The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-12-18
COLU]tM,l3IA. S. C.
Friday Morning: December ID, 1874.
Tho Bonl Quession.

WeE0' pieo8eQ Dy tne flnRnClal Agent
As collateral security for State loans,
and to report their nambers, colors
and. denominations nnd the amounts
for which they were so pledged. This
was done according to the preamble,
in order to discover what had become
Of Sl,756, 500. the difference between
the amount OF bonds received by the
Financial Agent and the amount sold
by him, and which was entirely unac-
counted for, as we'll as to provide
against issuing any bonds under the
ACT to reduce the volume of the debt
IN exchange for bonds in possession OF
persons not actually owning them.
Senntor Dunn, who was chairman of
the committee, made a report so the
Treasurer upon the matter in June, in
which he says that part Of the bonds
had been sold under forfeiture, that a
part had been pledged subsequent to
the time when the authority to so
pledge them had ceased according to
the terms of the Acts creating them,
and also subsequent to the time when
the full amount Of money authorized
TO be obtained on them had been
obtained. The use OF the bonds was
shus doubly illegal. The committee
reports further. that among tho bonds
.soand to have been pledged by the
Financial Agent are S2l5. 900, par
value of the bonds issusd under Aot of
September. 1865, to fund past due
interest on the public debt, ald in.
quires how bonds, which could only be
Issued at the Treasury for specific
purpose, came into the keeping of the
EinGncial Agent to use for different
purpose. They conolnde that they
couid only have gone into his posses
sion either by receiving them directly
from the State Treasurer. or By their
hav,cg beeu exchanged for conversion
bonds and afterwards rc-issued. The
question Of illegality attached to these
several classes of bonds is left by the
committee with the Treasurer to de-
sermine. In his report, Just made to
Tho General Assembly, that officer do
MES the correctness of the statement
of facts upon which the deductions of
the committee are based. He states
the amount Of bonds placed in Kimp-
SONS lands, under the several heads of
Bills Receivable. Land Commission,
Relief Of Treasury. Payment of Interest
aud Conversion Of State Securities, to
have been S9.5l4.OO the sale to have
amoontad to ss,057, 500, and on hand
at last report as collateral security for
loans 81, ,45s.500, which. with the
amount of sales. equals the amonnt of
bonds. He adds that Kimpton holds
.his sum Of S1,456,50 as collateral
security for S6O0,009.77 due him by
3he State. This statement, he says,
appears in Treasurer Parker's report,
and has not been changed since, and is
settlement made by the Financial
Board of the State 10Th, November,
1872. The Treasurer accepted the re-
sponsibility of continuing to fund, dis.
,egarding the objections of Senator
Dunn, as based upon the Irregularities
reported, which he considered as tri-
fling. But the Senator, in o review Of
the report, in the Senate, Wednesday,
shows that the sum OF 81, ,45G, 500 Of
bonds reputed as on hand AS collateral
sec rity was mentioned in the Fund
ing Act as among the bonds to be
Inlod. If it was the property of the
State, it could not be go funded; and
it it was the private property of Kimp-
Ton, protecting loan until it should
be paid, it ought not have been emu
Meraied as among fandablo bonds
But he goos on to say that there was
40 evidence that Kimpton holds thsse
Il, 456, 500 Of bonds as collateral. The
settlement betwoen The Financial
Agent and the Financial Board le-
Dlares, on the other hand, that
s1,C3G. 500 OF bonds, including thoso
*1,456,50C, had been previously
pledged to other parties as collateral