New-York tribune., 1872-08-15
GEORGI1 BONDS.

The Report of the Legislative Committee
appointed to investigate the issues of bonds by
the State of Georgia since July a, 1SGS IS be-
fore us. 1t rccites a story of gigantic robbery,
which has driven the Committee to utter once
more a word we had hoped never again to
hear in any legal proposition, in any State in
the Union. 1t holds out Repudiotion as the
only adequate remedy for the monstrous
wrongs OF the State.
We propose now to take from this report only
a brief history Of the rObberies perpetrated
under cover of constructing the Brunswick
and Albany Railroad. The road was in opera
ton in 1868 to Station No. 9, distance Of
about Gj miles west of Brunswick. In that
year the iron was taken up by the Confederate
authorities. In the Spring of 1869 bill was
carried through the Georgia Legislature, by
bribery, authorizing and directing the State TO
guarantee the first mortgage bonds In aid
of the reconstruction and completion of the
road at the rate of $4,000 per mile. These
bonds were to bear six per cent interest in
gold, and, by the terms of the law, were to be
certified by the State Treasurer on the COM
pletion of ten-mle sections. BY further act,
approved Oct II, 1870, the Governor was en-
powered to indorse the bonds instead of the
Treasurer, and was further required to take
up the Company's second mortgage bonds,
amounting to S235O,0O and to pay the Company
for the same in seven per cent gold bonds of
the State of Georgia at the rate of $1,000
per mile for $4,000 per mile of the second
mortgage bonds. The Company was thus
TO be assisted in building and rebuild
ing its road by the State of Georgia at
the rate of $4,000 per mile in six and
seven per cent gold bonds. The cost of con-
structing such road is estimated at about
S21 900 in currency. The contractors were to
receive all the bonds, and $4,000 per mile In
preferred stock, for their work The forego-
ing facts are sufficient to show that the whole
business was no better than barefaced rob-
berry of the State no private capital being in
vested, yet from the testimony it further ap-
pears that the road was very badly built; that
by cOlusion with Gov. Bullock, bonds were
sold for scores of miles of road which have
not been built to this day, and finally that the
two laws were directly in conflict with the
State Constitution, which expressly declares
that the Legislature shall not loan the credit
Of the State " to any company in which there
ID HoJ ducduy dn Cqudi dlnounI HNcSlcu ny
private persons"
The parties most deeply implicated in these
transactions are the late Gov. Bullock, who
has fed, his right hand man, Hannibal /.
Kimball, who has also disappeared, the firm
of Henry Clews g. Co. of this city, and j.
Edwin Conant and William |. Conant, con-
tractors, who, together with Messrs. Clews and
Kimball, were TO divide the profits of the
contract, or in other words, the plunder. The
testimony seems to show that Mr.. Clews
knew of the fraudulent issue of bonds in ad-
vance of the completion of the work, and that
he was fully aware of the iniquitous character
of the law of October II, 1870. 1t was
certainly his business TO know of the pro-
vision of the State Constitution which, in the
view of the Committee, deprives these bonds
of all semblance of legality. lie was Treas
urer of the Railroad Company and neces-
sarily had great deal to do with the no.
torious, dishonest men who devised tho rob-
berry. There does appear TO have been one
honest man connected with these financial
transactions,--M Angler, the State Treasurer.