Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-04-02
rHE ToRBErT ISSUE.

The report Of the Joint Committee OF
the General Assembly ON the Torbett is
sue, alluded to recently in our Nashville
specials, has made its appearance in
print. as the Legislature ordered 25OO
comics printed at once. Two questions
were mainly kept in view; l. Is the
State bound, by law or morals to pay
the New or Torbett Issue, OF the
Bank of Tennessee? 2. Is the case
now pending in the Supreme Court
as the agreed case, printed copy oil the
record in which is herewith filed, the
same being there by appeal, such case
aud SO prepared that the question oil the
liability of the State and the Bank OF
Tennessee can be fairly tried and deter
mined? We call attention to the fact
that the learned Chancellor who rendered
an opinion and pronounced decree
in this case held that the new issue
was placed upon the market in
the usual course of trade, and
not in the aid of the rebellion; also, that
the demands of the military board could
have been met without increasing the
circulation Of the bank, and therefore
there was no military necessity, pressure
or force for putting out the new issue.
Bnt If the dispositions of Dempsey
Weaver, H. l.. Claiborne, Francis b.
Fogg and Isham G. Harris, which are
submitted, had been taken and censld-
cred as whole the question of fact
would have been settled; the learned
Chancellor would have been compelled
IN arrive at a different conclusion, and
no decree could have been pronounced
in .avor of the holders Of the so-called
Torbett issue. In April, 1861, the Mill
tary Board, without having a dollar on
which to check, and in utter and open
violation of the charter of the bank,
commenced checking on the Bank Of
Tennessee, aHd drew on the bank for
war purposes, until in January, 1862, it
amounted to the sum of 81 GIG, 403 81.
The facts satisfy the minds Of the COM
mittee that the assets Of the bank were
exhausted by the Military Board for war
purposes, without, as Mr.. Weaver says,
having one dollar in money to their
credit in the bank To continue: Gov
ernor Harris regarded the Bank of Ten
nessee aud the Union and Planters
Bank as integral parts of the State, and
/ know declares Mr.. Weaver with en-
phasis) his Governor Harris policy
was that they (the banks) should be
managed and used in the exclusive in
terest Of the Southern Confederacy.
The committee expresses regret that
these facts do not appear in the agreed
case. Governor Harris believes that as
Governor and Commander-in-Chief OF
the army he had the power and right to
use the means necessary to the mainte-
nance of that army, and declares in his
affidavit that whenever and wherever
money had been refused he should have
compelled the banks to supply the neces-
sary demand. The committee declare
that the Torbett issue should not be
paid until the people have decid ed to
pay the entire war debt Of the State.
The facts shown by the proof herewith
presented, and on which the conclusions
of this report are based, do not appear
in the agreed case in the Supreme Court,
aud as the appeal was from an interloc
utory decree, the cause still being in the
Chaneery Court, the committee report
that IN their opinion the interests Of
the State require that the appeal should
be dismissed, and an effort made to open
the case in the Chaneery Court, that the
proof bearing upon the question, and
not now in the record, should be pre-
scented for consideration by the court
1t may be that necessary evidence can
be gotten before the court by an addi-
tional agreement Certain it is, in the
opiaion of the committee, that the
agreed case does not presents a state
of facts as are shown by the proof to
exist. Nor does it contain such a state
ment Of facts as is believed to be neces-
sary to authorize proper judicial con-
illusions to be drawn