, _The Repudiation of State Debts_, p. 276.
Texas had practically no debt when it passed under Reconstruction
government, but added $4,500,000 in the period. The total increase in
the debt of all these Southern States was then nearly $140,000,000.]

Not all of this increase was due to carpetbag government. While, of
course, the debts incurred for military purposes had been repudiated in
accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment, several of the States had
issued bonds for other purposes during the War or immediately afterwards
before the advent of the Reconstruction governments. There were other
millions of unpaid interest on all varieties of debts incurred before or
after 1860. The Reconstruction debts had been incurred for various
purposes, but bonds issued ostensibly to aid in building railroads,
canals, or levees made up the greater part of the total. These bonds,
however, had been sold at a large discount, and only a small part of the
money realized was applied to actual construction.

Some of the States had escaped almost entirely any considerable increase
of debt; others were burdened far beyond their ability to pay,
especially as property valuations had declined nearly one-half.

The wholesale repudiation of their debts injured the credit of all the
Southern States, and they have been loudly denounced for their action.
Their spokesmen have justified their procedure in regard to the bonds
issued by the carpetbag legislatures on the ground that they were voted
by venal governments imposed by military force; that many of the bonds
were fraudulent on their face; and that those who purchased them at a
great discount were simply gambling upon the chance that the governments
issuing them would endure; that the greater part of these bonds were
stolen by the officers; and that little or no benefit came to the State.
Not all of the bonds which were repudiated or scaled down, however,
belonged to this class. Many were undoubtedly valid obligations on the
part of the States. The repudiation of these bonds was excused on the
ground that they were generally issued to aid railroads which had been
practically seized by the Confederate or the United States governments
and had been worn out for their benefit; that interest could not be paid
during the war; and that war and the Reconstruction Acts had so reduced
property values that payment of the full amount was impossible. The last
reason is true of some States, though not of all