Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-07-06
GOV. PORTER's LETTER.
A History of the State Debt-HOW
1t was Created-Its Present
Status-HOV 1t May
BE Met.

TWAS Created-Its Present
Status-HOW 1t May
BE Met.
Although the letter which we
subjoin is not, strictly speaking,
official, it derives the Importance
from the official position of its
writer, as well as from his eXcep-
tional opportunities for acquiring
information. He only does his
duty in imparting such information
relating to the public debt as he
may possess, and certainly no time
is so seasonable for imparting it as
the present; for if it is his duty to
furnish information from time to
time, to the State Legislature, when
convened in general. assembly, it is
also important that the people
should receive similar instruction
when engaged in the momentous
duty of selecting candidates to rep
resent them in that assembly. We
have only therefore to commend it
to theseriOus consideration ofvoters,
of those who have now to determine
by their votes what shall be the
policy of the Assembly when con-
vened.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, NASH
VILE, June %, 1S78.-W. F. Har-
rington, ESD, Editor Carthage Her
ald-Dear Sir: Your letter is re-
ceived. The inquiries you make
cover a wide field, but l will en-
deavOr to answer them without
entering into too many details.
THE GERM OF THE STATE DEBT.
During the administration of
Gov VIM. Carroll, the Legislature
of the State passed an act. author
ling the issuance of five hundred
five per cent. bonds, of one thousand
dollars each, in payment Of the
stock to which the State subscribed
in the Union Bank of Tennessee.
The bonds were issued in January,
1888, and delivered to the bank
and constituted the first issuance of
bonds by the State. The business
of this bank was successfully con-
Quoted, and, during its existence
paid in cash, to the State, upon this
original subscription, dividends
amounting to SeUen h1Dldred and
tHirty thousand dollars. One
hundred and twenty-five of these
bonds are still unpaid.
In the Legislature of 1856, a
plan of internal Improvements was
inaugurated by the passage of an
act providing for a general system.
The passage Of this act was recon-
mended in a report of great power
by a committee of which Mer-
edith p. Gentry, a. O. p. Nicholson
Robertson TOpp and others were
members. This act provided that,
whenever the railroad and turn
pike companies, then incorporated,
should furnish evidence to the Gov
ernOr that twO-thirds of the stock
necessary for their construction was
secured by private subscription, he
should subscribe for the remaining
third of the stock for the State, for
which the State was to issue five
and-aquarter per cent. bonds, of one
thousand dollars, to mature in
twenty-five years. Two hundred
and fOrty-siX of these bonds were
| issued-One hundred and nine to
the Lagrange & Memphis railroad !;
sixty-six to the Nashville, Muir
freeSbOre & Shelbyville Turnpike
Company thirty-OnetO the Gallatin
Turnpike Company, and forty to
H. I oINo,o,, o1I NosI,1viIIo F7,,rp
pike Company. More than one
third of this issuance of bonds are
unpaid. The canvass of 1887 deVel-
Oped a powerful sentiment in favor
of further State aid to works of in
ternatiOnal Improvements. Gov.
Cannon, in his message of that year
referring to the aid already granted,
spoke of its "salutary" influence
upon the country, recommended an
extension of the system, with addi-
tiOnal state aid. AT the session of
1878, the Legislature passed the
act to establish
A STATE BANK,
to raise a fund for internal improve
ments and to aid in the establish
ment of a system of education. Two
and a half millions of dollars, in six
per cent. thirty-year bonds of one
thousand dollars, were issued to the
bank. One million of the bonds
were sold at par for cash. The re-
mainder We're held until the passage
of the act of 1910, when they were
returned to the COmptrollera and can
celled. Gov. (afterWard Pres. Polk
recommended to the Legislature the
sale of these two millions and half
of bonds, and suggested that if they
could not be sold within the United
States at par, that they could be con-
verted into sterling bonds, with in
terest payable in Europe. The mon
ey derived by the bank from this
sale of bonds constituted a part of
its capital stock, from which the
State received nearly two millions
of dollars as dividends.
Thirty of the bonds issued to the
banks were reserved, under the act
of 1878, and one hundred and eighty
one others of them are outstanding
and unpaid.
TURNPIKE BONDS.
There was issued one million one
lluilOlIGu anu GlSlIi.N -GISl III lilOAoslItu
dollars in five per cent. thirty-year
bonds, under the act of 1S37-S, to
the Franklin & Nashville, Columbia
& Pulaski, and to about seventy
other turnpike companies, in pay
ment of One-half of the capital
stock, to which the State was now
authorized to subscribe. This
amount, added to that issued under
the act of 1856, and to the thirty
two thousand dollars issued under
the acts of 1852 and 1854, to the Car
thage & Rome, Carthage and Harris
VILE and Carthage, Alexandria &
Red Sulphur Turnpike Companies,
amount to 81 ,434 100000 granted to
turnpike companies, $3.50, 100000 of
which has been cancelled, the rest is
unpaid. Mr.. Polk, in his message
to the Legislature, in October, 1889,
urged ga rigorous prosecution of
judicious system of internal inn
provements. 1t was during his
term and that of Gov. Jones that