Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-10-30
A GIGANTIC LOBBYs CHEME.
Another Plan 60 Tax the People 20 Death.
Are We 10 Pay Debts Incurred by the
Rebellion

Col. A. S. Colyar, late independent John
son candidate for Governor, thus arraigns a
Democratic lobby scheme to make the
State pay the debts incurred by the rebel
lion. He says:
No question has been presented to the
people of Tennessee of more importance
than the Torbett issue. The question is
alarming because everywhere find active,
intelligent, persistent advocates of the
States liberality for the money, while
nobody seems TO be talking against it.
Nobody seems to have taken the pains to
collect the facts and combat the views pre-
sented on the other side
A thorough investigation of the fact has
satisfied me that the State is not bound
for, and ought not to pay this issue, and as
| sincerely believe the powerful efforts of
combined friends before the Legislature in
having it funded or made receivable in
payment of taxes, [ shall discuss it for the
reason that if the people fully understand
their rights no Legislature will dare yield
to the persuasive influences of oilly-ton-
gued lobbyists-au uniformed constituent
cy may be robbed and the robbers go un-
punished.
Do we owe this money, now not less
than a million and half, and, by many,
estimated at three millions?
The facts are that, after the military or
ganzation of Governor Harris, constitute
ed mainly of the military and financial
board for the defense of the State against
the United States, and, after the military
bill of the 9th of May, 1861, G. G. Torbett
was made President of the bank, and
through the year 1861 signed these notes,
and they were issued by the bank.
WAS this done in aid of the insurrec-
ton or rebellion against the United
States ?n is the question under the four
FOR Ia It'll, il 70 LII
question is concerned as follows.
"But neither the United States nor any
State shall assume or pay any debt or obli-
CATION incurred in aid of instruction or
rebellion against the United States, or any
claims for the loss or emancipation of any
slave, but all such debts, obligations and
claims shall be held illegal and void" 1
do not controvert that these notes We're
regularly issued, and / admit there was i'm
time no military order to Torbett to sign
the money for military purposes, and
there was no act of Assembly directing it,
This is all the friends of the money claim
Now the facts are that Governor Harris
had put the Bank of Tennessee in the
hands of the Military Board, and they drew
on it at will, without one dollar to check
on. The board checked as follows: In
May, $685., 9l3 in June, S767, IA ; in July,
81 ,639, 2l3; in August, 1868, 449 in Sep
TENDER, 1884, 641 ; in October, S20S, l43 in
November, S130,93 in December, Sl13,-
751. This not only exhausted the bank
but by the same process the Union and
Planters banks were hurt, financially
destroyed, and / have the letter of Cover
nor Harris as well as the letter of VIM. A.
Quarles, Bank Supervisor, both saying in
substance that the large amount taken from
| these two banks was taken by force. These
! letters sh ow that these two banks had no
choice and were given no discretion.
1 have examined the monthly balance
of the amounts due from the Bank of Ten
nessee to the Planters Bank, and find that
| it run up at one time to 1856, 000 not dol
lar of which could the Bank of Tennessee
pay, because of the heavy demand of the
military board. These checks We're all
drawn by the military board on the Bank
of Tennessee, but the other banks were
forced to take them. The first of May,
| 1861, the issue of the Bank of Tennessee
was 81, 42S, Alb.
To meet the demands of this military
board the Torbett issue was signed ana put
out, and on the first of January, 1862, the
| issue amounted TO 80, 53l $50, an increase
in eight months of 1882, 1862.
Col. Hal. Claiborne, who was clerk il
the bank, assures me that this alarming in
crease was to meet the demands of the mil
itary board. And Mr.. Weaver informs m,
that the cashier always gave a reason fo
not being able to pay the checks drawn 10y
the board and taken in by his (the Plant
er's) bank, that they were exhausted b,
the demands of the military board. AM
do not the checks drawn by the board OF
the bank show this?
Under this pressure was not this money
signed to aid, if you please, in the defens
of the State as expressed by the act of tn
Legislature?
In 1865, after the schedule to the Con
stitution condemned this money, it wa
regarded as worthless. Spectators com
menced buying it, and bought a great de;
at one and two cents in the dollar. b
some unaccountable oversight, this proviS
T ion was not excepted out of the gener;
. death warrant in the Constitution of 1877
9 and the spectators soon controlled tn
: whole of the Torbett issue. One man sal
= to me the he and his folks controlled mi
a lion. BY an active, talking, persisteI
combination, the money has been run u
: to forty and fifty cents. This was easil
o done when few men held the whole of j
\ Now it is whispered around constant
that the Supreme Judges think the State
bound for this money that some of Il
lower courts have so decided, anal that tn
is the opinion of all the best lawyers in Il
i State. In this way an opinion is to
: formed which will justify the Legislatu
& in being lobbyed into IA payment, by fun
d ing, or what is more desired, making
o good in payment in taxes.
Il BY this means the State is to be run
2. two years more without money, while Il
d people are taxed TO death, and all for Il
lr benefit of men who are making owe
u grown fortunes by specializing upon d