The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-09-05

Fund except in strict accordance with
the provisions of the Internal Improve
ment Act, TO the payment Of coupons or
to the sinking fund IS they might be ap-
plicable. The proceeds of land were not
applicable to the payment of sinking
fund at all, except to the coupons Of In
ternal improvement railroad bonds in
which any sinking fund might have been
invested. The practical purpose of the
proceeds Of sales of land to the payment
of coupons over and above the expenses
of administering the Fund. Not long
after this injunction was granted it was
violated by the Reed Trustees, and all of
them were brought before the Federal
Court on attachment, and, with the ex-
ception of Colonel Gamble, none of them
have ever been formally discharged there
from. In 1872 the court made an order
appointing A. Doggett, Esq, Receiver of
all the property of the Fund, including
the proceeds of sales of lands, taking in
creased supervision and control of the
whole trust, and by its orders then and
previously made, leaving to the Trustees
ing lands, and requiring them to make
monthly reports of all sales and all ex-
penses of managing the lands, and to pay
over monthly all the proceeds of sales of
lands over and above the necessary ex
penses of the management. It was also
provided by orders in the cause that all
coupons should be presented and fled
with the Master in the cause and be ad-
Indicated to be legal claim on the Fund
before being paid. We may remark that
no coupons detached from bonds have
been paid by the Trustees except under
an order in said cause establishing them
as claim.
In December, 1879, after this cause had
been so long pending, Mr.. Vose filed .
petition, asking that he be not only reim
bursed as to all amounts he had paid out
or was liable for as costs and expenses in
conducting the litigation, but also be paid
a salary for his personal services and the
time occupied by him.
Governor Drew was inaugurated soon
after the filing of this petition and the
Board of Trustees of which he was the
head resisted it.
court made an allowance to Mr.. Vose of
$27, ,S3534 and interest, which increased
the amount to about $50, 900 for ordinary
court costs and attorneys fees, and in De-
cember, 1879, on a further hearing al
lowed him $50, 1874. 96 and interest thereon,
bringing the amount up to about $77, 900
for payments made to different persons for
promoting sales of land and preventing
trespass, investigating coupons, procuring
testimony, &C., including $l5,OO3.35 for
his railroad fare and hotel bills from Oc-
tober, 1865, to December, 1875, and $34,-
625.OO for his personal services to the
Fund in conducting the litigation during
the eleven years. To be accurate, there
is included in said sum of $I5,O03.S5,
about $3.50, which Mr.. Vose said was
paid by him for prosecuting other suits in
this litigation. These allowances aggre-
gated about 100000, and were made a
preferred charge on the Fund. Up to
this time very limited payments had been
made since the commencement of the liti-
CATION on the interest coupons, though
they were regularly becoming due and
themselves bearing interest. By the or
ders of the court, the moneys then in the
hands of the receiver, from sales of land,
were directed to be applied to the allow
ances, and were so applied as far as they
would go, say one half or $4,000, and
the balance was paid afterwards, as soon
as there were funds. The Drew board
appealed in 1880 to the U. S. Supreme
Court, and Vose's decree on his coupons,
filed with the master, were pledged by
order of the court to the reimbursement
of any reduction which the Supreme
Court might make OF his allowances.-
The case was advanced on the docket of
that court, and decided in May of the
present year, with the result of disap-
proval and rejection of the two items of
sI5 ,OO3.a5 and 34,625.OO, or in other
words the Supreme Court allowed him
$38, 8,34l95 and interest, instead Of $87,-
go and interest which the lower court
had granted. This reduction has of
course been refunded to the present board.
Though the litigations had been pend
ing so long, we see that the practical ef-
feet of them, whatever the necessity
thereof or their merits in other respects,
was to really tie up or divert from pay
ment of interest the cash proceeds of the
lands; and we say again, that compar-
atively nothing, up to 1878, had been
done towards paying interest at all In
terest never sleeps, it always grows. To
get at the exact condition Of the Fund
when the Disston sale was made let rs
see what had been the sales of lands from
1869 to 1881. We take the figures from
the reports of the Commissioner of Land
and immigration