Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-05-29
New York Times. NAV %. !


on the 18th inst, and became law as chap
ter 29S of the laws of 1880:
An Act to protect the rights of citizens of this
State Owning and Holding Claims Against
Other States.
Section /. ANY citizen of this State, being
the owner and holder of any valid claims
against any of the United STATES of America,
arising upon written obligation to pay
money, made, executed and delivered by such
State, which obligation shall be past due and
unpaid, may assign the same to the State of
New York, and deliver the assignments thereof
to the attorney general of the State. Such as
sIgnments shall be in writing, and shall be
duly acknowledged before an officer authorized
to take acknowledgment of deeds, and the GER
t6cate of such acknowledgment shall be duly
endorsed upon such assignment before the de-
livery thereof. Every such assignment shall
contain guarantee, on the part of the assign
"r, to be approved by the attorney general, of
the expenses of the collection of such claim,
and it shall be the duty of the attorney gen.
eral. on receiving such assignment, to require,
on behalf of the assignee, such security for
said guarantee as he shall deem adequate.
Sec. 2. Upon the execution and delivery of
such assignment in the manner provided for in
section l of this act, and furnishing the secur-
ity As in said section provided, and the delivery
of such claim to him, the attorney general
ceeding, in the name of the State of New York,
as shall be necessary for the recovery of the
money due on such claim, and the said attor-
ney general shall prosecute such action or pro-
ceeding to final Judgment and shall take such
proceedings after Judgment as may be necessary
to effectuste the same.
Sec g. The attorney general shall forthwith
deliver to the treasurer of the State, for the use
of such assignor, all moneys collected upon
such claim, frat deducting therefrOm all expen-
ses incurred by him in the collection thereof,
or his legal representatives, shall be paid said
money by said treasurer, upon producing the
check or draft therefor of the attorney general
identity.
Sec. 4. This act shall take effect imme-
distely.
The law which is printed above passed the
present legislature without attracting the
slightest attention. 1t was not printed, nor
10 1t known to have been debated; but it is
sufficiently important to be worth no little
attention. Probably the cause of its quiet
passage through this legislature was because
the same bill was passed by the last, when
it was pretty thoroughly discussed; but Gov.
Robinson vetoed it, as might be expected.
Gov. Cornell signed the present law on the
18th inst. A thorough presentation was re-
Gently made in the columns of the Times
CT the movement of certain holders OF Ten
nessee repudiated bonds to enforce their
rights against that State. The law above
given looked like part of the same move
ment; but it seems is is not, though it has
| their sympathy, and may, in time, have their
more active support. Mr.. G. Amory Stevens,
the chairman of the committee of
the Tennessee bondholders, explained that
| their suit was quite different thing. Their
| bonds were a first lien on the railroads of
Tennessee, and they were trying to enforce
their rights by ordinary course of law. He
was warmly in favor of trying the question
of the liability of State, as might be done
| under the new law, and he regarded its pas
sage as part of the same general movement
| in the cause of honesty. He was afraid,
however. that if judgment were obtained
under the law, it could not be collected; but
| still, he was in favor of trying.
The actual promoter of the bill in the
legislature, and the man through whose per-
| severing efforts it was carried through last
year and with happier effect this year. is
Mr.. John B. Manning, broker, of Wall
street. Mr.. Manning, in fact, is said to
have done the thing single handed, and to
have paid out of his own pocket all the
| costs involved in the affair. He epoke
freely on the matter yesterday. He said
that the original bill was his,
and now, that it had become
law, they proposed to test the rights of
| citizens as against dishonesty in States. 1t
was State under the shadow of the CAPT.
tol; "we believe" continued Mr.. Manning,
chat the State is well able to meet its
| obligations if it were willing to do it. We
| think that its repeated evas1ons, subterfuges,
and regulations have been dictated, not
by poverty, but by pure dishonesty, and
| we are going to try to put stop forever to
this whole business of State reputation,
Virginia has repuniated her Gnte-bellun
| debt, about which there never was the
shadow of question of its perfect legality,
| and of the State having received every cent
for which it gave its obligations. Then,
there is large portion of
it's debt which it assigned to West Vir-
gnia, and We propose to see about that,
too" In answer to question, Mr.. Manning
| said that they also proposed to take in every
State which had repudiated foremost among
them being Minnesota. b This. State, with
| black stain of reputation upon her, had had
the impudence to present claim for the
Presidential nomination. Indiana was an
other State which would be attended to. Mr..
Manning introduced the reporter to his as
sociate, Mr.. E. j. Hanks, who, he said,
could give more points on the law than he
could.
Mr.. Hanks said that the law was copy, or
nearly so, of one passed by the legislature of
New Hampshire in the sessions of 1888.
It was foond, on making the preliminary
movements for bringing suit under it on
repudlated bonds, that the New Hampshire
lawyers, or the leading ones among them,
we're in much doubt upon the matter. They
thought that the State would be likely to be
thrown out of court on the demurrer that q
trustee, as the State would be, could not
bring suit Certain holders of repudiated
bonds then presented them to the State alb
solutely, 80 that it could bring suit as princi-
pal and that was the state of affairs now.
And, said Mr.. Hanks, the decision of such a
suit as that will not settle the very question
which we want settled; that is wheth-
or one State, as trustee, can sue an
other. It is time that this business of a
State using its Sovereignty" for no other
purpose than dishonesty and the cheating of
its creditors should be brought to the test.
The holders of repudiated bonds proposed to
carry the question to the end; to seek the
last means that law or constitution gave
them to get justice. One of the difficulties
he feared would be in the way as the start
was to find an attorney general willing to
take the great responsibility of pushing what
might be in political sense an unpopular
suit. He was ready to concede, however,
that the lawyer who should be successful in
getting favorable decision on case of such
vast importance would be placed thereby in
toe front ranks of the profession, and
nave acquired q national fame. This
might be strong stimulus to an ambitious
man Granted, however, the suit was
brought, it would take two or three years to
get decision on the demurrer which would
certainly be put in; and when in the end,
Judgment was given for the plaintiff, the
collection of the judgment would be very