
bonds referred to by The Times. She
never will do so and there is no power
or law to make her do it. The men
who own them purchased them with
notice and there is as compile want Of
moral as there is of legal obligation on
the part of the state to pay them or
any part of them.
Hon. John G. Carlisle and his CON-
mittee may get all the deposits of such
bonds they can. They are welcome to
all they car make out of them. Their
main desire is, of course, to have tie
validity of the bonds recognized. That
would be a great victory for them.
The safeguard of the state is to stand
by it's declaration that they are not
valid and that their payment is re-
fused OIL principle. So long as she
stands by this position there cal be no
entering wedge to give the bondholders
ground upon which to hope for ulti-
mate success.