SPEECH OF HON. SENATE OF GEORGIA, CAHEY W. STYLES, IN THE AUGUST 13th, 1372, ON THE BOND qUSSTION fey Carey W. Styles mutism IWt -: :) :.-:i.V:-f i*> iA%-v.V.v;V&.;^;W-'-V ■^• 'SiSiafiiBIiKj naKliffi • ' ■;•.?■: r\'W^P V:>r-" gia, for $1,500,000, can escape the odium of repudiation, and have her name cancelled from every one of these bonds. It is true, Mr. President, and I make the proposition to the Senate, if, 19 as a question of policy, whether the bondholders have any rights or not, whether there be any law to justify it, as a simple question of policy, would it not be safer even to settle the whole question, to discharge it forever, and save yourselves from the suspicion, even, of repudiation ? Will the payment of $1,500,000 break dowu the property of Georgia ? Are we liable to be ruined and forced into bankruptcy, if we should give it as a subsidy, or as a compromise ? It does seem to me, that if Senators saw'this question as hav- ing two sides, and could get rid of the idea that it is going to interfere with some man's political prospects, it would make a vast difference in the result, Senators, you are sworn to do the best for the State, regardless of your own interests or promotion. As a matter of policy, this question presents itself with irresisti- ble logic outside of the law. You should at least appoint a com- mittee to see if what I say can not be.accomplished. For fear it may escape me, I desire to say one word in relation to my own connection with this argument. I have been told repeatedly within the last few days that I was digging my politi- eal grave—that the people of Georgia would consign me to the tomb of the Capulets for taking the position which I now occu- py. My answer then and now is that though they may consign me to the tomb of the Capulets, there are those in the near fu- tare who will roll away the head stone of my grave and rescue my memory ; and, though I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, a proud mausoleum will be erected in the hearts of the people of Georgia to the Senator from the Tenth District, who uttered the truth and maintained, against such fearful odds, the dignity and credit of his State and his countrymen. . I now propose to take up the argument of the Committee that the Governor, as an agent, has not acted within the scope of his authority, and that his principal, the State, is not bound by his acts. The Committee cites authorities about private agents and agents of corporations, and as they go along they generally ad- mit that there are conflicting authorities, but think that the au- thorities quoted control the law of the case. I am prepared, Ml*. President, to show that they have utterly failed in their ex parte 20 effort, and their law is as fatal to their case as it is to the argu- ment and conclusions they have laid before the Legislature.— Permit me to read from Black's Reports. I understand that the Committee had this authority before them. Either they did not understand the principle and its application, or else I do not. In second Black's Reports, page 732, "That when bonds on their face import compliance, the innocent holder may assume the conditions complied with.'' In 1st Wallace, 83, in Mercer County vs. Hackett, "That defences to the bondholder's claim, founded upon evidence that the law was not complied with under which they were issued, was not admissible. Again, in the case of Knox County Commissioners vs. Aspinwall, (21 Howard 8. C. R., pp. 539, 545,) the Supreme Court of the United States held that when bonds on their face import a compliance with the law under which they were issued, and had passed into the hands of innocent holders, it was too late to call the authority in question, and that the holders of the bonds would be protected." This authority seems to me to be conclusive, but to satisfy the minds of doubting Senators, I will cite the case of Moran et al., vs. the Commissioners of Miami County, (2 Black's Reports, p. 722) the Snpreme Court of the United States affirmed its decis- ion in 21 Howard, just quoted, and held distinctly that a county or other municipal corporation, being authorized by statute to borrow money and issue bonds for the payment thereof, if the bonds be made and delivered, reciting the facts which show them to have been regularly issued, the county or corporation is estop]>ed to deny their regularity, or to assert that they were not made in conformity to the statute. Such bonds, with interest warrants annexed, are commercial securities. The holder of them has a full title; and, as against one who has taken them in good faith, the county or corporation can not set up the equities which might have been available against the original payee." • And yet, sir, the agents of corporations, mayors and clerks, treasurers and private individuals are cited to cover the case of the Governor! •That great man and jurist, who gave us a text-book which every law student ought to be required to read before being ad- 21 mitted to the bar, 1 mean Chancellor Kent, says, " The principal is bound by the act of the agent if he clothes him with powers calculated to induce innocent third persons to believe the agent had authority to act in the case. He who created the trusts, and not the purchaser, ought to suffer." (2 Kent's Commentaries, 021.) And the learned Judge, in the ease of the New York & New Haven Railroad