The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-02-15

1882, to revise our State Constitution. Tt
evils resulting from the State engaging
ne banking to relieve the people from debt, an
,e the barthens Of taxation, were then forseen
u few members Of the Convention. A prol
- osition forbidding the legislature to pledge til
D faith of the State for any purpose was vote
down. Subsequently, another requiring
l. vote of two thirds of each branch of the lee
y islature, to pledge her faith shared the sam
y fate. Near the close of the Convention, tn
+ ninth Section Of the seventh Article of tn
+ Constitution received the concurrence of
n small majority. The proviso to said sectiol
4 simply states, ''that nothing in this section
shall be so construed as to prevent the legisla
ture from negotiating further loan of on
t and half million of dollars, and vesting tn
: same in stock reserved to the State by tn
charter of the Planters Bank of the State 0
Mississippi" No express power is given t.
{ issue any more bonds to the Planters Bank
. 1t does not affirm the constitutionality of tht
r charter of the Bank, but simply leaves it as il
was under the old Constitution. Admitting
for the sake of argument, that it recognized
the sale of the half million Of Stats i.e-s-s
pragisisSsy su..ie, and pssani.tsd ti,s negetla-
ton Of the other million and a half reserved
f to the State to take stock in the Bank, il
could only authorize the sale, in accordance
with the provisions Of the then existing charter
of the Bank. That proviso does not authorize
any Fundamental change Of the charter By the
legislature.
The charter as it then stood, provided that
the faith Of the State of Mississippi, is hereby
pledged to make good all the losses which
may accrue from deficiency of the funds of
said bank or by other means, in proportion
to the amount of stock which the State shall
possess therein, and that each and EVERY STOCK
HOLDER SHALL IN HIS PRIVATE AND Ma
TURAL CAPACITY, BE HELD LIABLE To
EACH AND EVERY PERSON WHO SHALL SUFFER-
DAMAGE or LOSS by the MEANS AFORESAID TO
MAKE GOOD SAID LOSS OR DAMAGE in q RATIO
PROPORTIONAL to the AMOUNT of STOCK WHICH
HE, SHE OR THEY SHALL HOLD IN SAID BANK"
A subsequent amendment limited the liabili-
ties Of the stockholders to the amount of stock
respectively holden by each.' 1t authorized
the stockholders to elect their directors so soon
as they had subscribed two hundred thousand
dollars. This provision alone made the char
ter unconstitutional inasmuch as it did not
give the State the appointment of a proportion
of the directors equal to the stock subscribed
for by "the State" The first Legislature
under the new constitution, assembled at jack
son in January 1888. A large majority of
the members favored further and enormous
increase of the banking capital of the State
| The existence Of the original charter of the
| Planters Bank was limited to the 1st of
March, 1916, and the capital to be subscribed
by Individuals, was fixed at ONE MILLION OF
DOLLARS. Previous to the year 1888 only
| few hundred thousand dollars had been sub
LII s,.ls a. - - Al
| bank. In the aggregate, those stockholders
had borrowed a sum much larger than the
amount of their stock. The Legislature, on
the fifth of February, 1888, passed an act
further to amend the charter of the Bank
The second section of the bill gave the stock
holders SEVEN DIRECTORS and the State but
SIX, thus taking the control Of the bank from
the State, and giving it to the private stock
holders, and enabling them to choose the Presi-
dent, Cashier and all other officers, appoint all
the directors and officers of the branches and
manage the bank as they pleased. The act
further required "books Of subscriptions for the
capital stock unsubscribed for to be opened
and gave the subscribers twelve months to
pay for the same. 1t further authorizes the
board Of directors to increase the capital of the
stock reserved to individuals, ONE MILLION OF
DOLLARS, which was speedily done; and like
the first million. it was generally paid for in
sroCK NOTES. BY the same act, the charter
of thashank was extended until the first Of
March, 1870, and the Governor required to
issue another batch of State bonds, to the
amount Of one million five hundred thousand
dollars, bearing six per cent per annum inter-
est. The bank was authorized to determine
upon the amount and form of the bonds res
pectively, and authorized and empowered to
negotiate" the loan. These were fundamen-
tai changes in the charter of the bank and |
made after the adoption of the revised consti- |
tuition of 1882. They are all much more OBJ
noxious to constitutional objections than the
act supplemental to the charter of the Missis-
sippi Union Bank. They increased the capital |
of the bank ONE MILLION OF DOLLARS, |
EXTENDED IT'S CHARTER TWENTY |
YEARS, took the control of the institution |
from the States, and gave it to reckless stock |
holders.
In addition to what is so clearly said above |
as to the true meaning Of the provision in our
present Constitution cited in the interest of |
the fund-mongers, we will state what is known |
to many that the late Gen. Quitman who was |
the author of the clause, always declared that |
it was the object of the Convention to leave |
the question Of the constitutonality of the |
Planters Bank Charter an open one-neither |
to endorse nor to condemn it-and it is sig |
nifcant fact not to be forgotten that although |
he had always been classed as Bond payer, |
in the classification Of parties on the Union |
Bank Bond question, when Governor of Mis- |
sissipp, he utterly ignored the Planters Bank |
l., hal.a vi,ll
firmness and candor, that such would have |
been his course, if his opinion had been clear |
that the present Constitution authorized the |
issuance of the Bonds and rendered them |
binding upon the State? But even admitting |
the Interpretation of the Minority that it was |
the design of the trainers of the Constitution |
to authorize the issue of the Bonds, is it not |
clear as the noon-day sun, from the undispu-
ted facts above presented, that the conditions
upon which they were authorized, IT author |
ized at all, to be be issued, were entirely chang
ed, and that thus they were rendered COM |
pletely null and void.
OF these facts, the und-mongers who pur-
chased them could not have been ignorant; /
but high rate of interest prompted them to
take the risk. "Like reckless gamblers, the |
hope of game tempted them to incur the haz-
zard." Let them bear the consequences.
The Minority say:
"No person who has ever been authorized
to speak for the State, with one single excep-
tion--the late Governor McNutt-and his
opinions may be found in the public archives
of the States, both for and against the validi-
ty Of these bonds-has ever. expressed the
opinion that these bonds were not Just and |
legal and binding on the State. Governor
after Governor who has filled the Executive
Chair has proclaimed the liability of the State
and urged their payment or adjustment. The
Legislature has again and again recognized the
liability of the State upon them, and the
courts have adjudicated their validity. Every
to their payment &c. aa
We are panied to witness this hyena de-
scent into the grave Of the great and good
McNutt. man whom the people loved be-
cause he was the fearless champion of their
rights. But his memory will suffer no in
jury. The worm feeds at the root of the |
towering oak, yet it stands erect in its majes-
ty, defying the wings Of the tempest and the
tread Of the earthquake. We deny that Gov.
McNutt ever expressed the opinion that the |
people of Mississippi ought to pay the Plan
ters' Bank Bonds; and we ask for proof to
the contrary. But we do not claim for him
inhllibility. Like other men, he was Liable to
err, but he was not SO welded to a false idea |
that be would not abandon it when convinced
of his error. It is sufficient to say that his |
matured opinions are given in the above ex-
tracts.
Let us briefly sum up the wonderful In
accuracies which make up the foregoing
paragraphs from the Minority Report
Every intelligent reader win bear US out in
the assertion that it is budget Of errors, in
voIviDc the stafernent NJ what ;c ;y,sr,ark .,,d