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that the Won was taken from the
road and some of it put in gunboats
and some of it carried to other roads
where it could facilitate the trans
portation of troops. The Confederate
government paid the president of the
road, in Confederate money, and the
S |npany accepted it; but they didn’t
the Confederate money, they in
kted it in cotton, because they
l . ought cotton was more stable than
ibnfederate currency. And on that
jondition of affairs the war closed,
rhe officers then accounted to the
Company for rhe proceeds of cotton,
the roadbed was put up and sold, and
ths magnificent property that the
stae afterwards granted $5,100,000
of aid to —$3,300,000 on first mort
gages, and $1,800,000 on second mort
gages—this magnificent piece of
p’operty sold for the large sum of
$1,500!
“After the war the trustees of the
original mortgage authorized Mr. Hen
ry 8. Wells, as attorney, to sell the
road and the road was put up and
sold by him as attorney, and one of
the trustees united with him in a
deed, and they deeded it to Mr.
Avery, who afterwards became a
member of the firm of J. Edwin Con
ant & Co., ow his brother became a
member of the firm of. J. Edwin Con
ant & Co. The purpose, it*is said, of
the sale of this road, was to buy it
in for the benefit of the northwestern
bondholders; that was thfe proposi
tion. The purchasers re-organized it
and appeared before the Georgia leg
islature in .1869, and organized a new’
company which they called the Bruns
wick and Albany Kailroad Company.
1 ‘ Corporate life was given to this new
company, to the purchasers of the
old right of way of the Brunswick
and Jblorida railroad and they utterly
ignored every act produced by the
stockholders in Georgia during the
pendency of the civil war, and asked
for a new act to incorporate them as
the Brunswick and Albany Kailroad
Company. That was done. Then on
the ibtn of March, 1869, they ap
peared before the Georgia legislature
again and presented a bill to grant
them aid. That is a very remarkable
bill on the face of it; we will see
that every bondholder who took a
bond was charged with notice. It
recites these facts that 1 have stated.
It recites that the road (it was a
new company now) had been damaged
by the Confederate government and
Georgia, acting together, to the extent
of $3,400,000. it recites the demol
ishment of the road by Georgia and
the Confederate States of America,
and in view of this damage that has
been done to the old company during
the war by the Confederate States
government, the purchasers asked aid
from the state of Georgia to rebuild
their property.
“It further recites that $75,000 of
the iron of the old company had gone
on the state’s property; that is/on
the Western and Atlantic railroad,
which was owned by the state and
ran from Atlanta to Chattanooga;
and that this old bill presented an
easy way for Georgia to pay her debt.
That in fact she would never be call
ed upon to pay anything at all, be
cause this committee which was in
favor of the bill, in answering criti
cisms which had been passed upon
it, said that it scarcely felt it neces
sary, before an intelligent body of
men, even to dignify the charge that
Georgia could ever become liable up
on her endorsement of* these bonus,
that no man of real intelligence could
beiieve that the road would not at
any «ime sell for more than U>e sum
for wnich the state would endorse.
Here then was a direct condition held
out to the state on the face of the act,
which recites that this property had
been destroyed by the ravages of war
and demolisned; that the state owed
sia,ouU for iron and the immense sum
of over $3,300,000 for damages, tnat
the stale could discnarge her debt
by an endorsement and take a release.
That is the substance of the recital
of the act. On that the state grant
ed them $15,090 a mile when twenty
miles of the road should be complet
ed. To that act fourteen senators en
tered their protest, declaring that it
was put through under a gag of ‘the
previous question’; that it was uncon
stitutional; and they wrpte out their
protest and put it on the juornal of
the senate, and did all they could to
notify the world of the fraud that
there was in the recital of the pre
amole. The friends of the bill got
up a committee to answer those
charges, and it is their report which
declared the state could never be
called on to pay a cent.
“There is today only about 170
miles of the road. These schemers
procured from the state $u,100,000 of
aid, or $30,000 per mile for all the
road that is even now completed.
They partially built the road. Mr.
Angier endorsed $1,500,000 of the
bonds; at the time he made that en
dorsement very nearly the amount
required by the act had been built.
“A difficulty arose between Mr.
Angier, tne treasurer, and the gover
nor, and the company then secured
the passage of another act, dated on
the 1/th of October, 1880, in which
the Scate permitted Governor Bullock
to endorse for the balance of the
bonds, and in which the state was au
thorized to issue her gold bonds, to
buy up second mortgage bonds of
the company. Under this act Gover
nor Bidlock endorsed the balance of
the bonds, $1,800,000, and he en
dorsed a great number of them st one
time. The reason for that is assigned
in a letter from Mr. Kimball to Gov
ernor Bullock. Kimball stated that
he had been disappointed in some of
his plans, and that the road could
not be completed unless the state
would place her enduisement upon
the balance of the bonds at once,
and they would have to be sent to
Europe, and that in the interest of
the state Governor Bullock ought to
endorse all of the bonds in advance
of the work on the railroad, and en
able him in that way to make his
financial arrangements for its com
pletion. /
“Mr. Angier had endorsed $1,500,-
000, and Mr. Bullock subsequently en
dorsed $1,800,000 of theMs3,3oo,ooo of
first mortgage, Brunswick and Al
bany bonds. Now, the reason as
signed by Governor Bullock, and his
only defense —for he says that ho
knew that it was not legal, fie knew
that the law did not authorize it—
is that he thought it would best sub
serve the state’s interest at that time
for him to endorse and to hand Mr.