Co. vs. Schuyler, et al., (34 N. Y, Rep., 68, 70) comes square up to the doctrine laid down by Chancellor Kent, and concludes that " when the authority of an agent de- pends upon some fact outside of his power, and which, from its nature, rests particularly within his knowledge, the principle is bound by the representation of the agent, although false, as to the existence of such fact." Do Senators want any thing Stronger, or more directly to the point ? Shall I multiply authorities to prove so plain a proposi- rion ? I refer them to 18 Ga., p. 77; 1 Burrows, p. 452; 34 N. Y., 30, and 50 to 60: 19 Pickering, p. 511 : Angell & Ames on Cor- poralions, 382, where they will find enough to convince the fool, and condemn the knave; These are some of the authorities, Mr. President, that I rely on to show that the principal is bound by the acts of the agent, even taking it for granted, for the solution of the problem of sovereignty, that the Governor is simply an agent. But I de- ny that the Governor of the State is simply an agent, or that the rules governing agents .apply equally to him. The dignity, char- acter and power of the office forbid it. He is a co-ordinate branch of the government, and can not constitute himself an agent. He is the power that creates agencies, and it can not be that the rules applicable to the thing created are also applicable to the power that creates it. I maintain, Mr. President, that the Governor is part and par- eel of the sovereignty. He is the principal. You can not divest the Executive of a State of the sovereignty that is inherent in him, virtute offici. It is the living principle, continuous in the office—the same sovereignty, same power, and is the same yester- day, to-day and forever. We cannot dwarf it by our act into the mere semblance of its power by the doctrine of agency, for the 22 grandeur and glory of the sovereign cannot be brokey but under the wheels of revolution. When the Governor, by the authority of the Legislature, puts his siguature to a paper, and attaches the great seal of the State, it bears the impress of the sovereignty, and he acts as the principal. I know the difference and distinction between acting by virtue of authority actually given, and acting without authority, and it is in the mazes of this distinction that the Committee have lost their way. There must be positive enactment by the Legislature to make the act of the Governor binding—to make the sover- eignty responsible, and when such positive enactment exists, the sovereignty—the State—is liable, and good faith among men and nations demands compliance with obligations created under such enactment. Why, sir, the very character of these bonds, the Brunswick & Albany bonds, shows that Georgia voluntarily assumed the trus- teeship of these bonds, with a pledge that the Act under which they were issued, and the obligation accruing, should .be faith- fully discharged. Will Georgia recognize the trust reposed ? Will she disregard that highest, most solemn and most sacred of all human agencies ? I trust not. The very act granting the Brunswick & Albany Railroad $15,000 per mile, makes Georgia the trustee, and she pledges her highest faith to see that it is car- ried out. Will Georgia betray her trust ? Even the old crooked-back King, Richard III., he who had murdered the houses of Lancaster and the Plantagenets, and was willing to undertake the death of all the world that he might live one sweet hour in the bosom of the newly-w:dowed Queen of his kinsman, Henry ; he, with all his crimes and his infamy upon him, was incapable of betraying a trust, or denying the right of suit to recover against the trusts of the realm. When he ascended the throne of England, he found himself charged, as trustee, with all the trust estates in his kingdom, and as the King could not be sued, he appointed a trustee, and surrendered the trusts, that parties claiming against them might be enabled to bring suit. Such was the doctrine established more than three centuries ago, and yet I fear it is to be said by the intelligent 23 Senate of Georgia, here in the bright blaze of the nineteenth cen- tury, with the lights of the past and the experience of the past before them, that a trust may be betrayed, justice denied, and solemn obligations declared null and void, without adjudication. I see that 1 am reported in the newspapers as opposing the bills declaring these bonds null and void. I want Senators and the reporters to understand that I have made no such declara- tion. My proposition is tha,t Georgia shall be just—that she shall open her courts, that parties claiming shall be heard here or elsewhere. You voted down my resolution to allow counsel to appear at the bar of the Senate in behalf of the bondholders, and 1 now simply demand that they be allowed a hearing in your own courts. Let us say, with manly frankness, that the court is the proper tribunal, and submit the question to the final deter- mination of the Supreme Court of your own choice and of your own State, that every proposition may be argued which fairness and honesty can demand for the adjudication of these claims. Accept the amendment, and the argument will close here. But the war is made upou the Brunswick & Albany Railroad. The constitutionality of the Act is put in question by the argu- meut of the Committee. It is said the Legislature had no right to pass the