Orangeburg news and times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1875-1877, 1877-09-22

amounting Approximately to $780,
600. The tax Of the fist yeAr was
81 mills upon heasscsscd valuation
OF the property in the St,te. TLis
tax was expected to yield Sl,2OO,O00
or s1,300,000. The fiscal year Of the
State closed OH October 31st, 1868.
We went into office in July, and n
special session Of the Legislature was
called Immediately. Instead of i'm
posing n tax to cover the expenses of
the current ycar us " eli as the year
ended October 81, 1869, we only i'm
posed one tax, as we had then an
honest intention to relieve the people
Of the State Of all but necessary bur
dens. So we made tax for one year
only, intending to provide for out
standing claims by the issue of bonds.
Of this tax imposed we collected
about thrce-tourths, and the balance
was left outstanding. No extraordi-
nary measures were rcsorte.l to cn-
force its collection, and 1 think that
Judgment was never obtained against
The dclinquents in the courts.
cHAMBERLAIN's PECULIAR BILLS.
Under the Provisional Government t
= law had been passed authorizing the
funding Of all outstanding debts,
interest and principal, up to July 1,
1867 The Legislature, i'll July, 1868,
passed bill to pay all interest due
from July 1, 1867, in gold. This bill
was engineered by the State financial
agent, H. II. Kimpton. He was
friend and classlnate of Cham ber-
lain's, and was in troduced by him to
me as the proper man to be the finan-
cial agent Of the State. He was ap-
pointed by the financial board ~
Scott, Chamberlain and myself. The
bill was regarded by us rs Kimpton's
measure, and he represented that it
would rise the value Of the bonds ma
teriaIly, and enhance the credit of the
State. IN this view he was supported
fs.--..:a1s -
that never knew finan cinl act t O
pass the Legislature which was not
proposed as bill by Kimpton and
sanctioned by Chamberlain. His bills
were always passed as presented In
regard to this particular bill, it should
be added that the interest demand ed
was paid in gold until the winter of
l569-70, when the law was changed,
SO that thereafter the interest was
payable in currency. Kimpton was
himself obliged to obtain the change
Of the act, US it was seen to be impos-
sible to meet the demands upon the
treasury for gold.
In the course of 1868 and 1869 the
Legislature passed acts to provide for
the redemption, at par, of all floating
debts outstanding. ali these financial
measures authorizing the issue Of
bonds were susceptible of two inter
pretations. The wording Of one act
will sufficiently illustrate this point:
''The Governor is hereby authorized
and directed to borrow 81 100000
upon bonds Of the State of South
Carolina, snid bonds to be signed by
the Governor and treasurer, ANA seal
ed by the secretary Of State, to be
payable in South Carolina and at the
New York financial agency The
dcbatable point is whether bonds re-
presenting sl,000,0OO were to be put
OH the market, or whether 81 900 900
was to be obtained by the sale Of
bonds at any price. This point
will take up presently. In round
numbers the financial board was au-
thorized to raise s3,200,00O in tie
year 1SGS-G9 by the issue Of bonds of
the State of South Carolina; 81 1,0OO,-
900 for repayment Of interest on the
public debt Mt 6 per cent, s1,000,000
for the relief Of the treasury at Z per
cent, s500,000 for the redemption Of
Governor O:r's currency, and $780,
600 for the purchase of lands under
the land commission. One million
| two hunlrnl thansnnd dollars ,un 8