Kimball all of these bonds at one
time to make his financial arrange
ments anywhere. The facts are, up
to the time all the endorsements were
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
made, but the 150 miles of the road
was built, and s3,oOu,uuO bf endoised
bonds were delivered, and sl,Buo,Uoo
of goid bonds, so that at tus time
the last endorsement was made there
was an over issue of si,oou,uuo of
the first mortgage bunds in addition
to the gold bonds; and as it stands
today with a hundred and seventy
miles of road completed, there is an
over issue of over 4>/OO,ouo of die
first mortgage bonds, in excess of
what was prescribed by the staute.
“Georgia declared ail the first
mortgage bonds invalid, the whole
s3,uuo,uoo, because they weie not is
sued in accordance with her constitu
tion and her laws; because tnere was
not only an over issue, but the invest
ment by private parties required by
the constitution had not' been made,
and because the Aid act was uncon
stitutional. Bhe further declared in
valid the $1,800,000 goid bonds be
cause their issue was, in addition to
the other reasons, an attempt to loan
the credit of tne state on a second
mortgage. ’ ’
Macon and Brunswick.
The Macon and Brunswick comes
next.
Part of the first mortgage bonds of
the Macon and Brunswick Kailroad
were endorsed by Governor Jenkins,
the balance were endoised by Gover
nor Bullock, making in ail
and the company built their load
from Macon to Brunswick with these
endorsements.
But they were not satisfied; other
roads had gotten more money, and,
therefore, they went back to the
state and asked her to pass another
act, reciting the fact that their road
was built and equipped, but that it
had cost more money than expected,
and as larger endorsements had been
given to other roads, therefore the
state should give them $3,000 a mile
more, making SOOO,OOO. This was a
second mortgage, like the Alabama
and Chattanooga bonds. The public,
improvement was completed, and
these men simply to get $600,000
more bonds, came back and asked
from the state $3,000 a mile more,
reciting that their public improve
ment had been completed. That is
every endorsement on tjje railroad
bonds, that Georgia declared to be
invalid. The balance of the bonds
frhich sl*e endorsed she declared to
be valid, as well as all her own bonds,
amounting to many millions, except
those certain parties professed to
hold as security for debts she did not
owe.
I HIGH CLASS SECURITIES
Amo g others, we mention a small block of stock in cne of the largest and most conserva
tive banking institutions in the -outh. w> ich will increase 150.00 per share in the next year.
This is of interest to large or small investors and will be on the market but a short time. You
wi 1 find this a genuine bar ain. Call or write
CHAS. E. THOMPSON, Stocks and Bonds. 204 Equitable Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.
■ ' / ‘ * r » •
.Phinizy &' Co.
COTTON FACTORS
< , , • . .
Augusta, Georgia
FARMERS’ UNION AND POLITICS
The Farmers’ Union is not a polit
ical organization, and cannot and
will not put out any ticket in any
county in this or any other state.
The union is a co-operative, business
proposition, gotten up for the pur
pose of assisting its members in buy
ing and selling.
It is fighting nothing and nobody,
but simply demanding what justly
and honestly belongs to the produc
ers; to do away with the speculative
feature in cotton; to establish ware
houses and sell the cotton crop di
rect to the mills instead of allowing
the cotton exchanges and New York
gamblers, to control the crop and
price the cotton before it is chopped;
to assist as far as possible in doing
away with the credit and mortgage
system, and to teach the diversifica
tion of crops.
The union does not propose to ac
complish these things in a week, a
month, nor a year, but to gradually
come to them.
Every class of people, from the
bootblacks to the money kings are
organized except the people in the
rural districts. No fair-minded per
son denies the farmer the right to
organize if he wants to.
The printers, the railroad men, the
bricklayers, the fiorseshoers, the car
penters, the machinists, and, in fact,
all classes of mechanics and work
men are organized for self-protec
tion. So are the bankers, the
grocers, the fertilizer men, the furni
ture people, the undertakers, the
wholesale dry goods men, the doctors,
the dentists, the lawyers, the city
policemen, and county officials are
organized for their mutual benefit and
seif-protection. Nobody says any
thing about these organizations, but
the minute the farmers begin to get
together the politicians hold up their
hands in holy horror and yell “poli
tics” to the top of their sweet, pic
colo voices. All of which will do
no harm. Let them rear up on their
hind legs and yell until they are
hoarse. The farmers are organizing,
and will continue to organize until
the agricultural classes all over the
United States are banded together
in one solid body.
The farmers are beginning to read
and think for themselves. Other peo
ple have been doing for them for
years, and they are the ones that are
being worried about the Farmers’
Union.
This is all there is to the whole
business. There is nothing more nor
nothing less.—Royston (Ga.) Record.
PAGE FIFTEEN