358 



INDIANA. 



tion are technical, and are not the identical -words 

 used in the same order in the first section; and, 

 therefore, the reference to that question would be 

 more than questionable. All doubt, however, js re- 

 moved by the use of the same technical phrase in the 

 eleventh section of the same act, in which it is pro- 

 vided that, if any person having control, custody, or 

 possession of any plate or plates from which any ob- 

 ligation or other security, or any part thereof,, shall 

 have been printed, etc., or shall have or retain in his 

 possession, after a distinctive paper shall be adopted 

 by the Secretary of the Treasury for obligations and 

 other securities of the United States, any ^ similar 

 paper adapted to the making of any such obligations 

 or security, etc., every person so offending shall be 

 deemed guilty of a felony, and shall, on conviction 

 thereof, be punished, etc. It thus appears plain that 

 the entire intent and purpose of the last section of the 

 act were to throw around the national currency the 

 same guards against counterfeiting that were by law 

 provided for obligations and other securities of the 

 United States. Clearly no exemption in any act 

 prior to the authority given to issue national currency 

 can apply ; and as they are not obligations of the 

 United States in any proper sense of that expression ; 

 as they do not rest primarily on the promise of the 

 Government to pay them as her own debt, but simply 

 on her promise that she will ampty indemnify herself 

 in her own bonds only after the failure of the bank 

 and foreclosure of the bonds to her , will she regard 

 herself as finally liable ? Certainly there is nothing 

 in the letter of the law exempting this circulation 

 from taxation ; and, though we do not discuss the 

 power of Congress to make such exemption, we are 

 free to admit that we see nothing in the paper itself, 

 or in the circumstances of its issue, which would 

 authorize such a limit to be placed on the power of 

 the State to tax. 



The operations of the Treasury department 

 for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1869, ap- 

 pear as follows : 



Balance November 1, 1868, as per last 



report $591 ,370 04 



Receipts during fiscal year 4,197,489 21 



4,788,859 25 

 Warrants paid during fiscal year 4,473,129 66 



Balance in Treasury November 1, 1869 . $315,729 59 



The development of the mineral resources of 

 Indiana has received much attention during 

 the year, rich mines of iron and coal, and fine 

 quarries of building-stone, having been discov- 

 ered. The line of the Vincennes Railroad 

 passed through some of the richest portions of 

 the mineral region, and accurate and reliable 

 information as to the extent and value of these 

 discoveries has been obtained by the engineers 

 of the road. Near Brooklyn, about twenty 

 miles from Indianapolis, is a fine outcrop of 

 the sandstone formation. It has been used to 

 some extent in public buildings in Indianapo- 

 lis, and is undoubtedly the best building-stone 

 in the State. It exists in great abundance. 

 The next point is the limestone formation, 

 commencing at Gosport and extending twelve 

 miles. It is of great variety, and includes the 

 finest building-material in the world. Portions 

 of it can be worked easily under the chisel ; 

 other portions are very soft, and can be worked 

 by any ordinary tools ; it is very durable, and 

 equal to the celebrated Bath stone of England. 

 This limestone formation extends as far as 



Spencer, where a sandstone formation com- 

 mences and extends a distance of seven miles, 

 to a point about sixty-five miles from Indian- 

 -apolis, where the first coal-bed is reached. 

 This coal is the first strata, which is known as 

 the lower strata. These beds extend for thirty- 

 eight miles along the line of the road, as far 

 down as Ed wards' s Point, and include seven 

 distinct veins. 



The first coal-seam is about two feet in 

 thickness ; the next is about three feet thick. 

 In a distance of seven miles there are four 

 seams of coal, the thickest one being along the 

 ridge of Eel River, which is developed, show- 

 ing a thickness of four feet one inch. The 

 undulations of the country allow the opening 

 of these veins, and a natural drain for any 

 mines that may be established for their work- 

 ing. 



At Edwardsport there are three seams, one 

 of them forty-three inches, one twenty-one 

 inches, and one fifty-one inches in thickness, 

 lying one above the other. They have been 

 traced a distance of four miles. No place pre- 

 sents a better chance for mining coal than the 

 valley of White River. Taking the level of the 

 road at "Worthington, it descends twenty-three 

 feet in seven miles, and in twenty-seven miles 

 the grade of the road ascends in all four hun- 

 dred and seventy feet of these coal strata, so 

 that coal can be worked without the cost of 

 shafting, pumping, or hoisting, on nearly every 

 mile of the road. 



Iron not only exists on the line of the road, 

 but the engineers of the road are absolutely 

 cutting through it and using iron-ore as a pro- 

 tection against the rip-raps of the river. Its 

 outcroppings are as extensive as are the best 

 hematite iron-ore regions of Pennsylvania. 

 The purehy drated oxide of iron and the blue 

 iron-ores that are seen on the Terre Haute 

 road have been found. One bed is known to 

 be four feet in thickness, and how much more 

 cannot be said, on account of water. Chemists 

 say it will produce over fifty per cent, of iron. 



The coal-seams have been accidentally dis- 

 covered by the washings of the creeks or the 

 digging of a well, it all being under surface. In 

 one place coal has been found nine feet in thick- 

 ness. The first seam of coal found is cannel- 

 coal, rich with oil, and it is said that oil can 

 be produced from it with more certainty than 

 by means of boring in an oil region ; but this 

 is a mere conjecture. There has been no mar- 

 ket for this coal, beyond the few smith-shops 

 in the country, and the seams have not been 

 worked to any great extent. 



Of the 8,000 square miles of mineral wealth 

 of the State, every square mile is accessible to 

 railroads, which is a great advantage, as coal 

 or iron cannot be brought to market by mules, 

 or worked profitably a mile distant from rail or 

 water transportation. 



The Brazil mines were considered to cover 

 an area of nine by twelve miles square ; near 

 Rockville is another small stretch of coal, and 



