Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-07-12
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, INDIAsA,l

bonds held by the General Government against
the State of Indiana, the principal amounting
tu $4,000; and also the views | expressed
the Withholding by the General
from the State. of the amount due
her from the three per cent. fund, so called
That amount on the 3lst day Of January, 1853,
was SlOl 600 IS, and is withheld by the Gen
eral Government as an offset for the non pay
ment of interest on the bonds of the State.
am DESTROYS you should call the attention
of Congress to these subjects. And as that
body is soon to meet, and you are about prepar
ing the annual communication of your Depart
ment, desire to state some facts aud views
which l trust you will press upon the consid-
eraIion of the Government
Sometime in 1887 or 1888, the General Glow
eminent became the purchaser of the bonds
which she now holds against the State of Indi-
ana. She purchased them, not directly Of the
State, or its Agent, but in the market, and has
heretofore no claim to be considered in any
more favorable light than that of an ordinary
purchaser or Spectator
Though the bonds were originally sold by the
Agent III violation of the law upon which their
issue was based, and were, therefore, by legal
and equitable presumption, held by the first,
and all subsequent purchasers with knowl
edge of the fraudulent issue and sale; and al
though the State was thereby subjected to great
"a
which she never received equivalent-still
it is with pride that the citizens of Indiana re-
fleet that they have never seized upon a seem
ingly just occasion therefrom to forswear the
claims thus fraudulently held against her. She
has never refused payment of principal or in
terest TO the extent of her ability. An infant
State loaded down by these unjust transactions
with a crushing debt, which could not be met
save at the sacrifice of that food, clothing and
ali oil bfo1at he,
the debtor, she suspended for a season the pay
ment other liabilities; but only to resume them
80 soon rs she could make an equitable arrange
ment with her creditors-an arrangement fairly
promising ultimately to liquidate her liabilities
for principal and interest to all who avaled
themselves of it, Like all honest debtor she
surrendered her internal Improvements. She
Invested herself of munifcent grant of public
lands from the general Government, and for the
balance of her Indebtedness issued new and
| legal bonds wherewith to redeem those that
were old and illegal She did all that she
could--nearly all of her creditors attested the
sincerity and honesty of her efforts, and in the
| exercise of the ordinary principles of CONNER
cial sagacity and forbearance, entered into the
new arrangement The General Government
has not yet elected SO to do, preferring still to
hold her original bonds, and to exact the inter
est, at least, in her own way.
| These remarks indicate the essential circum-
stances of our Indebtedness TO the General Gov
eminent, and of the relations of the parties
thereto. You will allow me now to speak OF
the Indebtedness of the General Government to
the State of Indiana.
By the terms of admission into the Union OF
the States, the people of Indiana became enti-
tied. through the State Government their
Trustee, to what is familiarly known as the three
per cent. fund, being per centage on the net
proceeds of land sales within her borders, to be
distributed to the people of the various counties
OF the State, for the purpose of constructing
highways and bridges This arrangement then
became an article in the fundamental compact
between the General Government and the new
State. The General Government reserved nc
more right TO annul it, than to remand the State
to its original condition of a territory. And
the State or the people thereof. reserved no more
right to pervert the funds thus granted from
their stipulated purpose, than to withdraw
themselves from the federal compact
| This concession the people of the various
counties, Of moneys derived from land sales
was not made in the light of gratuity to g
new State, but from an original sense of Justice
and of interest-of justice because as large
land holder within the State, it became her du
tyto share with the lesser and poorer landholders
the burden of these Improvements so mutually
Indispensable: of interest because the establish
ment of highways and bridges opened and en-
HANGED the value of the General Government.
These considerations were Of themselves
enough to induce the General Government to
suPulate the payment of a small per centage
on the net proceeds of land sales. But it in
serted still another provision into the compact
more exclusively to her own benefit, to-wit;
that all lands sold by the United States within
the limits of the State, should be for the space
OF hve years, exempted from taxation. This be
came an inducement 10 purchasers, tending to
increase the competition, enh ance the value,
and expeditethe sale of the public lands. Sothat
IN addition to the claims of justice, that she
should share the burdens Of her neighbor land
holders, and in addition to the fully compensa-
ting benefi accruing to her from the construc
ton OF highways and bridges, it may be truly
said that she has received n second full remu-
neration for all the per centage she stipulated to
pay, in the provision of the compact exempting
her lands from taxation.
Indiana has fulfilled her part of the compact.
She has continued to exempt the lands from
taxation, until now the great body of these
lands are sold, though for year after year, she
has failed to receive her stipulated per centage
The poor settler, unaided by the covenanted
help ofthe General Government, the proffer of
which in part attracted him to the wilderness,
has taken upon his weary shoulders not only
the burdens incident to frontier life, but the
burdens also properly belonging to the owners
OF the national domain around him, and out of
his own sutferings, and sinews, and poverty
has added wealth to the General Government
by every highway he has constructed, and by
every rude bridge, which his homly implements
and skill have reared. Thus it is that her peo-
pie have been ever mindful of and faithful to
fha lnfl afsa onhlt IL.
And they cannot but ask, emboldened in view
of the fourfold equivalent they have rendered
in the premises, why the General Government
should continue to withhold the small per cent
age of land sales she has solemnly stipulated
to pay-not as an ordinary stipulation between
individuals-but as a condition precedent to the
very creation and co ordinate with the very eris.
fence of the State.
They cannot but ask whether they in turn,
suffering under some imagined or real wrong
of the General Government touching foreign
matter, would be justified in retaliating by APP
propriating the moneys received from the three
per cent. fund to some other end than that to
which they are pledged And yet they are
slow to see any more vjrute in like action on the
part Of the General Government than on their
own part, and they find it hard to believe that
the General Government will persist in a course
on the one part, which the people of Indiana
could never for one moment think of adopting
on the other.
We are well aware, that the action of the
General Government in Withholding the three
per cent. fund, amounting on the 3lst dav of
January, 1852, to Sl0l ,060 Is was adopted, as
an Offset for the non payment of interest by the
State of Indiana, on her bonds. which had fallen
into the possession of the Federal Treasury.
But in regard to this matter we respectfully
submit,
l. That if the State has been guilty of an
alleged act of bad faith in one transaction, it is
a very doubtful justification, either in law or
morals for the United States TO violate her good
faith in another and distinct case
2 That even if such Offset is ever allowable
it is at least fitting that regard should be had
to the analogy of cases.
In the transactions alluded to, no such regard
is seemingly had.
The relation of creditor or holder of State
bonds, is one voluntarily assumed by the Gene
raj Government in assuming which, by pur-
chase from second or third hands, she stands
u