The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-11

UARY IL, 1872. = -
fact that, within the past year, the South Caro-
lima Railroad has provided for and liqIldated
its bonds that were endorsed by the State,
amounting to s2,093,3 40.
But the amount of endorsed bonds, given
above by the committee, Is subject to reduc-
j tion OF $4,000, ,9D0. that being the portion
endorsed for the Blue Ridge Railroad Compa-
ny. and which have never been put upon the
market, and have, therefore, not yet formed
part of even the contingent liability.
In addition to these remote and purely con-
tingent liabilities, the committee have improp-
erly embraced the following items, which, at
present form no part of the actual debt, In
order to make up an astonishing aggregate,
I namely: 7t'.
Bonds held by sluklng fund commits =.
Bonds sSa due july l. is7i, and redeemed
l. aud cancelled, and now In treasury: 212,0W
There should be further deducted the Col.
| lege land scrip bonds, stated at 5000, 900, and
how held In trust by the financial agent, ss
those bonds, after having been computed by
The committee In their debt statement, were
again edded, as If they were an additional
Issue.
Making these deductions, which are clearly
proper, even according to the figures given
In the committees own report, and admitting
that every bond OF the State, delivered 10 the
| financial agent, Is lost to the State, or must
be redeemed at It's face value, the total bond
ed debt Is shown, by this very report. dlvested
| of all exaggerations, to be SIS. .759 ,306 II, or
ss602 II less than Is set forth In the treasurers
exhibit. as given In my last annual message.
| And here wish 1t to be distinctly stated AND
understood, that OF the $1,000, 900 purchased
or borrowed by the Issue OF bonds, s2,2o9,ooo
der former administrations and were left as
burden on this.
SLAP AT HURLEY AND wHrPPER.
I deem simple statement of facts, known
to every member OF the land commission ad-
visory board, sufficient vlndicatlon of my
action in connection Herewith. The actof
March 27, 1869, to provide for the appointment
of land commissioner, declares, In section
8: "That the Governor, comptroller general.
State treasurer, secretary OF State and attor-
ney.general, are hereby declared to be an sd.
| visory board to the land commissioner; and
said Commissioner shall, In all the duties i'm
posed upon him by the provisions OF this act.
be governed by their instructions and advice"
| It will thus be seen that the law vested IN me
one-htth Of the joint power Of the board. This
| was represented by my one yotei and TO that
extent, and no further, am responsible for
tne aamin.s'ra'son q 'ne 'anu 'o"lo'sn'
Among the many purchases that have re-
Gently been subjected to severe criticism, / ap.
proved two, which are alleged, with some
Justice, to have been sold at rate far above
their true market value. These two purchases
Beaufort. The men who sold them, and thus
imposed upon the State poor lands, at an ex.
orbitant price, are now among the most pro-
minent assailants Of the advisory board. They
are Mr.. W. ]. Whipper and Mr.. Timothy Hur.
ley, members of the House. In both these
1l ooytxy ovnry nc n IN
chase, until The land commissioner, Hon. B. U.
DeLarge, had frat inspected the lands In per-
son, and reported fayorably on their purchase
mention these indisput8ble facts, to show
that did endeav0r to throw around every
purchase of lands, to which gave my approv-
al, all safeguards, In the interest OF the State.
THE STATE ARMS.
The Joint report Of the committee imputes
to me the responsibility for the expenditure
for arms for the State, and to meet Their false
%pstson to state The sTR apH .hs wSsu fsa
finally obtained from the General Government
wers found not to be of the class termed SER
viceable, being secondhand Springfield muz-
zle-loading riHes-far from being ''satlsfac.
tory arm" It became, therefore, necessary to
have these arms altered aud put 10 serVieeable
condition, in order that might fully arm and
equip, If necessary, the force contemplated by
the Joint resolution Of February 8, 1869, 'au.
thorIzlug the Governor to employ an armed
force for the preservation OF the peace" II
any additional authority were needed to war
rant an expenditure Of money to convert the
arms received from the government into ser
viceabe arms, such as impending exlgencies
In the State seemed 10 demand, 1t may be
found in the act of March l6, 1859:
srequirlng- the armlng and equipment or
the militia; and, indeed, the arms
were given by the Government of the
United States for this special purpose, and
nearly every State In the Union has expended
money In converting arms go received Into
Improved breech-loauers.
In reference to the contracts for the altera.
tlon OF the arms, would state that they were
made by the acknowledgement, who had au-
thority from me TO have the arms altered at
the lowest practicable cost. I am not ac-
quainted With, nor have ever seen, to my
knowledge. Mr.. Pond, the contractor, or any
person employed BY him to make such altera-
lions. Ny whole knowledge OF the transac-
ton was derived from the report or the adju-
tant-general. The. payments under these
contracts were made direct by the financial
agent. have never signed 8 check for any
OF the payments for making the alterations OF
the arms, nor do I know to whom the pay
ments were made.
FHE MILK IN THE CoCoANUT
I now propose to show the real object OF
this report, which ia, indeed, "fearfully and
wonderfully made" The report itself gives
one OF the motives that :impeIled II; for 1t re-
commends, on page SO, that ''the financial
board should be selected by the State Senate