Act—that, it was based u pon a batch of false assump- tions. Has this Legislature the power to say that? You know that vested rights have grown up under that Act, that can not be abridged or extinguished by legislative enactment. What in the name of common sense are we to do with the question, if it is above't.he courts? When the Brunswick & Albany Railroad Company applied to the Legislature for relief, both Houses appointed Committees, who made reports, in substance, that Georgia had rendered herself liable for upwards of three millions dollars of property belonging to.said Company: absolutely about $1,800,000 worth of property. Your Committee has undertaken to say that Geor- gia did not owe that Company any thing, and that the Confed- erate States, and not the State, was liable. The reports of the Committees of the Legislature of 1869, and the bill itself, acknowledged the justice of the claim, and recognized the jndebt- edness. 24 Mr. President, the fact is known that Georgia was the trustee for this propeity, that Georgia took charge of it late in 1861, and that she held it as trustee, for the owners. But, say these gentlemen, the Board of Directors made an arrangement by which they received Confederate notes for this property. What Board of Directors ? Who were they ? A party of Geor- gia gentlemen, with no more power or right to dispose of that property than this Senate has to exercise judicial power over cases where vested rights are involved. It was in the Governor's hands, and Georgia, as trustee, was the party contracting; and the bondsof the Confederate Government were given in payment. The representatives of the Company opposed the arrangement, but the State turned a deaf ear to their protest. Permit me, Mr. President, to read a page of history, signed by a number of gentlemen, Senators and Representatives. I take it for granted that they were such. The Act was passed not by the power of the bayonet, not by the scalawags or carpet- baggers, or negroes. Be it remembered that it was done by white men, by Democrats, by Georgians, clothed with all the power and all the dignity that you and I are clothed with. It is true, that a protest against the Act was entered by a number of L gislators, but after the protest a large number of gentlemen, Senators and Representatives, undertook to say what they thought about the matter, and they said this. It was signed by the best Democrats in that Legislature, and I believe that there were some honest men and good Democrats among them. But it is said that the Constitution is violated by this Act, for the reason that that in- strument requires that "an equal amount shall be subscribed and paid in by the stockholders," &c. Now, let us see whether the Legislature of 1869 did or did not meet that question. 1 read from the Senate Journal of 1869, page 828. The gentlemen replying to the protestants presented the facts and the law of the case as follows: " But it is said that the Constitution is violated by this Act, as it grants an amount of aid larger than the amount to be rais- ed by private stockholders. The constitutional provision is Ibat the credit of the State shall not be granted or loaned to any com- <25 pany without a provision that the whole property shall be bound for the security of the State, and it also requires that an equal amouut be invested by private stockholders. " The report of the committee shows that the amount of in- vestment made by private stockholders, and destroyed by the action of the State, is larger than the amount of the endorse- ment; and the bill provides amply for a prior lien in favor of the State npon the whole road for the payment of the bonds. Again, looking to the use for which the road is built, and the vast busi- ness that it is expected to do, it will cost double the amount of the subscription to build it and pay for the necessary machine shops, rolling stock, and other necessary equipments. It is very obvious, therefore, that the bill meets every requirement of the Constitution. But suppose it did not as to amount subscribed for, who will contend that this provision of the Constitution was intended to prevent the State from liquidating a debt, or other just claim, by the endorsement of the bonds of a company ? The obvious meaning of the Constitutionn is that the State shall not exceed the amount of her endorsement, which is raised by private stockholders, when she loans her credit for the accommo- dation of a company, not when she does it in settlement of a claim against her for an amount as large as that for which shfe endorses. In this case she receives a valuable consideration for her credit: she does not grant or loan it. She sells it for a fair, valuable and adequate consideration. And in so doing she no more violates, nor in the least degree infringes, any provision of the Constitution than she does when she issues a bond in pay- ment of any of her just debts." I wish to call the attention of the Senate to the fact that the Act no where prescribes who shall estimate that "equal amount" mentioned in the Constitution, how much the road shall cost, or what the "half" shall be. In this case the State receives a val- uable consideration for her credit. She actually sold her credit and received the quid pro quo in the liquidation of an audited and acknowledged claim against herself. If you take the other horn of the dilemma, the