The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-12-26
Anaessa,a gmtelligsaeer
Z. q. MURRAY, Editor.
THURSDAY MORNING, deer 26, 1873
FROM COLUMBIA.
OUR EDITORIAL LETTER.
COLUMBIA, s. c., Dec. %, 1875

The pressure OF business upon the LeSiS-
| lature last week necessitated long morning
and night sessions, and the afternoons were
crowded with business of various kinds,
which prevented the preparation of our
usual weekly letter, and therefore We will
attempt in this letter to give brief resume
Of the past two weeks legislation, which
will practically close the work of the ses-
sion, ns Ee will finally adjourn on Tuesday
morning at four o'clock, and thus reach
our homes on That evening in time for the
Christmas holidays, having completed the
work of the Legislature in just four weeks,
/ which makes this the shortest session that
has been held since the war.
! When we left off cur last letter the dis
cussion of the propriety Of abolishing
TIE BOND COURT
was just bcgt1n, and appeared to be quite q
hopeless task. 1t was discussed from day
to day for about three days-Msssrs. Brown,
Clilds, Shaw, Cooke, Moody, R. r. Hemp
hill, w. K. Bradley and Murray adyoca-
ting its abolition, and Messrs. Kennedy,
Humbert, Johnstone, Scarboro, J. ]. Hemp.
hill, Shand, Miles, AIdrich, Buist, Simon
ton and Haskell opposing. The speeches
were warm in interest, and some of them
quite eloquent, while some were to Ger
tain extent personal. or this latter class
was the speech of Mr.. j. j. Hemphill, who
was put up to using certain articles from
the INTELLIGENcER upon the coupon cases
before Judge Mackey to show that Mr..
Murray approved Of the Court, and was
therefore inconsistent in now Mvoring its
abolition. Mr.. Haskell furnished him the
articles, which were sent up from Charles
ton by the advocates of bondholders in that
city. Mr.. Murray replied, showing that he
had read only portions Of the articles,
which, when taken as whole, showed that
his position was at that time in favor of the
| Bond Commissions report, and opposed to
the payment of the fraudulent portion of
| the debt, without committing himself to
the Court He also argued that the failure
to get Kimptons testimony occurred after
the articles were written, and that If he had
favored the Court before, that would have
been enough to change his opinion. He
said that the bondholders had tried first to
break up this Court by the suits on coupons,
and that If the contract was not binding on
them it should not be on the State. He
argued that if the Bond Court decided the
question in favor of the people, the Su-
preme Court of the State or Of the United
States would decide it to be oil unconstitu-
tional court, and thus the question would
return to the Legislature after all. Hewas
in favor of settling the question porma.
nently, so as to satisfy the people, and at
the same time give security 10 the bona fide
bondholders. When the hour for voting
arrived, the roll was called, and the vote
stood fifty-three for abolishing the Court,
and fifty-seven against it. Mr.. Murray
then changed his vote TO the major
ity, so as to move reconsideration, but
the Bond Court men blocked this move by
moving to reconsider and to 10y that mo-
ton on the table, which was warmly sup
ported by Gen. MCGOWAN, and the question
lish DR.. Browns speech i'll full next week,
as he has been too busy to furnish us copy
of it up to this time. Although We failed
to abolish the Court, the discussion did a
great deal of good by showing up the true
character of the debt, which prevented the
APPROPRIATION OF ANY INTEREST
to meet the accruing interest ON the doubt
full debt of the State. 1t required very lit
tie effort to prevent this levy of interest; ;
and as soon as the decision upon it was
made Mr.. Murray offered US section lS Of
the appropriation bill proviso that enough
of the money already in the treasury which
was held to pay the interest on the doubt
full debt, if it should be decided valid, shall
be taken to pay the interest on The valid
and honest debt of the State for next year.
This was fought very hard by the Charles
]. ]. Hemphilt and Others, but was suppor-
ted by Generals Kennedy, MCGOWAN, r. r.
Hemphil and Mr.. Murray, and was adop-
ted by vote OF II to 40. There was then
q motion made to reconsider this vote, and
the motion was laid on the table. The
next night Mr.. Buist moved to strike out
the whole section, but his motion was laid
on the table by q vote Of 10 to 20. Gen.
MCGOWAN then moved to make the money
applicable to the past due coupons Of 1876
and 1877 Mr.. Murray opposed this, be-
cause law had already passed providing
for funding these coupons i'll State bonds,
and took the position that it would be bad
policy to pay these coupons in money,
when the owners OF them were willing to
take bonds, and showed that it would raise
the taxes to take this course, and therefore
he moved to lay Gen. McGowan's motion
on the table, which was agreed to by q vote
of rs to 13. DR.. Brown then called the pre-.
yious question, which was sustained and
the bill passed and was sent to the Senate,
where the section was sustained by vote
of 2S to 6. The consequence of this was to
reduce the tax levy for next year to e
mills for State purposes, and but for the
decrease in the taxable property OF the
State, owing to the agreement Of the Legs
lature to accept the County assessments Tor
the present year, and have new assess,
ment made next year, the amount would
have been still less.
THE TAX FOR ANDERSON COUNTY
will be: for State purposes q mills, for COM
mon schools, mills; and for County pur-
poses, not exceeding mills-sO that the tax
| for next year cannot be more than u mills
| for all purposes, and will be less if the Coun-
ty Commissioners can get on with smaller
sum than three mills. This tax is to be
collected in two equal in.talmcnt,-one-
! half in May and the other in October, with
the privilege to the Taxpayer of paying all
in the last named month by paying pen
atty of five per cent. on the first half. The
cost of advertising delinquent land sales has
also been reduced from one dollar to twenty
five cents, and every consideration which IS
proper has been extended to the citizen.
An act has been passed requiring, land
owners upon the streams i'll Anderson
County, once III each year, to clear out the
logs and brush which are washed down by
freshets. This is measure to assist drain
age and health and properly carried out
will confer great benefits upon the owners
of bottom lands without seriously incom-
moding any one. The fence law hos been
passed for Abbcville, Laurcns and Newber-
ry. The act authorizing divorces in South
Carolina has been repealed, and it now
stands as it did before the war. Cumula-
tive voting has been abolished in the town
of Anderson. The Office of Master has been
created in Anderson, Sumter and other
Counties, and law passed to accelerate
partition, which will in considerable
measure remedy the evils likely to result
from the decision Of the Supreme Court
in reference to the jurisdiction of the Pro-
bate Courts. The bill regulating Trial
Justices in Anderson County has been
changed by bill introduced by DR.. Brown,
so as to allow two at Anderson with sala-
ry Of twenty dollars each, and one in each
township with salary of fifteen dollars
each, for their State business, and the fees
heretofore allowed in civil cases. Messn.
Pinson, Singleton and Newton have been
confirmed by the Senate for Williamson,
Brushy Creek and Garvin, and will hold
their Offices until the Spring of 1880. Ap-
| DOiutmantq will have tn hn made in thp