Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-09
ARKANSAS.
POlitics-The ClaytOn-Baxter Govern
ment-Public Debt-Lead Mines.

LITTLE Rock, ARK, December 6, 1872
EDITORS RsAPPEAL.-Froma a leader cOpi-
I ed from your paper, of the twenty-third
! instant, into the Republican of this city
| of this date, the financial world is erron-
eously informed that the debt of this
State is simply three million dollars.
! This is short of the mark about fifteen
millions. This debt statement is no
doubt copied from this administration
| paper, or from James 2. Henry's mex
piieable work upon
ARKANSAS AND BIER RESOURCES.
/ This amount would be correct if the year
| 1867 was inserted instead Of 1872. That
| sum was the total of the State debt and
| interest at the time reconstruction COM
! menced. Since, however, the debt has
been increased about five times that
amount, or at the rate of three millions
per wear. Ten millions of this debt has
been issued for legitimate public enter
| prises, levees, railroads, ETC., in accord
ance with law, and from five to eight
millions of dollars of this debt has been
fraudently levied upon the taxpayers of
the State in aid of the construction of
fictitious levees and railrOads-levees
fraudulently constructed, worthless i'm
provements and imaginary railroads
on paper. These bonds that have been
issued to the latter have been sold in the
city of New York and elsewhere, and
the proceeds used in the purchase of fine
estates upon Long Island, and the pur-
chase of Iine turnouts, carriages, horses,
lots, ETC., in this and other places, by
B1eritOri0us, and honest, and as un-
selfish public servants that have
been plundering the State of its sub
stance as you can produce anywhere,
BuIlOck's reign and career of plunder-
ing in Georgia not excepted. That the
people of this State will repudiate that
fraudulent debt, estimated all the way
from five to ten millions, the first time
they get an opportunity to administer to
their own internal affairs, through the
sacred right of the ballot and free ex-
pressien at the polls, you need not
doubt. This expression ofthe right to eX-
press their own free and unbiased viii
at an election for State, county and
municipal, or even national, they have
not enjoyed since the present
carpet-saek government has come
into vogue. This state of affairs cannot
last always. Though a large majority
of the voting masses supported the
Greeley ticket and Baxter, the Grant
candidate for Governor, at the late elec-
ton, they selected this ticket as a choice
of evils in preference to voting or cast
ing their votes for Brooks, the sO-called
leader of the Reform movement,
the knave that was instrumental
in fastening this illigitimate debt upon
the people of Arkansas. And vet the
State has been declared over the official
signature Of the Secretary of State as
having gone for Grant. This is simply
a lie, 10 say the least of it. From this
you viii perceive how Arkansas is gov
erned-and is likely to be governed, IN
unless Baxter can be induced to cut
loose from the Clayton wing of thieves
IN office, and those selected to succeed
these fellows. The former-the elected,
with the single exception of Henry
Page, is more thievish than the present
ineumbents. Baxter, Governor, you are
aware, is an old citizen, and reported
and considered honest; and is generally
admired by all the "old residents"
black and white. If he viii follow the
bent and inclinations of the dictates of
his own conscience, he viii drive these
thieves from the borders of the State,
or else cause their arrest and
punishment for their maipractices.
the expectations of the people, as he did
when a member of the lower house of
the Legislature in 1854, the people
will support him to a man irrespective
of party. And use his influence with
the Legislature to pass an act limiting
assessment of taxes to two per cent, and
decreasing all fees and salaries of officers |
to fifty per cent, and Arkansas viii lose
nothing by the exchange of Baxter for
Brooks, the sO-ealled candidate of the
Reform movement. If it were not for
our immense
INTEREST IN MATERIAL WEALTH
of inexhaustible deposits of mineral
ores, coal, iron, copper and lead, and
lead-bearing silver ores, Arkansas
would be bankrupt before another year.
Even with these great mines of wealth,
if she escape a panic mOnetarily
among her people, it viii be the result of
shrewd finsnciering. Those mining in
terests however win have the tendency
to avert this calamity. Among the
most prominent mining interest of the
State is
THE KELLOGG LEAD-sILyER LANDS
in Kellogg lead district, ten miles north |
Of this city. The lead ores produce hun |
dreds of ounces Of pure silver to the ton |
of ore. Large tracts of these valuable |
mining lands were sold to a Memphis |
company of capitalists at low figure. |
The new company cannot help but reap
an immense fortune out of the rich de-
posts of mineral upon their tract of /
land. The most prominent tract yet un-
sold is the northeast quarter of section |
2S, t q, u W, in the hands and un- |
der the control Of Colonel John w. Hop |
kins. This tract is said by old miners
from the mines of Nevada and Mon
tana to possess greater outward appear
ance of rich and valuable minerals, sill
yer, lead and the coexisting minerals 1
than any Of the Kellogg group Of mining
lands. Besides the great value of the
Kellogg lead-silver mining lands, large /
sections of country in this State are lite
rally strewn over with iron ores. Al
most within sight of this city, in
FOurche Cave, an inexhaustible guam
tity of iron ores can be found; every tree
that has been blown over has more or
less iron ores adhering to its roots. And
the western half of the State is underlaid
with immense deposits Of coal, from
inches to six feet in thickness.
And with a settled State government
once again in the hands of the people,
Arkansas viii be the Empire State of
the Southwest. SANDY NIB.