The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-09-30
The Meeting at Concert Hall-.Speech.
es of Messrs. Brisbin and Hall.

at Concert Hall. WIN. SPRIGG HALL,
President of the Young Mems Democratic
Club. in the Chair. The Hon. JOHN B.
BRIsBIN, Democratic candidate for Attor-
ney General, was introduced to the meeting,
and in speech of two hours, attracted the
close attention of the audience. After dis
cussing at considerable length, national
politics, Mr.. BR1sB1N referred as follows to
State policy:
l propose now, for few moments, to
discuss questions of State policy, in which,
| presume, the people of this city are much
more interested than they are in general
questions of national policy. I need not
l shall attempt, my fellow citizens, to
pass in review all the charges which have
been made by our adversaries against the
present State Administration. 1t has been
alleged by Gov. Ramsey-and the assertion
has been mouthed throughout the State by
other Republican orators the present
StateAdministration is responsible for all the
evils under which the country is now suffer-
ing. Gov. Ramsey, in his Hastings speech,
(which has been rehashed and served up in
all the Republican papers in the State) with
all the simplicity of boyhood, states that
two years ago we had a good currency and
plenty of it, and that now we have a poor
currency and but little of it; and he goes
on to charge the consequences of this state
of things upon the Democratic party gene
rally, and more particularly upon the Demo-
cratic administration. Now, Gov. Ram.
sey ought in fairness to have stated that two
years ago, in 1857, a financial panic was
imminent. He should have stated that up
to that time Minnesota had been State of
consumers and not producers; that her peo-
pie had hitherto been living upon the
capital flowing from the richer States in
the East that the industry of her citizens
had not as yet developed her vast resources
and that, therefore, the moment financial
storm burst over the East, distrlst was felt
regarding Western enterprises and Western
speculatiOns that at that moment the in.
f1ux of foreign capital ceased, and that the
result was, Minnesota was for a time pros
trated and was, by the very nature of
things, driven to the exercise Of her energies,
the fruits of which will, in due time, be seen
in the teemiDg riches with which our fruit.
full prairies abound, and which only the toll
of the husbandman is required to develop.
(Applause.) The honorable gentleman
might also have given resume of his own
connection with this very currency question,
and have mentioned the resistance-the
persistent resiStance-offered by the State
Administration to the friends of the railway
companies with which Gov. Ramsey was
identified up to last June, when he resigned
the position he had up to that time held in
the Minnesota and Pacific Railroad Compa-
ny. With your permission, l will review
briefly Alexander Ramsey's position in con-
nection with these railway companies. AS
soon as what is called the Five Million Loan
Bill was passed, and when the first ten or
twenty miles of their road was graded, the
Minnesota and Pacific Railway Company
made application to Gov. Sbley for the
issue of the bonds. The Governor refused
to issue the bonds, and for the reason that
the trust deed of the Company provided for
they possible issue of thirty millions of
first mortgage bonds, whilst the Governor
considered that the constitutional amend
ment gave the State the first lien on the
lands and Embellishments. That provision
read as follows:
"Provided, that before releasing the interest
of the State to such lands, such sale shall be
approved by the Governor, but the proceeds
of all such sales shall be applied to the pay
ment of interest accruDg upon the bonds in
case of default of the payment of the same.
and as sinking fund to meet any further de.
fault in the payment of interest and the princi-
pal thereof, when due and as further secu
rlty. an amount of first mortgage bonds on the
roads. lands, and franchises of the respective
companies. corresponding to the State Bonds
ssued, shall be transferred to the Treasurer of
Gov. Sibley construed this provision of
the statute to require the railway companies
by their trust deeds to give the State first
lien upon all their lands and Embellishments
and the Minnesota and Pacific Railway
Company, of which Gov. Ramsey was a
Director up to the 23d of last June, resisted
this construction. Gov. Ramsey insisted
that the State was not entitled to the first
lien, but was only entitled to be placed on
an equal footing with the other bondholders,
for whom provision was made in the trust
deed. Well, the Company refused to ac-
cept Gov Sibley's construction of the Act,
and they made an application to the Su-
preme Court for mandamus, compelling
Gov. Sibley to issue the bonds. Upon this
application, the Supreme Court decided that
the Governor had misinterpreted the stat
ute, and that all the security the Govern
ment were authorized to take was pledge
of the net profits of the road, deed Of 24O
sections of land, and an amount of first
mortgage bonds uniform in character with
the bonds to be issued to other parties,
thus placing the State on par with, posi-
bly,, thirty millions of other bondholders.
This construction of the act, l. repeat, was
urged by Alexander Ramsey, and strenu-
ously resisted by Gov. Sibley, the head of
the present Democratic State Administra-
ton. (Cheers.) But what next? In con-
nection with this matter, an application
was made for the issue of currency upon the
bonds which had been delivered over to the
Minnesota and Pacific Railway Company,
to the Southern Minnesota, and to other
companies. Gov. Sibley-notwithstandipg
proof was given by affidavit of John w.
North and others, that the bonds had been
sold for IS cents on the dollar, thus estab-
fishing current value for the bonds, as
required by the Banking Law, "a state of
things, possibly, in which they could have
compelled Gov. Sibley to allow the cur
rency to issue)-Gov. Sibley, / say, resisted
this application also. He said to the direc-
-"Gentlemen, you must come down to
the doctrine which / first established. We
will not accept these bonds as the basis of
curroncv unlpsa Won will On rnod;fu vour