case is equally strong against you. The claim of the company, as recognized by both houses of the Leg- islature, amounted to upwards of $3,000,000, and vonr endorse- 26 ment on their bonds between Brunswick and Albany falls far short of that sum, being only $2,570,000. Now suppose we take it for granted that somebody did not tell the truth, and that the facts stated were not facts. Nevertheless, a Legislature having the power to investigate the claim and to pass upon it, did investigate—did report in favor of, and did put in the very Act itself the fact evolved and its clear recognition as the reason for passing the Act. Here, then, Mr. President, in the recital of ihe Act the object for which it was passed was declared by the Legislature to be because this money was due to those parties. Was the Act valid ? The courts must so hold it, and they will also hold that where a vested right has grown up under it in the hands of a third and innocent party, it is not in the power of the Legislature to divest that right. Bonds issued under such an Act are just as binding as a bond issued for the purchase of this house, or for James' mansion, or for the pur- chase of the old negro Ben, some years ago, to set him free. Now as to the cost of the Road. Is not the law-making power as competent to estimate what the cost of constructing and equipping a Railroad is, as it is to authorize an agent to do it ? I think so. Then we have this recital in the preamble to the Act: " And whereas also, it is important that the said Brunswick & Albany Railroad Company's main trunk line through from the waters of the harbor of Brunswick to Albany, and from thence to the line of the State of Alabama, should be a first-class Road, with a view particularly to the ultimate transit traffic from the Pacific, which Road will cost at least thirty thousand dollars per mile, and will tend greatly to develope the resources of the Southern portion of the State, and to promote the welfare and prosperity of the whole people of Georgia, and largely increase the taxable property of the State." Now, Mr. President, who is to determine what the Road is to cost ? Can the power that makes the agent say what it will cost ? or is that power obliged to appoint somebody else to find out what it will cost ? 27 There are some singular points in the testimony of some of the witnesses about this Railroad. I have been over the Road several times, from one end to the other, and I am prepared to say to-day that it is one of the best constructed road-beds in Georgia, except the last forty-five miles to Albany, which' runs through a hilly country. In the hurry to rush the Road to com- pletion, they went around the hills a little ; yet it is not near so crooked as the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The maximum grade of the Brunswick & Albany Railroad is fifty-two feet, while there are grades on the Western & Atlantic Railroad of over sixty feet. It is a good Road. Tt, was intended to be a first-class Road, laid with the fish-bar rail; and the man who controlled it had no second-class any thing—he would not build a second-class pig- pen—no matter whose money footed the bill. Gentlemen are mistaken when they say it could have been built, under the circumstances, for less than $30,000 per mile. An experienced railroad man assured me, in 1869, that it would cost $23,000, and we may safely add $7,000 per mile for Kim- ball's princely extravagance, the per centage deducted from the bonds, and the high prices paid contractors. Well, Mr. President, Kimball.was not altogether a thief. It is clear that he was not a thief for pecuniary gain, for the very fig- ures of the Committee disclose the fact that he must have put nearly all his stealings in grand and enduring improvements upon Georgia soil. He built you a Road from the proceeds of these bonds, from Brunswick to Albany, and your Legislature recited in an Act when 115 miles were completed, that it was a good Road, a great enterprise, and that the work was being pressed vigorously to completion. Yet the Committee report these bonds illegal, when the law-making power, the people of Georgia, speaking through the constitutional authority, said that one and a half millions issued on that 115 miles, were all right, and should be paid. But gentlemen say the Company has not paid anything into the enterprise. I say they did put money into the Road—that their property was turned over to the State, and that they never got one solitary dollar for it except in the State's credit. Some 28 of the very iron you took from them was put on the Western & Atlantic Railroad, and you are getting the benefit of it every day and hour. It won't do to say this was done by the Confederate States, and that they had the right to do it. That doctrine is played out. Now, I say this, that the B. & A. R. R., so far as it has gone, is good security to the State, in its present condition. A distin- guished Georgia railroad man told me a few days ago that the Road was worth more money than the security, and he would be glad to get it at $15,000 per mile. It is not only valuable itself, but it has vastly enhanced the value of property along its line. You are poor Georgians if you do not wish somebody to put money on your soil—something to develop the resources of the piny woods and the mountains. Do you doubt that there has been development by