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Page 23
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.'
Mr. Davis's 'palliation and excuse' for the non-payment of these bonds
was: 1st. That the principal was not due. If this were true, it would be
no excuse for the non-payment of the semi-annual interest. But the
statement of Jefferson Davis as to the principal was not true, as shown
by the _Times_, and as is clear upon the face of the law. Then, as to
the lands. The bonds, principal aid interest, were payable in money, and
it was a clear case of repudiation to substitute lands. But when, as
stated by the _Times_, this land was only receivable '_at three times
its current value_,' Mr. Davis's defence of the repudiation of the
Planters' Bank bonds by Mississippi, is exposed in all its deformity.
When, however, we reflect, as heretofore shown, that the law authorizing
the purchase of these lands by these bonds was repealed, and the
bondholders left without any relief, and the proposition for taxation to
pay the bonds definitively rejected, it is difficult to imagine a case
more atrocious than this.
The whole debt, principal and interest, now due by the State of
Mississippi, including the Planters' and Union Bank bonds, exceeds
$11,250,000 (�2,250,000). Not a dollar of principal or interest has been
paid by the State for more than a fourth of a century on any of these
bonds. The repudiation is complete and final, so long as slavery exists
in Mississippi. Now, would it not seem reasonable that, before
Mississippi and the other Confederate States, including Florida and
Arkansas, ask another loan from Europe, they should first make some
provision for debts now due, or, at least, manifest a disposition to
make some arrangement for it at some future period. If a debtor fails to
meet his engagements, especially if he repudiates them on false and
fraudulent pretexts, he can borrow no more money, and the same rule
surely should apply to states or nations. Nor can any pledge of property
not in possession of such a borrower, or, if so, not placed in the hands
of the lender, change the position. It is (even if the power to pay
exists) still a question of good faith, and where that has been so often
violated, all subsequent pledges or promises should be regarded as
utterly worthless.
The _Times_, in reference to the repudiation of its Union Bank bonds by
Mississippi, and the justification of that act by Jefferson Davis, says:
'Let it circulate throughout Europe that a member of the United
States Senate in 1849 has openly proclaimed, that at a recent
period the Governor and legislative assemblies of his own State
deliberately issued fraudulent bonds for five millions of dollars
to 'sustain the credit of a rickety bank;' that, the bonds in
question having been hypothecated abroad to innocent holders, such
holders have not only no claim against the community by whose
executive and representatives this act was committed, but that they
are to be taunted for appealing to the verdict of the civilized
world rather than to the judgment of the legal officers of the
State by whose functionaries they have been already robbed; and
that the ruin of toil-worn men, of women, of widows, and of
children, and the 'crocodile tears' which that ruin has occasioned,
is a subject of jest on the part of those by whom it has been
accomplished; and then let it be asked if any foreigner ever penned
a libel on the American character equal to that against the people
of Mississippi by their own Senator.'
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