National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-01-08
DEMOCRATIC DEBT
IN THE SOLID STATE OF ARKANSAS.
How It Was Piled Up in the Ante-Bellum Days
Reputation Rampant at the Present Time
What an Arkansas Traveller Knows
and Says About the Same.

| - SCrlDc saw IOlOuel Z. ~ k11l4, lux
Arkansas traveller attentively perusing the recent
| interview in THE REPUBLICAN with Judge o.
Loehrane, of Georgia, upon reputation in thai
| State, and it at once came into the mind Of the
| truth-seeker that there had been Reputation in
Arkansas, and that Colonel Hill could most prob
| ably tell all about Il. In his usual insinuating
way our scribe said:
Colonel Hill, can you tell me about the repu
diation in Arkansas?"
"Oh, yes" responded the colonel; 81 can tell
you the whole story
"Well, let me have it, and faith I'll preDt it,"
"The ante-beIlum debt of Arkansas was made
by the Democrats between 1888 and 1S41. They is
sued bonds and sold them to raise money for the
State ana the real estate banks. No interest was
ever paid upon these bonds up to 1868; in fact
they were virtually repudiated. One set of the
bonds was for $4,000, and upon their face de-
elared they could not be sold for less than par,
Two distinguished Democrats detailed to sell
these bonds. They went to New York and failed,
and then came to Washington and hypothetical
| them to some bankers here for s125,000. Of this
sum, it is said, they borrowed SIS 600 and turned
over to the bank $4,000. The Washington bankers
failed, and the Arkansas bonds fell into the hands
of one of their creditors, an Englishman named
Holford.
when Arkansas was reconstructed in 1868, and a
Republican administration came into power it
found that the State indebted one million dol
lars, with about thirty years interest at six per
cent
There was only fifty miles ofrailroad in the State
notwithstanding the fact that the United States
Government had, years before the rebellion, given
TO the State land to aid in building railroads
than it gave to Illinois. There was one grant
taking every alternate section in strip ten miles
wide from Cairo, on the northeastern border Of the
CfpTD a. -
about four hundred miles; and another from Mem
phis, on the east, to Fort Smith on the west dis
lance of three hundred and twenty miles. The
Republicans found the levees broken and de-
stroyed and
THE PEOPLE TOO POOR
to rebuild them by individual effort AMI they did
not find any public free schools or schoo1-houses
there being only twenty of the latter in the
State, although the United States had given the
sixteenth section in every township, amounting to
nearly one million acres of land, for school pur-
poses.
an short, they found the State without money or
credit, without internal improvements of any
kind, and without schools. The first step they had
to take TO change this condition of affairs was to
restore the public credit. This they did by fund
ing the old bonds, with the unpaid interest added
into thirty-year six per cent. bonds A railroad
aid law was then passed, authorizing the Governor
to issue to any railroad it built SIS 900 per
mile of Arkansas six per cent bonds, 10. be known
as railroad aid bonds, or $1,000 per mile if the
road had received aid in lands.
THE ROADS RECEIVING THIS AID
were required 10 pay the interest on the bonds
loaned them into thetreasury ofthe State together
with a sufficient amount TO constitute sinking
fund to pay the bonds off when due.
Zone section of the law provides that any road
failing to pay its interest and sinking fund into
the treasury the State treasurer should take pos
session of the road, put receiver III charge, and
after paying running expenses apply any remain
ders to the payment of interest. Under this law
Governor Clayton gave cid to four roads, the Mem
phis and Little Rock 49, miles; the Little Rock
and Fort Smith, 1S5 miles: the New Orleans and
Pine Bluff 115 miles, and the Arkansas Central,
30 miles all of which are built making a total of
49, miles of road built through this State aid,
which, think, amounts to SG,50O,00O. Besides the
roads actually built by this aid the fact that these
being built caused capitalists to invest their
money in building the Iron Mountain and South
ern which extends four hundred miles through
the State.
THE REPUBLICANS ALSO ISSUED
three millions of bonds known as 'levee
bonds to aid in rebuilding the levees destroyed by
the war. These bonds were redeemable i'll swamp
Of tIp4. sAHaral million
acres, given to it by the United States'
did the Republicans while in power pay inter
est on this entire debt?"
"They did, and besides built and kept full of
scholars over two thousand schoolhouses."
"How is it MOVE"
Elisha Baxter was elected Governor in 1872 by
the Republicans He Immediately sold out to the
Democrats, and from that day to this not dollar
of interest has been paid upon any of the lands"
Have they been formally repudiated?"
was an amendment offered to the constitution last
year repudiating the railroad aid and part of the
Holford bonds, but it was defeated by Republican
votes, added to those of few Democrats, but no
interest has been paid upon any bonds, except
those issued by The Democrats during the Brooks
Baxter war"
What is there to show for the debt of Arkansas
made by the Republicans, and which the Demo-
Gratis propose to repudiate?"
" -Four hundred and eighty-five miles of railroad
built directly by these bonds and four hundred
other miles built because of The building of the
State-aided road beside two three hundred miles
of leveeS."
"What is there to show for the debt made by the
Democrats"
You spoke Of schools. What is the difference
in the condition of the free schools under Repub-
lican and Democratic rule in Arkansas?"
"As said before,
THERE WERE NO SCHOOLS
when the Republicans came in They built over
two thousand schoolhouses and had schools every
where. So far as was possibIe-that is, where it
had not been stolen or Squandered-they utilized
the lands granted by the Government; they &C
cepted the grant for an agricultural college and
very properly located it at Fayetteville the most
Democratic part of the State. 1 cannot speak of
my own knowledge of the present condition of the
schools, for, though citizen of Arkansas, have
not kept posted on that subject. am informed,
however, that there are not onehalf, probably not
over Il quarter, Of the school privileges now that
there was under the Republicans, though the lat
ter, in addition TO having built all the school
houses, paid about $4,000 a year interest the
public debt, and the Democrats pay none"
Twill give you one instance of the way in which
the Democrats managed the schOol-fund of Arkan-
sas. Colonel Henry Page was treasurer under Re-
publican rule. He was reelected in 1872, but was
forced to resign in 1874 when Governor Baxter sold
out to the Democrats and Baxter appointed General
r. C. Newton, a prominent Democrat and COM
nander of the Baxter forces in the Brooks Baxter
war, to succeed him. Page settled up his accounts
md got clear receipt. In August the Democrats
held an election at which A. H. Garland, the pres
ent Senator, was elected Governor and General T.
J. Churchill treasurer.
Newton had been treasurer for five months, and
when he came TO settle uP there were ffty-four
thousand dollars in United States bonds belonging
to the Agricultural College gone-'gone where the
voodbine twineth' Newton, in direct violation Of
4 statute which required all State money to be
Kept in the vaults of the State-House had put this
money in a private bank and the bank had failed"
Was that money ever collected"
"No. Governor Garland was on Newton's bond
~ State treasurer. They tried to collect it out of
he broken bank, but never out OF Newton or his
securities"
Then the cry of the Democrats that the Radi-
calls loaded down Arkansas with debt is false?"
Absolutely false. The only debt the Arkansas
people labor under is that made by Democrats.
The section of the railroad aid law which required
he State treasurer to take possession of roads