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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