Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-01
Communicated.
The Compromise Election next Mon.
F 6aV

49, A-uAtSAs .-s
am q plain man, and this compro-
mise election Of lawyer Jones' is some.
thing new to me. I never was much on
compromises, anyhow, and | have been
thinking seriously of this one, and won
dering if it was constitutional What
has been puzzling me most is this: the
City subscribed for two hundred thou sand
dollars Straight Line stock. and has paid
one hundred thousand Of it, aud heap
of interest, and now lawyer Jones comes
and says there is one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars more due, and he will
compromise for one hundred and City
thousand dollars. - q
The thing has troubled me to that de.
gree that / have been TO see my lawyer
about it, and you may know that when l
am driven to go to see lawyer or
doctor, things are serious. Well, l asked
my lawyer how it happened that the city
only took two hundred thousand lollars
in Carpenters road, and had paid long
ago for4 one hundred thousand dollars
and teen paying interest on that ever
since, and now owes one hundred and
sixty thousand dollars, that lawyer Jones
wanted to compromise and take one
hundred and City thousand for2
My lawyer said he was not so sure of
that. He said be had law book that
had trial in it between Carpenters
road and the city of Evansville, that
might have something in it on the sub
ject; so he got the book and found the
trial. He said the book was Indiana
Reports, fifteenth volume, and that law
yer Jones was lawyer for the city in that
case, which was about these hundred
thousand dollars in bonds. l had heard
before that lawyer Jones used to be the
city's lawyer against Carpenters road,
and it troubled me TO think he had turn
ed against the city, aud was trying to
make the city compromise hundred
thousand dollar lawsuit for hundred
and fifty thousand dollars; but they told
me he was to have half he could get out
of the city, and / always head that
when lawyer tended to case for half
what he could get he got all he could.
But l don't think lawyer Jones is doing
right in this case, and | think he will
find out next Monday that there are a
good many people besides me who don't
think so either. AS said, my lawyer
found the case he was looking for, and
in the case there was set out the whole
subscription of John s. Hopkins, Mayor
of the city of Evansville, for the two
hundred thousand dollars of stock in
the Straight Line road, word for word,
Just as it was written when the stock was
subscribed. | need not write out the
whole article of subscription, but il had
four conditions to it. l will give you the
Sd condition: upon condition that the
said certificates of stock, so to be issued
to the city by said Railroad Com
pany, shall bear interest at the
rate of seven per centum per annum,
from the time they are issued until such
time as The said railroad shall be cons
pleted from Evansville to Indianapolis. f"
There, says my lawyer, this subscription
is the contract between the road and
the city, and it says the bonds are to
bear interest at seven per cent. per an
mum, and the stock issued by the road
for the bonds is to bear interest, too, at
seven per cent. per annum, till the road
gets to Indianapolis, to which it has not |
got yet, so that the interest is the same |
on both sides, and has been running as |
long on one side as the other, and sup
posing lawyer Jones is right about his |
bonds, that never were issued, bearing |
about which there may be some |
who doubt, it is quite as clear that the |
stock that never was issued bears inter.
est, as that the bonds do. And further, |
says the lawyer, the city did issue the
first one hundred thousand dollars of /
bonds, and has paid about sixty thous
and dollars of interest on them-for
helped to pay it--ahd has never, as l
have heard tell of, got any interest on
the stock that they got from the railroad
for their bonds Now, says my lawyer,
it seems to me there is another clear
sixty thousand dollars that the railroad
owes the city, and sixty and sixty is one
hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
which leaves to lawyer Jones and his
clients, only about forty thousand dol
iars 70 compromise on. out of his one
hundred and sixty thousand Be-
cause, says he, this suit is not like that
where the bondholders sued the city, they
were innocent parties, perhaps, but this
SUIT that Jones wants to compromise is
where the railroad company, or possibly
its administrator, (for it is dead) sues
the CITY, and neither of them can be
called innocent parties, and if the inter-
est 90 all the stock subscribed by the
city is not just set off against the bonds
claimed, supposing the city to have no
other defence, the railroad being insol-
vent, am at loss to see how Justice
can be done on the premises. Saws I.
lawyer, am a plain man, but what YOU
say looks just as plain to me as lady's
waterfall Of a clear day. Well, says he, |
that third condition in the subscription
looks to me more like wind fall, as far
as the city is concerned, than water.
fall And if lawyer Jones don't see it
lOK. ! think ntha- ,,ao.,Ic Eli