The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-06-20
THE LAW ON THE STATES lNDEBT.
EDNESS.

THE LAW ON THE STATES lNDEBT.
EDNESS.
Speech Of Judge +. Il. Land, Delegate
from Caddo.
We invite the attention of our read
ers to the remarks of ex-Associate
tutional Convention, upon the report
of the Committee on the State Debt.
The report is from the Picayune, and
not very full, but the legal aspect of
the Debt question Is presented with
sufficient clearncss to command serious
consideration.
Judge Land said in substance: Our
inquiry into the true facts and legal
principles in relation to the public debt
of the State carries us back to Il period
prior to the war, but shall not go
further back than 1853. On April %,
1853, an act was passed by the Legisla-
ture authorizing q subscription to the
stock of the New Orleans, Opelousas
and Great Western Railroad Company
to the amount OF 81, zoo, 600. On the
same day acts were passed authorizing
subscriptions to the following compa-
nies:
10 the New Orleans, jackson and
Great Northern Railroad, 81, 600, 900.
To the Vicksburg, Shreveport and
Texas Railroad, $500, 1000.
To the Baton Rouge Plank Road,
$50, 5O,O00-amounting in all to $3, Csc, 600.
An act was approved same day, au-
thorizing the issue of bonds for the
payment of the subscriptions to the
stock of these companies.
above acts:
stThat payment for said shares shall
be made in bonds of the State in man.
ner and form as provided by law, and
for the ultimate payment of said bonds
and the interest thereon, the shares of
stock herein required to be subscribed,
with the revenue that may be derived
therefrOm, shall be set apart and re-
main forever pledged"
Article Ill of the Constitution of 1852
says:
"Whenever the Legislature shall con-
tract debt exceeding in amount the
sum of 100000, unless in case Of war
to repel invasion or suppress insurrec-
tion, they shall in the law creating the
debt, provide adequate ways and means
for the payment of the current interest
and of the principal, when the same
shall be irrepealable until principal
aud interest are fully paid and dis
charged, or until the repeating law
contains some other adequate provision
for the payment of the principal and
interest of the debt.'
The question is whether the law con-
tracing this debt of So, 600, 900 contained
adequate provision for the payment of
the interest and principal, as provided
in Article Ill?
This Limitation is indivisible, fail
urc to provide for both rendering the
act UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The legislative,
executive and judicial departments
cannot ratify their own unconstitutional
acts or of ono another; the people alone
can ratify such acts.
the jurisprudence of the State. What
ever is done in contravention of a pro-
hibitory law is void. G. c., Art. II.
Whatever is done in contravention
of a constitutional provision is null
ity. A judgment rendered in violation
OF a constitutional provision is a nullity
so absolute that no action of nullity is
necessary to set it aside. 2 A. 2l, 2O6,
224 3 A. 246, 277, 436; 4 A. 563; 5 A.
II; 6 A. 569. Absolute nullities can
not be ratified. 3 A. 1928.
1t follows from these principles that
bonds issued in violation of the consti-
tuition could not he validated either by
tho action of the Funding Board or by
the decisions of courts that such bonds
are tainted with a nullity that is fatal
and incurablc.
Tho only ways and means provided
for tho payment Of the debts created in
1858, was a provision that the stock
subscribed by the State should be
pledged to secure the payment Of the
principal of the debts. In point of fact
and law, the stock was never pledged
to the bondholders. A pledge is, under
all systems of laws, a real contract a
delivery of the thing is not conse-
quence, but tho very essence OF a con-
tract. ca number of authorities are
here cited.)
What cannot be delivered cannot be
pledged. A. 221.
An unexecuted promise to pledge
gives no privilege or pledge to the
creditor. 26 A. 81.
The certificate of stock must be de-
1ivered to the Pledge. (Numcrous
authorities are hero citcd.)
These authorities all establish the
legal proposition, that to constitute a
pledge delivery of the thing is Of the