Des Arc citizen., 1859-10-05
For the Des Arc Citizen.1 GOV. C0NWAYS SMUGGLING OF
 THE TAX BILL.

THE TAX BILL.
 MR. EDIroR.-Ilis is somewhat amusing to notice the shif7s and quirAs of poli- ticians when attempting to account Tor their understandable conduct. IL will be recollected that two years ago, Gov. Cox WAY, through his organs for everybody has an organ now days, but the people J told the people that he did not intend that they should be taxed to pay the debts ol the Real Estate and State Banks.
 Capt. DANLEY, he know nothing man, on the contrary, said that we would have to be taxed to pay those debts, bu, Gov. CONWAY and DrcK JOHNSON in whom we all firmly believed, told us that we would not-that the Governor knew some kind of a process by which he could make the debt pay itself without any tax, and show ed us a long string of figures and talked largely about assets and other things, that we d,oellers by the mountains did not un- derstand, but we all believed in the Gov ernor, and we shouted "hurrdh for Gov, CoNwAY. he is our man, he can pay debts whhout money"
 Now, MT. Editor, imagine our utter as- tonishment when we read the Governors excuse for pocketing lbe Tax Bill that he wanted the surplus to pay the Bank debts with, for that is the plain English of it, So it appears that the Governor was mis- taken about his paying the Bank debts, (now the debts of the State) without tax ing us, or else his excuse for pocketing the Tax Bill to reduce the rate of taxation is all a false pretense, and humbug; in fact a scheme to accumulate large sur plus in the State Treasury, contrary to the Constitution, and that surplus to be doled out to our friends, the Stale printers. It is, perhaps, but justice to say that Gov CONWAY really belieued that he could pay the Bank debts at one time, for he had been trained in this school of the JOHN. SONS, who understood that process to per- lection, and no doubt they taught the Governor. This process was clearly ex- plained by that 'disorganizer, Col. HIND MANI who showed us the other day (when he spoke here to large crowd of old fashioned homespun deaaocrats) how the JoHNsoNs pay Bank debts without money, it is this
 , 1. Borrow all the money the Bank has.
 ?. Keep it until the Bank breaks for want of said money.
 3. Buy up the depreciated paper for twenty five cents on the dollar.
 4. Pay it back again at the rate of dollar for dollar-par value.
 This is the famous Johnsonian recipe for paying Bank debts, and at one time was great secret, by which thousands of dollars were made in Ia twinkling," and poor men rose suddenly to be owners of large plantations and slaves. But the
 
 Governor now despairs of paying the Bank debts of the State in this way, and comes back to the old fashioned way oi paying with money. It may do for indi. viduals to pay Bank debts in this way, bu, not for State. Governor now says that that the mortgage due to the R. E. Bank fall due next year, and unless there is money in the Treasury to buy the land in at the sale of foreclosure of the mortgages, the lands will not sell for tenth of their value, and will thus be lost to the State as means of paying the Bank debt, and that he wants surplus in the Treasury for this purpose. But the Governor well knows and so do we, that 1. If the money was in the Treasury he has no right to make any such use of it, nor any one else :; and
 ?. He also knows that the State owns those Bank mortgages, and need not sell the lands unless they bring their full value or near it and
 8. That the Legislature has power to au- thorize some one to attend to this business, and buy in the land for the State without the use of any money, as the State is the mortgagee, she is entitled to the proceeds of the sale and needs no money to pay for the land, as it would only be taking it out of one pocket and putting it Tn the other.
 So it turns out that Gov. CoNwAY's ex- cuse for saddlng heavy tax on the peo. pie of Arkansas, is ia sheer pretext and the ShJfi cfa dcmagogae.
 We have "gone it for the Governor and the JoHNsoNs as long as we intend to-" So farewell Gov CONWAY! But Governor before you leave, be so kind as to' tell us 10 what use you applied that eighteen thousand dollars contingent er- penses of Executive department for lS57-S" The Auditor says in his report, that you used that amount in round num- bers, and some of the "clod hoppers" up in the mountains here, say that you gave the most of it to "cousin Dick" So do, dear Governor, tell us what went with the money-don't send us to the Auditor now, for you know as well as he.
 That expression, ''contiagent expenses" /" Is so convenient term to cover up things,