The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-03-09
The gg5erala anil 9Jers* g
NEWBERRY. S. c.
y,sToRy OF BLUE RIDGE SCRIP.
Col. j. D. Pope Tells How it was fro'e"
Worthless and Fraudulent
1Columbia Register.


about Blue Ridge Scrip, the history OF
how that scrip was proven 1rauoulen'
and valueless will be interesting. NO
man could speak better on that suoJec'
than that old Roman, Col. Joseph Dan
ieaPope, who had so much to do win
the proving Of the scrip to be null ana
void. An interview with him Will oe
found below and it will read with ln-
forest at this time. It clearly shows
what manner Of worthless paper IS
offered to the State in exchange lot
valuable property by the chairman ol
the straightout executive commlI'ee
acting as attorney for some Mr. Alex
ander. a.
Colonel Pope readily complied "l'n
the reporters request and spoke as loi-
lows:
"The bond Grip originated in thea
nassed Mar : 2, 1872. 1t was entitled
an act to relieve the State OF Sou1n
Carolina of all liability for the guaran-
tee of the bonds of the Blue Ridge rail-
road company, by providing for the Sc
curing and destruction of the same.
"Under that act the ccnstitutlonaiity
If what was called the revenue bond
scrin was raised on the ground that that
oct contrayenes so much Of the 10th Sec
tion of the 1st article of the United
States, as declares no State shall issue
bills of credit, and that first arose II tne
case of the State ex relatione Gary VS..
Parker.
GAS soon as the act was passed L saw
that the act was fatally defective IN
many particulars. I had no influence
with the then government Of the state;
but as a friend I went over to Col. l.. u.
Childs, who was president OF the caro-
lima National bank, and as a friendly
act called his attention to the statute
then recently passed, and I advised nm
to beware of dealing with that bond
scrip in his bank, for if it did it would
come to grief. A few days after that
Edwin F. Gary, who, 1 believe to be
one of the honestest men know, came
to my office. He was then auditor.
He asked my opinion as to the consti-
tutiouality of what came to be known
as the Bond Scrip Act. told hlm
that the act was not worth the paper
il was printed on. A few days after
Governor R. K. Scott drove up to the
door of my Office and told me that he
did not wish to come into the office or
ask me to go to the executive office, but
would be good enough to call at the
executive mansion where We could De
private? I did call according to ap-
pointment and he told me be wished to
retain me as counsel to test the validity
of that act. That he himself was op-
posed to it and considered it a fraud
upon the State.
"I told him that would be glad to
undertake it. My partner at that time
was Judge A. c. Haskell, who, when [
communicated to him what Governor
Scott wanted with me, he did yeo-
mans work in the cause, as will appear
by the synopsis of his fine argument
as reported in South Carolina, page
PIG.
eve went before Judge Willard and
made the motion to have the bonds
and the scrips set aside, declared nall
ara void as against the constitution of
the United States. The motion was
argued before him at chambers, and his
admirable judgment will be found III i
South Carolina, page 229.
''There was an appeal taken from
that judgment and the case was before
the supreme court, when a new case
was started, in the original jurisdiction
of the supreme court, for writ Of man
damus, as will more fully appear in the
case of the State ex relatione Shiver VS..
the Comptroller-General, i South Caro-
lima, page 1S5.
"Both cases were then before the su-
preme court; the Stale ex relatione
Gary on appeal, and the State ex re-
latione Shiyer on origin motion, and
they all were heard together.
"The case was argued by Mr.. Merl-
minger, who had been called into the
case by Judge Melton, then Attorney
General, and by my partner, Judge
and myself; and on the other
side by Mr.. Chamberlain, who brought
to bear the whole force of his accom-
plished intellect to support the act
and to uphold the scrip. The judgment
of the court was delivered by Chief JUS
tice Moses in an admirable judgment,
the motion f>r mandamus to
be dismissed.
'1n that judgment he covered the
whole argument of Judge Willard, in
ex parte Gary; so the question of the
bond scrip has been decided on two |
issues, one on appeal and one on a real
motion in the supreme court That |
decided the case efectually, because
he State court had decided against the
,onstitutionality of the bond scrip, and
hat being the case there was no Fed |
.ral question that could be taken up
% the supreme court of the United
States.
1.-The bond scrip was fatally defective
q another particular. The act of 1871
directed by the seventh section of the
let that the Greenville & Columbia rail
Dad should be consolidated with the
Blue Ridge road into one company
With a new corporate name, which was
lever done. And yet, it was under
AIKEN to place the guarantee of this
State upon the bonds which were issued !