the Kimball enterprises in the increased value of the taxable property along their lines ? The Road could not have been built without money,—somebody furnished money, and the Road is there on your soil,—and it is scarcely in the power of man to take it away from you. It is Georgia's property as much as any other portions of the soil, or any fix- tures on the soil. Everything upon the soil belongs to the State. Do you doubt that the B. & A. R. R. has developed resources ? How can you get away from the great facts and the grand re- suits, without falsifying every principle of law and outraging every sentiment of justice. You made the law that authorized the bonds, assumed the trust, and you have received the benefit accruing therefrom. I will tell yon that along that line of Road there are six or eight villages of no mean commercial import- ance,—in some places five or six stores, where before it wa6 a bar- ren waste, sixteen saw-mills are in operation upon it, furnishing business to the Road and enabling it to pay employees as promptly and as liberally as any other Road in Georgia. I am stating facts that I know. Here's the report of the Superinten- dent of Public Works, ending Oct. 1st, 1871. Does it pay Geor- gia to build Railroads ? As I said yesterday, this Road opened up trade through this dark and dismal region like a beam of glorious sunlight, inspiring its wild populace with aspirations of thrift and prosperity, warming them into life and activity; driv- 29 ing them to its trade centres, and developing undreamed of re- sources. Here are the statistics from the counties of Glynn, Wayne, Pierce, Ware, Coffee, Berrien and Worth, through which this Road passes, and they show that the increase in the value of the property in these counties in the year 1870, was $2,040,318; and since the Road was begun in 1869, of $2,626,614. Did it do you any good ? It has done good, Mr. President. Destroy it if you will, and you destroy that which has already and will continue to largely increase the taxable property of the State. Let it stand, sustain it, complete it fully, and there is no Road that crosses our domain that will equal it in traffic or surpass it in dividends. It is upon the right line, known to be the proper line by the wisest men in your conutry. It strikes the 32d parallel, and runs upon it, which is the very centre of the great cotton belt that is now struggling for competing and cheaper lines to the Atlantic coast. It is not because you are afraid you will ever have to pay these bonds, that you propose to repudiate them. You want to get revenge out of the plunderers. The spirit of revenge pursues the very memory and the shadows of Kimball, Blodgett and Bui- lock. You are pursuing an ignis fatuus, and legislating to spite its mockery. Georgia is in no danger if you will but let her alone. Will you say that she is too poor to pay one and a half millions dollars at thirty or sixty years at six or seven per cent., to escape the odium of repudiation ? Be not deceived, Senators I tell you the world will set it.down as repudiation. The Repu- diation Act upon Mississippi's statute book says precisely what you propose to say, " that the Act was unconstitutional, and the bonds null and void and, what is more remarkable, Mississippi relied upon the same legal argument that you do for repudiation, as an excuse for the crime. The world, said that was repudia- tion, the world says so to-day, and the world will continue to say so till the crack of doom. The Mississippi securities are ruled out of all the markets of the world, and to-day she could not get money enough on her bonds to pay for the printing of them. But gentlemen say they do not want any State credit They 30 desire to break down the State's credit rather than sustain it, for fear somebody may get into the Executive office who will repeat the Bullock programme. I grant that is possible, if not proba- ble, but suppose they do ? Would that justify us in wantonly destroying our credit and tarnishing our honor ? Talk about notice to the bondholders through the newspapers! The honorable Committee proclaims to the world that the world had notice! Sir, the world found out about as much concerning the frauds in the issuance of these bonds, through the columns of the Democratic newspapers, as it has about the Committee's Report. The statements in partizan Georgia newspapers, could, in no case, be regarded us notice, but if they were, the idea of their getting among the English and German capitalists, is merely imaginary. None of your papers circulate there, and they could not read them if they did. Such notice is as idle as the pompous glory of the Indian king, who had the Herald to notify the world that mankind may eat, as the king had finished his dinner. Is that notice to a man who can turn to the Act of the Legis- lature, and there find authority for bonds, and to the bonds and there find the Governor's signature and the grand old seal of the State ? Does he care any thing about a partizan statement, based on passing prejudice or political excitement ? I do not deny that the statements claimed to have been notice, were true. This notice, they say, was protracted, continued and urgent. Why did not these people take legal steps to stop the sale of bonds? Why did they not file an injunction restraining them from the sale of the bonds ? Officials only can give