Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-12-20


fund shall remain a perpetual fund,
which may be increased, but shall never
be diminished; and the income thereon
shall be inviolably appropriated to the
support Of common schools.
The fourth section of the same aru-
Gle reads as follows, viz;
aThe General Assembly shall invest,
in some safe and profitable manner, all
such portions Of the common school
fund as have not heretofore been intrust-
ed to the several counties; and shall
make provision by law for the distribu-
ton among the several counties, of the
interest thereof"
The 9th section of the same, article
provides as follows:
"The several counties shall be liable |
for the preservation Of so much of said |
fund as may be entrusted to them, and |
for the payment of the annual interest
thereon. = -s-s
These provisions of the Constitution
sacredly dedicate the Sinking Fund to
the edHcation of the children OF the
State, and require the Legislature TO
provide for the safe and profitable in
vestmeut of so much thereof as had not
been previously to the adoption of the
Constitution, intrusted TO the several
counties of the State.
1t is proposed by this bill to give the
Board of Commissioners of the Sinking
Fund an unrestricted discretion to lend
more than half a million of dollars OF
this fund without prescribing any secu-
rity, any rate of interest, any limit to
the time for which the loans shall be
made, or as to the amount which shall
be lent to each borrower consider
such a discretion as not in accordance
with that requirement of the Constitu-
| ton which demands that the investment
of the funds shall be made in some safe
manner; and although unsafe invest
ments sometimes prove profitable in
their results, yet discreet men viewing
things in the future, and contemplating
the possible and not the actual issues of
an investment, always consider that
which lacks the assurance of safety to
be Improbable.
It may be said that the Board of
Sinking Fund Commissioners is COM
posed Of intelligent, wise, and upright
men, and / grant it all But the theory
of our institutions 10 that the best of
men, when acting in official stations,
: require the restraints of law, and this is
especially true when they are entrusted
with the management of the funds OF
the public. ,l5f0
Hence all the restrictions that are
thrown around the legislative, judicial,
and executive departments of the State
Government BY the Constitution
The General Assembly, too, is com
posed of intelligent, wise, and upright
men, and it would not be violent pre-
sumption to suppose that it will always
thus be composed. Yet the trainers OF
the Constitution have shown an unwill-
ingness to entrust the safety of this fund
to Legislative discretion, by providing in
the Constitution itself that when it il
confded to the counties, TO be lent tc
individuals, the counties shall be liable
in their corporate capacity for principal
, and interest
| consider it, therefore, no imputatior
on the wisdom or integrity of the Sink
ing Fund Commissioners for the Legis.
lature to place them under restrictions
in the management of this fund, similar
to those which the Constitution has i'm
posed on the General Assembly itself
The Constitution requires the General
Assembly to provide for the safe invest
ment of the fund, and this is duty the
performance of which cannot be dele
gated to others; but this bill, by making
{ no provisions for the safety of the fund
in the event of its being lent to individ
uals, attempts to throw upon the Board
of Sinking Fund Commissioners the
burden of making regulations for it,
security. BAH
l would not willingly De the recipient
of such discretion as this bill proposes
and cannot, in any measure, be official
ly responsible for its bestowal on any Of
my fellow-men, however wise and good
they may be- 7'@
The Sinking Fund Commissioners, in
their report made to the Governor, on
the I'd day of January last, after recon-
mending the repeal Of the law providing
for the distribution of the fund among
the several counties of the State, use
the following language:
1--WE also recommend the passage Of
law, authorizing this Board in their
discretion to invest in Indiana State
stocks or loan to individuals, upon the
terms heretofore provided by Jaw. A
J law absolutely requiring the investment
of the fund in Indiana State stocks,
would, we fear, tend to the defeat of
such investment by raising the market
price of the stocks 3Tef
The wisdom of the suggestion con-
tanned in the sentence last quoted can
not be doubted, and the propriety of in
vesting the fund in the stocks of the
State is equally unquestionsble. OBJ
jeet to the bill, however, because it does
not embody the recommendation of the
Sinking Fund Commissioners, by re-
curing them to lend the money, if lent
at all, "upon the terms heretofore pro-
vided by law" The bill proposes to
revive no former law, prescribes no
terms itself, upon which the loans shall
be made, and the only other law now in
force authorizes not the loan of the fund
By the Commissioners, but requires it to
be distributed to the several counties, to
be lent by the Auditors and Treasurers
of such counties upon. certain terms pre-
scribed in the law. The regulations
governing the County Auditors and
| Treasurers in the loan of the fund un-
der the act of 1859 would have no APP
plication to the Board of Sinking Fand
Commissioners under the provisions of
this bill, should it become law.
The reluctance with which I dissent
from the deliberately expressed views of
the General Assembly, is diminished by
the consideration that if the objections
before stated are not well taken, the
same vote that was originally required
to pass the bill is competent to override
these objections; and by the further con-
sideration, that if the reasons assigned
for returning the bill shall be deemed to
be valid, there is yet ample time to pass
q new bill on the same subject, contain
ing the proper restrictions If, there
fore, this bill should become law, and
the possible evils before indicated en-.
sue; or, if failing to become law, tie
fund should remain idle, for want of
proper legislation authorizing its in
vestment, respectfully submit that the
result can not, in either event, be Justly
chargeable to this Department.
CONRAD BAKER
The Democrats and the Negro Voters.
At the State election held in Massa-
chusetts on the first Tuesday of last