The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-02-24
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COLUMBIA, February %.
The Senate was engaged from two to six
o'clock this afternoon in the discussion OF The
Infamous Blue Ridge bill. The majority ofth
finance committee reported on the bill favor
ably, but Nash refused to sign the report, aud
presented the following protest:
s.As member of the finance committee ol
the Senate, protest against the recommenda-
uon contained In the report OF said commlttee
on this bill, on the ground that eectlon TWO OF
said bill authorizes and requires the State
treasurer. to deliver to the president OF the
Blue Ridge Railroad Company certificates OF
fndebtedness to the amount OF eighteen hun
dred thousand dollars, as q condition preee-
dent of, the surrender byIssid company OF the
balance of the four millions OF bonds issued
under the provisions Of the act Of September
18th, 1858, said eighteen hundred thousand
dollars being largely In excess of the amount
required to pay the Indebtedness Of the road,
for which the State Is now liable, and which
was reported to the committee by the presi-
dent OF said road TO be not more IMAM elSnC
hundred and twenty-f9ur Thousand dollars. /
also give notice that shall at my leisure make
- - BEVERLY NASH.
-Ccrbil made along and powerful speech in
opposition to the OIL. Il was by'far the ablest
speech made In, the Senate this .eesslon. he
called it scheme to swlndle the State out OF
MS interest Id the Blue Ridge Railroad, and to
swindle the State out of two millions besides.
he showed that the bill sought to absolVe the
company from Its two hundred thousand dol
lars OF Indebtedness to the State, and to
swIndle the State out Of eighteen hundred
thousand dollars more In money.
Leslie, Arnimo and Whlttemore spoke In
favor of the bill, and Cardozo and Nash
against 1t. s...,l.
An amendment: by Duvall to strike out
thewords ''eight hundred thousand" after the
words soiie million was lost by eight yeas
to twenty nays. The bill was finally ordered
to itsthird reading by twenty-five yeas to SIX,
nays, Those who voted nay were: Holcombe,
Wilson; Duvall, Corbln, Cardozo and Mont
somery. BiemaD, Democrat, } and Nash voted
IT'S rumored that Governor Scott; will veto
thebtIl, but in that event tits likely to pass
over tue veto. The revenue bond scrip author
izedin the bill is already printed aud in the
hands of Patterson, showing the confidence OF
the Ring in the ultimate success Of the scheme,
The House passed Jeryey' election bill, The
metropolitan police bill was not taken up. 80
The House met In night session at seven
O'clock Jand resolved Itself lfintoa committee OF
the whole, aud invited Comptroller Neagle to
make an address.
Neagle, to whom need hardly say the inVi-
tatinn was no surprise, made along speech. he
estimated the expenses of the current year, az.
follows: Ordinary expenses, $3.50, ,oooi interest
for the current year, s7ls,00O; Legislative e3-
penses, s40O, 900; printing, $500 900, deficiency,
100000; total, $2,46s,0OO. This would. re-
auire State tax of fifteen mills. The aggre-
gate tax Of the last four years was twenty
eight and one-half mills, being an average
of seven and one-slxteenth mills per annum.
Adding fifteen mIlls, the aggregate OF the
five years would be forty-three and one-half
mills, or an average of eight and two-thirds
mills per annum. The taxable property OF
the State, he said, is one hundred and eighty
three million dollars, Of which eighteen MIL
lion dollars is exempted, leaving one hundred
and sixly-ave million dollars. The Legtsla-
ture should have levied larger taxes In former
wears. Now, he said,l the time had come
when the trouble must be met The Legisla-
turs had authorized large expenditures, and
but small taxes, leaving The state officers no
option but to Issue bonds on poor credit.
Bowen ssyagely attacked Neagle's speech.
They we're asked, he said, to, vote OF On exorbi-
tant, and dunpreceden tax levy to pay q debt
of which nobody knew the amount. he;
warned members thatif they voted this tax, 1t
would not be safe for them to appear before
their, constituents. The issue of the next
campaign, he believed, would not be between
Republicans and Democrats, but between
honesty and rascality; and he. predicted that
the rascals would inevitably be hurled from
power by an outraged people. PICKET.
PROCEEDINGS OF THURSDAY.