official notice. Are you going to repudiate for one .and a half millions dollars? Do you value the credit of Georgia so cheap ? I said that certain Senators avow openly that they want no credit. They maintain we can sustain our credit, live within ourselves, and get rich within our little pent-up Utica. While individuals may do that, who have got a good start, States cau not do it. The State's credit is infinitely more valuable than her money. Her vaults may be filled with gold, but it will take to itself wings and fly 31 away. Her credit is like the air we breathe, the glorious sunlight that is with us ever, and ever warming, vitalizing and invigora- ting our resources. You have had a practical illustration of this idea. All your available funds and all your assets, real and per- sonal, disappeared two years ago. What little there was in. the Treasury of the poor school fund, went glimmering with all the rest. Every thing that could be sold went, and the State Road came in an ace of it. They did not think of the Indian Spring reservation, or that, too, might have gone. Few of them were aware that there was any such property in the State. But after all, they did not steal so much. 1 do not see how they built the Brunswick & Albany Railroad, 170 miles, and graded 45 miles more. How they paid for this house, (the cap- itol), how they paid for the James mansion, and last, but not least, how they built and paid for the Kimball House, except, from the proceeds of these bonds, and the placing of their steal-i ings on the soil was no robbery. The property is the State's, and the splendid structures will stand as monuments to genius, en- terprise and energy, when the vices of their projectors will be forgotten, and Georgia's repudiation alone will be remembered. The laws can not take this property away from Georgia. It is all hers. Can we not be magnanimous enough to say to those who fur- nished the money, " Come, gentlemen, meet us on fair ground, and we will settle for all we have got ?" If not honest enough' to do that, let us study policy awhile, and affect, if we feel it not, a little generosity. It can not be that you are afraid that Bullock and Kimball will steal any thing now! Hon. J. C. Nichols arose to a question of privilege, and said, " the Senator should not indulge in vituperation, or say that other Senators were not honest in their convictions," &c. Mr. Styles—My remarks are general, and not intended as a charge of dishonesty. I will endeavor not to offend any gentle- man, and if I say aught that wounds the feelings of any Senator here, if he will call my attention to the fact, I will make the amende. I trust I have the manhood and moral courage to sus- tain me in a proper apology for any offensive remark that is not 32 purposed and pointed. I have no occasion to offend Senators in this argument, and shall regret any misapprehension of my lan- guage or my meaning. I know, Mr. President, that my motives have been questioned. I have been told so to-day, but I trust my comrades here will do me the justice to attribute my actions to the motives which I pronounce. I say here in the presence of this Senate, and in the presence of the God of truth, that I am here to-day to plead for Georgia and her interests; and that I am actuated by no motive of self-advancement or personal gain. 1 have had no communi- cation whatever with foreign or domestic bondholders, and I doubt if they know that such a being exists as myself. I have assumed this position without consultation with any living man, nor do I know that any man in Georgia will endorse my views. But I have the consolation of knowing that one woman approves my utterances, and she is a true one, too. One of the earliest lessons I learned from my parents was never to deny an honest debt—never to cover my property with liens, trust deeds, or homesteads. Said my father, " You may be too poor to pay a debt, but acknowledge the fact, and pay when you can." I be- lieve no lien has ever gone on any property that 1 owned—no homestead protects anything that is mine. Do not repudiate these bonds, gentlemen, if you can avoid it. I think .I have shown—at any rate, I have been trying to show you—how to avoid it. I appeal to you to make a better excuse than the report of the Committee. Let your Supreme Court find that better excuse for you. If any of the bonds are legal and binding I know you want to pay them, for I do not believe that there is a Georgian, a true son of the soil, so lost to all honor as to desire to repudiate a bond which Georgia justly owes. In the language of Lumpkin, "let us disrobe the State of her sover- eignty," place justice and honor in the scales, and invite the searching criticism of mankind into our motives and our actions; then, if your own Supreme tribunal shall determine that these bonds are illegal, the world will say amen to it, the bondholders will say it is just, and you will escape the odium of repudiation. Mr. President, I am not speaking against time. I know the 33 position I occupy, solitary and alone, battling for what I believe to be my solemn duty, before God and my country. I desire to see this argument made thorough and complete, that there shall remain no loop to hang a doubt upon in the judgment of fair- minded men. Why is it, Mr. President, that the Honorable Committee find that some of the bonds authorized by the former Legislature, and