The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-03-31


contract with all who hold our funded OF
registered bonds, and in that contract %
apart, or made it the duty of the Treas
urer to set apart for that eDcltGsSUe purpose
so much Of the revenues as may be neces
sary to pay the interest, and suppose the
Treasurer refuses to set apart $50 much
as may be necessary" according to the
contract, can che courts compel the per
Torrance of this duty without the State
being sued?
This l submit is not an open question
The cases of Osborn Us. the United
States Bank, 9 Wheaton, 738; Davis VS..
Gray, 16 Wallace, 2OS; Board of Liqui-
dation vs. McComb, 2 Otto, 531, are alb
solutely conclusive upon this question
30 far as the Supreme Court of the United
States is concerned.
If the money the revenues-as col
lected is charged with trust by contract,
then the very fact that the State cannot
be sued is the reason given why the
courts will take hold of the officer and
compel him to perform the trust.
1t is sometimes said that other machin-
cry will be adopted for collecting and
paying cut the revenue. This needs no
reply Fraudulent devices by a State
will not stand in the way of enforcing a
contract. The courts will treat all who
handle the revenues as being bound by
the contract.
The writer has been prompted to bring
this question before the legal profession,
because he happens to krlOao, as a fact,
that the question has been submitted by
the holders of our bonds TO their COUNSEL
who returned an answer favorable to the
bondhelders, and the question will have
to be met.
Knowing this fact, and believing that
the courts will, by judicial process,
reach our revenues, the writer cannot
for moment agree to the proposition
that, for thc-sake of harmony in the par
ty, the settlement of our State debt must
be postponed.
Under the impending danger, such
course would border closely upon idiocy.
Our creditors now prefer a compromise
to litigation. The Republic ans in the
State not only insist upon the validity
of the debt, but that we are able and
ought to pay the whole debt The
Democratic party is committed to a
compromise. This they can now get;
not after litigation, III The question should
be decided against US.
To postpone he settlement is to decide
that the courts shall settle the question;
hence the Importance Of having the pro-
fession speak "ut
The writer, III few speeches over the
State last year, venturcd to say that the
Supreme Court of the United States was
progressive" Has this been verified
by the recent decisions? When the court
holds that marshals may be appointed
by Federal authority to supervise and
cOntrOI State elections, and that one citi-
Zen of State who murders another uiti-
zen of the State is not amcuable to the
laws Of the State, if the former
happens to be in the employ of the Fed
erai Government, are we not progress
ing?
desire to ask of the legal profession
of Tennessee one question::
Who, among the lawyers, haying
a lawyer-which he is
not willing to sacrifice, will, when a suit
is commenced in the Federal Court by
the holders of coupons, under the third
section of the funding act, say to the
GOvernOr-I can defeat the action; l can,
before the Supreme Court of the United
third section? l am asking this question
Of lawyers, not men who are simply
of these men would
undertake to do anything. Memphis
has a bar not surpassed by any city of
The same size. Nashville has good bar.
Knoxville, Chattanooga and Jackson
nave strong men, and it is notorious that
many of the best lawyers of the State
i've in the coultry towns. If any man
If State reputation will say that he can
protect the revenues of the State when |
his suit is brought trust the american
will give him the space to be fully heard.
# no such man comes forward, then |
hall we postpone or settle
Those who deslrctO inform themselves |
IN the question of our State debt would |
10 well to send to Eastman, Howell &
Cavel's for a cSpy of the little book late
y written by the Hon. Jordan Stokes.
t is, perhaps, the aDlest paper ever
written upon the legal aspect of cur
state debt A. s. g.