348 



GEORGIA. 



Brought forward $7,680,500 



State gold bonds registered in Treasurer's 

 office under act approved September 15, 



1870 3,000,000 



State gold bonds under act approved October 

 17, 1870, for Brunswick & Albany Railroad 

 Company, not registered in this office, but 

 signed, sealed, and delivered to Governor 

 Bullock, none of which are in the Execu- 

 tive office 1,880,000 



Total State bonds as far as known to this 

 office $12,560,500 



State aid by indorsement to rail- 

 roads: Alabama & Chattanooga, 

 indorsed and delivered $194,000 



Cartersville & Van Wert, indorsed 

 and delivered 275,000 



Brunswick & Albany Railroad 

 Company, signed, sealed, and de- 

 livered to Governor Bullock, ex- 

 cept the first that were certified 

 to by the Treasurer, in all 3,300,000 3,769,000 



$16,329,500 



At the same time, he declared that, besides 

 the $3,000,000 of gold bonds issued under the 

 act of September 15, 1870, "Governor Bul- 

 lock had other large amounts under the same 

 act engrossed and sent to him, but this officer 

 does not know what has become of them." 

 On the 1st of January, 1872, he stated the 

 amount of State bonds issued up to January, 

 1871, as $6,544,500 ; railroad bonds, $9,153,000 ; 

 currency bonds out, $1,500,000; gold bonds 

 out, $3,000,000 ; total, $20,197,500. The par- 

 ticulars of railroad bonds are stated as fol- 

 lows: 



Macon & Brunswick Railroad 



Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad 



South Georgia & Florida Railroad 



Cartersville & Van Wert Railroad 



Georgia Air-Line Railroad (not usjd) 



Macon & Brunswick Railroad (additional) 



Cherokee, or Cartersville & Van Wert Rail- 

 road (additional) 



Brunswick & Albany Railroad 



Total $9,153,000 



This statement is somewhat obscure, and 

 does not agree with that made at the same 

 time by Governor Conley. The currency bonds 

 of 1868 were issued to pay the expenses of the 

 Legislature and to meet the interest of bonds 

 maturing in the following February. Accord- 

 ing to the Governor, these were not intended 

 for sale, but were only used as security for 

 temporary loans, until they could be met by 

 payments from the Treasury. The amounts 

 borrowed upon them, he says, have long since 

 been refunded, and the bonds, with the excep- 

 tion of two hundred and sixty-eight, which 

 were deposited in the Treasury to secure the 

 school-fund, have been cancelled and returned 

 to the Treasurer's office. With regard to the 

 $2,000,000 seven per cent, currency bonds, 

 authorized in 1870, the Governor says that 

 they "were issued by Governor Bullock for 

 the purpose of being used as collateral secu- 

 rity upon which to procure temporary loans 

 for immediate use, which loans were to be ap- 

 plied to the objects mentioned in those acts. 

 These bonds were never intended, and were 

 never offered, for sale. They were issued for 



the simple reason that it required some time 

 for the preparation of the steel-engraved gold 

 bonds, and the exigencies of the State de- 

 manded that funds should be provided at once. 

 The distinct understanding with the parties to 

 whom they were delivered was, that they were 

 not to be placed upon the market at all, but 

 were to be held simply as temporary collateral 

 for any advances they might make to the State 

 until the gold bonds provided for in the act of 

 September 15, 1870, could be prepared and sub- 

 stituted for them, and that, as soon as such gold 

 bonds were substituted, the currency bonds 

 were to be cancelled and returned to this De- 

 partment." He further states that $500,000 

 of them had been cancelled, and the rest were 

 still held by certain New York banks. None of 

 them, he says, " can be considered as in any way 

 a claim against the State, because they were 

 cancelled by the substitution of gold bonds," 

 though the holders refused to give them up, on 

 the ground that it was not customary to sur- 

 render securities until the account was closed. 

 The gold bonds authorized by the act of Sep- 

 tember 15, 1870, had twenty years to run, and 

 bore seven percent, interest, payable quarterly 

 in coin, and were issued for the purpose of meet- 

 ing and redeeming all bonds of the State, and 

 the coupons whenever due, and " for such other 

 purposes as the General Assembly may direct, 

 and to take the place of the currency bonds 

 that had been issued for temporary purposes." 

 The entire $3,000,000, with the exception of 

 $250,000 used to purchase the capitol building 

 at Atlanta, and $100,000 used to purchase the 

 Executive mansion, were intrusted to New 

 York bankers for sale. A portion of the pro- 

 ceeds have been used in the payment of con- 

 sols maturing in 1870 and 1871, and to meet 

 certain claims on the Western & Atlantic 

 Railroad. The act of October 17, 1870, au- 

 thorized the Governor to receive from the 

 Brunswick & Albany Eailroad the whole is- 

 sue of its second-mortgage bonds, amounting 

 to $10,000 per mile of the road, or $2,350,000 

 in the aggregate, and to pay therefor seven 

 per cent. State bonds, at the rate of $8,000 per 

 mile, or $1,880,000 in the aggregate, payable 

 in twenty-five years from December 1, 1869. 

 At first, $880,000 of lithographed bonds were 

 issued, but replaced as soon as possible by en- 

 graved bonds, and immediately cancelled. The 

 whole amount issued and paid over to the rail- 

 road company is $1,800,000, and all the second- 

 mortgage bonds of the company, except one 

 hundred and sixty-two, have been received in 

 exchange, the entire transaction to be com- 

 pleted as soon as the road is finished. This 

 statement, according to Governor Conley, cov- 

 ers every description of bonds issued during 

 the administration of Bullock, and makes the 

 liabilities of the State incurred during that 

 period only $4,800,000, a part of which was 

 occasioned by the redemption of bonds issued 

 before his time. The contingent liability of 

 the State created during the same period was 