signed and issued by Bullock, are legal and binding, and others not ? Bonds on eighteen miles of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, that were authorized and issued after it was built, and when the proceeds could only be spent in Alabama, are reported legal and binding, by reason " of the long acquiescence on the part of the Executive and Legislative Departments of the State Government," in the act and in its results; and yet in the same breath recommend that they be not paid, but that the money advanced on them, $100,000, be paid on the surrender of the bonds! It is strange that the Senator from the 1st District did not quote this authority yesterday, in vindication of the constitution- ality of the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad aid bill, which proposed to extend the State's credit beyond her borders. Here the bonds were to be expended on a Road outside of the State, to build a Road on the soil of Alabama, and the Honorable Committee say it was law—that it was right—that the money must be paid, but that the bonds must be surrendered ! So with the Macon & Brunswick Railroad. The same Legis- lature passed that bill, and it contained similar conditions. The Bullock Legislature passed that law, Bullock signed the bill, issued the bonds, attached the great seal, and placed the bonds on the market. And yet the Committee say that, they are con- stitutional and valid, and must be paid. So, too, with the South Georgia & Florida Railroad bonds—they were all right. All right, say I. But how the Committee can find one class of bonds, issued under the same circumstances, and by the same authority, valid and binding, and another class invalid and fair game for repudiation, is more than I can understand. 3 34 They gave $15,000 per mile upon the Macon & Brunswick Railroad—first, $12,000, and afterwards $3,000. It happened that the Macon & Brunswick Railroad had a Georgian at the head of it, a safe and honorable gentleman. The Brunswick & Albany Railroad had a President who was not born upon tbe soil, btit many of the stockholders did live in Georgia. I can not see the difference between tweedledum and tweedledee, especially when the Legislature itself, the law-making power, recognized by sol- emn enactment, the construction of 115 miles of first-class Road, and the legality of $1,500,000 of bonds that had been indorsed upon it The Legislature in the Act of 1871, said the Road and the bonds were all right to that extent, and this was such an indorse- ment as to induce creditors and capitalists to invest their money in the balance of the line, which makes it binding upon the principal. Was it no inducement to say to the world, " Here's a Railroad with 115 miles built already—first-class Road, and going on to completion as fast as two or three thousand men can work it." Was that no inducement to capitalists ? I do not ask you to pay a dollar beyond Albany, until that por- tion of the road is built, and I doubt if the Courts will ever hold that you are liable ; but the Courts ought to say, and will say that if the road is completed, and the bonds are in the hands of innocent parties, they are good and valid obligations against the State. Your security on the bonds of the road to Albany is of little value. The road is worth the money, and the holders of the bonds are indifferent as to your security. If you pass the bill to repudiate, you can but strike your indorsement from the bonds, and they will be as good without as with it. In the name of God, what do intelligent Georgians mean by saying they do not want any State credit ? There is a class of men who would rivet chains upon the people of Georgia that the world can never break. Strike down the State's credit, and a great monied monopoly that already fattens upon your poverty, and contracts its coil as it fattens, will have the State i» as com- plete subjection and control as the Czar has his serfs, or King William his conquered provinces. You will become " hewers of wood and drawers of water" to a power that will absorb your 35 substauce and dictate your legislation. I am sorry there are men wlm work for that end and desire its accomplishment; and still more do I regret that some such have found their way into both branches of the present General Assembly. Of all despotisms, monied monopolies unrestrained and irresponsible are most to be dreaded by a free people, for they are the absorbents of all values, and the most grinding upon the poor of all the mills, in the un- ceasing war of capital upon labor. No credit? What in the name of common sense are you going to do to get out of your present difficulties? You cannot pay your present pressing debts without credit. You know your securities are at this hour worth less than seventy cents on the dollar. 