The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 4, October, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy — John Shaqi
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 4, October, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 4, October, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Mississippians, would disdain, and consequently refrain, from
repealing or violating their plighted faith, it may be answered,
that the faith of the State, solemnly and sacredly pledged by an
act of the Legislature, with all the formality and solemnity of a
constitutional law, is violated by the provisions of this very bill
under consideration. The faith of the State is pledged to the
holders of the bonds, by the original and subsequent acts
incorporating the Planters' Bank, as solemnly as national or
legislative pledges can be made, that the stock and dividends
accruing thereon shall be faithfully appropriated to the redemption
and payment of said loans and all interest thereon, as they
respectively become due; the appropriation of this fund to an other
purpose is, therefore, a violation of the faith of the State.'
(House Jour. 443.)
Thus was it, that the stock of the bank, which for so many years had
been yielding a dividend far exceeding the interest on the loan, and
which stock had been pledged for the redemption of the loan, was
diverted to the building of a railroad, which never did or could yield a
single dollar, and the company soon became insolvent. By another clause
of this act of 1839, the Planters' Bank, which, by the loan act, was
made responsible (together with the State) for the payment of these
bonds, was released from the obligation to make such payments.
And now, what is the answer of Jefferson Davis on this subject? He says,
in his letter of the 25th May, 1849, before quoted:
'A smaller amount is due for what are termed Planters' Bank bonds
of Mississippi. These evidences of debt, as well as the coupons
issued to cover accruing interest, are receivable for State lands,
and no one has a right to assume they will not be provided for
otherwise, by or before the date at which the whole debt becomes
due.'
To this the London _Times_ replied, in its editorial of the 13th July,
1849, before quoted, as follows:
'The assurance in this statement that the Planters' Bank, or
non-repudiated bonds, are receivable for State lands, requires this
addition, which Mr. Jefferson Davis has omitted, that they are only
so receivable upon land being taken at three times its current
value. The affirmation afterward, that no one has a right to assume
that these bonds will not be fully provided for before the date at
which the principal falls due, is simply to be met by the fact,
that portions of them fell due in 1841 and 1846, and that on these,
as well as on all the rest, both principal and interest remain
wholly unpaid.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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