Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-19

The communication TO the Legislature
from the attorneys for the State in the de-
linquent railroad cases, which we published
yesterday morning, came to us at so late an
hour Friday night that we had no opportu-
nifty to read it before placing it in the hands
of theprinters. We should have been glad
to have said nothing further upon this sub
ject, but the communication of the attor-
neys for the State requires that we should
make some further remarks. They say:
The course of the Legislature and the
public press, although altogether er pdrte,
have created such a furore in the public
mind that it would be difficult for the I'M
designed to allay it in any reasonable time.
If our course was er pdrte, it was not
more so than the proof taken to fix the fees
of the attorneys, there having been in that
proceeding no one to represent the interests
of the State, no Cross-examination Of the
witnesses made, and no one but the attor-
neys themselves consulted in their division
of the seventy-two thousand dollars in the
bonds of the State. all this was s'altogether
er pGrte, " and although our course was er
parte we have yet to learn that we made any
misstatement about the attorneys. They
say that under the circumstances they
thought and still think: n-e rvE
They were justified in receiving the
bonds, and holding them under the lien
given them by law, and by the decree of
the Chancellor, and received them aecor-
dinghy under the order of the Court. These
bonds they were ready to produce at any
time.
Our information is that the attorneys,
instead of holding the seyenty-two thousand
dollars in bonds under ''the lien given them
by the law" divided them among them
selves taking them at the market value in
Wall street and estimating in their calcu-
Iation the coupons, and upon this calcula-
ton each took and appropriated his share
of them, when the Chancellor had made no
decree fixing their fees and had only ordered
the bonds tobe turned over to the Commits
sioners or their attorneys. The Chancellor
has as yet made no decree on the report of
the Clerk and Master as to their fees, based
upon the eT-pGrte testimony before him.
If the commissioners had been
consulted, and they should have, by posi-
bility, agreed that fifteen thousand dollars
piece was a reasonable fee for the attOr-
neys, we are quite sure that they never
would have consented that the attorneys
should appropriate seventy-two thousand
dollars in bonds of the State in payment of
their fees, without the approval of the Legis-
lature. II, as they allege, 'they have the
right to complain of the manner in which
the matter was taken up by the Legislature,
upon mere rumor, without any opportunity
being given them to explain the facts, much
better right has the Legislature, as the Rep
resentatives of the people, to complain
of the manner in which the attorneys ap-
propriate these bonds without authority of
the Chancellor, the Railroad Commissioners
or the Legislature. We cannot concur with
the attorneys SHAT the whole proceedings
on their part are unexceptionable; that the
fees allowed [none have been allowedl were
reasonable, and that they are justly and
legally entitled to them"
For reasons both of a public and private
nature our duty in this matter has been an
extremely painful one to perform, but both
public and private duty has required its
prompt and explicit discharge