1 saw a letter to-dav from New York, not written in the interest of the bond ring or any bondholder, which announced distinctly that it would be impossible to place your indorsed bonds above 70 or 75 cents, aud I know from other sources that they cannot be placed at sixty. You are going to repudiate your domestic debts. In striking down vouv credit you will virtually repudiate all your obligations. Your Lunatic Asylum, State officers, Judges, and Solicitors, common schools, colleges, asylums, memorial associations, pensioners, and your interest on the old bonds as well, must all be neglected. Then encase yourselves in your glorious sovereignty, and bid adieu to prosperity, progress and honor. Without credit, your sovereignty will be as power- less and as meaningless as Lear's sceptre of straw. How is your debt of $700,00(1 falling due this year to be paid ? Do you think Georgia bonds can be negotiated in this or in any other market ? I can live without State credit as well as the rest of you, and if it is to be the policy of Georgia to build a Chinese wall around her, shut out the world, and fight it out on our own line, inde- pendent of mankind, let us shove off the old ship and paddle the best we can. Mr. President, 1 know that I have well-nigh exhausted the patience of the Senate, as I have my own physical powers, but I have before me a large number of authorities which I desired and intended to read in support of the argument I have submit- ted. You have so patiently and so kindly indulged me that I hesitate, and will here close my remarks, if I can obtain your 36 cousent to print these authorities with my speech, together with the necessary comments, to apply them to the legal propositions I have laid down. If not, and if this is to be my political grave, I may as well stick to it. and ask von to attend my conclusion and funeral to-morrow. The Senate consented that Mr. Styles might publish the au- thorities on which his argument was founded. Mr. Nichols called the previous question, which was sustain- ed. The vote being taken on Mr. Styles' amendments, resulted in yeas 10, nays 22. Vote on the main question, v'eas 22, nays 11. Senator Styles stated in voting the following reason : I am not disposed to vote against declaring bonds void that are so, but I think the State of Georgia ought to open her courts, and as the Senate has refused to do it, I must vote no! Nate.—The following are some of the leading authorities men- tioned by the speaker, but not read : 4th Georgia, p. 212, and authorities there referred to. Chief Justice Marshal, in Fletcher vh. Peck. 7th Wallace, p. 676. 6th Cranch, IT. S., p. 88. 21st Howard, U. S., p. 539. 1st Wallace, p. 83. MR. STYLES'.AMENDMENTS TO THE BOND BILL. From Senate Journals, August 14, 18T2. Senate took up as the Report of the Committee of the Whole, a bill of the House of Representatives, declaring null and void the endorsement of the State's guaranty on the bonds of the Cartersville & Van Wert Railroad Company. Mr. Styles offered the following amendment, to-wit: " Except such bonds heretofore issued by this State, as shall be declared by the Supreme Court of this State to be legal and valid, and for the purpose of ascertaining this fact, the holders of 37 bonds of the State of Georgia may bring suit upon the same in the county of Fulton in this State ; and service of the same may be made by service upon His Excellency the Governor, for the time being, who is hereby directed and required to employ com- petent counsel to defend such suits ; and the said suits so insti- tuted shall proceed to judgment with all the rights of appeal and writ of error upon the part of either party as in other cases un- der the laws of this State." Upon agreeing to which amendment the yeas and nays were required to be recorded, and were yeas 11, nays 22. Mr. Styles moved further to amend by offering the following as an additional section : " Be it further enacted. That His Excellency the Governor of this State, be and he is hereby authorized to receive propositions from the bondholders of issues mentioned in this Act; at what prices and upon what consideration they will surrender their said bonds and indorsed railroad honds to be cancelled, and will finish and complete the roads upon which the said indorsed bonds were issued, and to report the same to the next Legisla- t.ure, with a view of completing said roads and saving the State from the injury that may flow from hasty action in now repudi- ating said liability and rendering comparatively valueless three millions of money already invested in said bonds." Upon agreeing to which the yeas and nays were required to be recorded, and were yeas 9, nays 25. The report was agreed to, the bill read the third time and passed. Senate took as the Report of the Committee of the Whole a bill of the House of Representaiives declaring the indorsement of the State's guaranty on the bonds of Brunswick & Albany Rail- road Company, to be null and void. The report was agreed to, Mr. Nichols moved the previous question, which was sustained, and upon the question, " Shall this bill now pass?" the yeas and nays were required to be recorded, and were yeas 20, nays 10. Senate tqg]£*^jSi& Committee of the Whole a 38 bill of the House of Bepresentatives, declaring null and void and unconstitutional the issne of State gold bonds in aid of the Brunswick & Albany Railroad Company. Mr. Styles offered the following amendment: " Be it further enacted, That the Governor of this State in issuing the gold bonds of the Brunswick & Albany Railroad Company, acted as the agent of the State only, and not by virtue of the sovereign power vested in him by the Constitution as Gov- ernor of the State." Upon agreeing to which the yeas and nays were required to be recorded, and resulted in yeas 6, and nays 23. The report was agreed to, and upon the question, "Shall this bill now pass ?" the yeas and nays were required to be recorded, and were yeas 22, nays 9.