Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-10-21

of the State with various exclusive
privileges; the real condition Of
whose existence as exposed in the
report of its President, Mr.. Rutter,
was that the bank was to be the
agent of the Radical ring in the
Capital, and the ring was to fight the
battles of the bank In the Legislature.
Further there was an indefinite I'M
Outstanding which was literally carried
carried out, that the notes of the mem
bers of the ring were to be eashed
without any critical enquiries as to Sc
curity. How soon under this man
agement the whole was dissipated is a
matter of recent history, and the whole
process cannot be here described, but
this is the statemento of the Trustee for
winding up the concern in his report
to the Legislature, presented Novem-
Der, 1868: THE State has no interest
in winding up the Bank of Tennessee,
except as guardian of the interests of
the people; for not one dollar of its
assets, under the most favorable cir
cumstances are available to pay even
the note holders of the bank"
The revolving details of the contin-
uous stealage of two years which re-
suited thus cannot be given here. Ev-
cry one who desires to know what the
Brownlow administration was under
the auspices of Arnell. Mullins, Bar
bour Lewis, Bosom, Spence, Wines,
Elliot, &C., &c, can read the report of
the special committee of the House in
the appendix to the House journal of
1869.
We find in this report the correspon-
dence of members of the Legislature
with the accommodating Rutter, on
the one hand concocting plans for in
creased privileges to the bank, for
keeping out other banks which were
competing for privileges as fiscal
agents and on the other hand asking
to have notes cashed. Here are some
of them:
Arnell, of Maury, $500.
Richards, of Shelby, $500.
Wines, of Montgomery, $500.
Mullins, of Bedford, 500.
w. K. Hall, Senator, 1000.
This is one way, another was the Sc
curing the predominance and perma-
nency of the Radical party, for which
the fund bled at every pore. A large
sum for instance was given to float the
International police, which was sent
to the cities of Tennessee for the same
purpose as the army which Grant,
Cameron and Taft have sent to South
Carolina this fall. No wonder that
that the school fund melted like snow
in the showers of February and left no
trace behind.
And now the Democratic Legisla-
ture, assuming the responsibility for
the fund stolen by the Radicals, is
paying by taxation the means towards
the school expenses which should be
raised as interest from the stolen furd.
And yet Mr.. Prosser, less than a week
ago, in this very city, had the effrontery
to say that wherever the Democratic
party had gained the predominance in
a Southern State, it had uniformly
swept away the means which the Re
publican party had previously fur
nished for public schools. Prosser,
who was member of that very Legis-
/ lature in which these transactions
were exposed and could not be igno-
rant of them, calculates upon the peo-
pie of Tennessee having short memo
ries, and sometimes we are inclined to
i think he is right; it is at least very
difficult to arouse them to the danger
of any political blunders by which the
Radicals might again attain power.
As one contribution to that purpose
we give this brief abstract of their re-
cord in the management of the school
| fund
.