The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-12-12

ought to be adopted in our opinion, be-
cause it will pay a members expenses,
and, if the session is long one, he would
not lose money by his expenses, while
on a salary oil one hundred and fifty dol
lars, if the session should hereafter reach
two or three months, as it will in all
probability do next time, he would lose
badly. A per diem of three dollars is
low enough, and is the fairest plan'
Therefore we hope it will be adopted.
THE BILLS OF THE BANK
of the State will in all probability be a
subject of very grave discussion before
the session is over, as there is an evident
tendency on the part of their holders to
rush them into the treasury for taxes in
every possible way. A bill authorizing
persons to redeem forfeited lands was
introduced in the House, and contained
proviso that persons could pay off such
Indebtedness in Bills of the Bank of the
State at par. The last Legislature very
wisely passed an act requiring these bills
to be funded into bonds at fifty cents on
the dollar, and if the present Assembly
had passed the act proposed, it would
have been equivalent to backing down
from the last act, and after discussion by
Messrs. Murray, Brown, Aldrich and
Cooke against receiving the bills, and
Messrs. Simonton, Miles, Haskell and
others in favor of receiving them, the
House struck out the clause, thus show
ing that the sentiment is against receiv-
ing them at higher rate than was
agreed on at the last session. We can
not vet tell what will be done with the
question of providing for the retirement
of these perplexing bills, as the Ways
and Means Committee has not in any
way indicated its views of the subject.
THE DIVORCE LAWS
of the State have been amended in the
House so rs to strike out the ground of
desertion as cause for divorce, and also
that where divorce is granted
on the other ground, it shall only allow
the party who procures the divorce the
privilege of marrying again. This
change was advocated by Messrs. j. NJ.
Hutson, Miles, Murray, J. J. Hemphill
and w. K. Bradley, and opposed by
Messrs. Brown, Blue and R. R. Hemp
hill. The bill was amended so as not to
include cases already begun, and is now
before the Senate for its consideration.
THE BOND DEBT
has been occupying considerable atten-
ton, and the sentiment in favor of re-
pealing the Bond Court is growing much
stronger than was expected. The SEN
ate voted against repeating it by is to IA,
but that vote was not test, as side issues
entered into the decision, and when it
comes up again the Senate will certainly
go in favor of the repeal. In the House
the discussion has just begun, and the
advocates of repeal, who were very few
in the beginning, are gaining by the
time which is given for reflection, and it
is now certain that the vote will be very
close. When the repeating resolution
came up, Mr.. Haskell moved to strike
out the resolving clause, upon which
motion Mr.. Murray obtained the floor,
and spoke in opposition to striking out
the resolving clause. The following re-
port from the Register is fair synopsis
of the speech:
lst. That the act creating the Bond
Court is of doubtful validity, and was
adopted as compromise between the
advocates of the consolidation act as it
stands and those who favored an elimi-
nation of fraud from that settlement,
with the implied contract, at least, sthat
the whole merits of the question at issue
should be presented to the court for its
That this had not been
done, for the testimony of Kimpton had
been kept from the court when that testi-
mony was the most important of any
with the case, for he was the
Financial Agent of the State who
hypothecated the State bonds and had
the documentary evidence necessary to
fully make out the States case in the
matter of the contested bonds. He ex-
pressed the belief that Kimpton had
been kept out of the hands of the officers
of the law in South Carolina by q combi-
nation of the bondholders, who do not
wish to allow the court which is to de-
eide this case to have all the testimony
that ought to be before it for just de-
of the matter. He said that
he could not prove this to be the case,
but that the conscience and reason of
the people of the State would convince
them that it is so, and in support of the
belief referred to the fact that Kimpton
was ueleuueu Wy SuHlloctiSiii, Aio WI
federate in placing the bonds of this
State on the market, and that the reason
the Governor of Massachusetts gave for
totsurrender Kimpton was that
he was not wanted for Indictment, but
to give testimony before this very court,
that the bondholders had the
ear of the Governor of Massachusetts,,
and that they desired to prevent the
State from obtaining Kimpton's evil
dence. He then claimed that the agree
ment for full hearing before the Bond
Court had not been complied with, and
that the advocates of the bondholders
now ask the Legislature to sit still, and
allow this court to render decision on
partial testimony, which hazards the in
terest of the people Of the State.
I'd. He claimed that the Legislature
should not be controlled by the argu-
ment which appeals to their sympathy
for the bondholders, inasmuch as the
people who are oppressed by high taxa
ton are also entitled to sympathy. He
claimed article 9, section "a, of the con:
requires that registration of
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