Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-10-14
$S,522,53s 05

1t had to meet this expenditure:
Proceeds of sales of bonds un-
der act of 1864, chapter 49,. $526,1S 90
Proceeds Of sales of defense
loan bonds under act of
1868, chapter 235............ 1904 1906 As
Proceeds of the bounty tax
under act Of 1868, chapter
1856, from January, 1S64,t
September 80, 1SS0....... 4,O57,O40 96
From certain repayments..... 138,S37 So
In all".......... ............ $8,6S4, 1859 90
This plain statement shows that the whole
fund derived from the defense loans of 1864
and 1868, and from the bounty taxes from
1864 to September 30, 1890, exceeded the
amount paid by the State for bounties and
for interest on the loans which it had created
and the expenses paid for sales of the loans
by the sum of $16l,S21 GA.
Is il not, therefore, perfectly plain that the
act of 1868, chapter 1856, contained within
itself no effective provision for the payment
at maturity Of the loan which it created p
The loan, authorized by the act, aided by
the amount obtained under the act of 1864,
chapter 10, and by all the bounty taxes i'm
posed under the act of 1868, from that year
until 1880, barely sufiiced to pay the sums
actually appropriated and directed to be paid
to soldiers by the acts of 1864 and 1865, and
the interest on the loans of 1864 and 1868,
created for the purpose of making such pay
ments.
How perfectly idle, therefore is 1t to com.
plain that the sinking fund, provided for by
the act of 1868, chapter 1856, was not so
maintained as to extinguish the debt created
by that act at its maturity when as has been
seen, the amount of the whole tax provided
by the act of 1868, chapter 235, was necessa-
ry to the payment of the bounty debts,
chargeabe upon the treasury, which the
General Assembly in 1864 and 1866 had con-
tracted to pay. Is it supposed that it was in
the power of the State treasury officers be-
tween 1868 and 1890 TO protect the sinking
fund created by the act of 1858 at the ex-
pense of those TO whom the State was in
debted, and to whom the acts of 1864 and
1865 and their supplements, had actually
appropriated the money SO duey
The simple fact is that the General AS
sembly in 1868, while intending to fulfill
the obligations of the State, miscalculated
their amount The debt, which II created,
was nevertheless q debt incurred in the de-
tense of the State. IL was debt not affected
in the smallest particular by any limitations
contained in article 3, section 81, of the con.
stitution of 1867 1t was and is debt,
which may be properly extinguished by the
creation of new debt, before or at It's ma.
turity, without the violation of any consti.
tutional or other obligation.
In order to illustrate the management Of
the finances Of the State, under the party
by which we were selected to fill our re-
spective offices, we present the record of
what was done between 1870 and 1880.
Debt of State on September
80, 1s7O..."....... ....-..$13,317,475 n
1870, chapter 422, and 1874,
chapter AZ, for Deaf and
DUMB Asylum........,...,..... s95,OOO 90
1879, chapter 1856, and 1876,
chapter 1858, for Maryland
Hospital for Insane 465,O00 90
1874, chapter AGO, Normal
School building ..............r 100000 90