ALABAMA. 



9 



property by tlie assignees, in April, and the 

 State became the purchaser, at the price of 

 $312,000. Of the purchase-money, $100,000 

 was raised by a temporary loan, and the bal- 

 ance remains unpaid, the time for payment 

 having been extended by Judge Busteed, of 

 the United States District Court. At the time 

 of the sale, two suits were still pending, the 

 object of which was to overturn the bank- 

 ruptcy proceedings, and prevent the State 

 from obtaining control of the road, and the 

 State of Georgia had also a lien upon that por- 

 tion which was within her limits. These cir- 

 cumstances made it difficult for the Governor 

 to find a purchaser on favorable terms. Par- 

 ties were at length found who agreed to form 

 a company to purchase it on the following 

 terms : 



1. To assume the payment of the indorsed 

 bonds, $4,720,000. 



2. To pay all future accruing interest 



3. To secure, by first mortgage bonds, run- 

 ning twenty years, all past due interest on said 

 indorsed bonds. 



4. To pay $212,000 due to the assignees in 

 bankruptcy. 



5. To refund the $100,000 paid the said as- 

 signees by the State. 



6. To "pay the further sum of $58,000, to aid 

 in defraying the expenses incurred by the 

 State in and about the road. 



Before the consummation of this agreement, 

 Judge Bradley, of the United States Supreme 

 Court, sitting as a circuit judge, rendered a 

 decree in substance confirming the bankruptcy 

 proceedings, and establishing the validity of 

 the liens of the State upon the road. The same 

 judge appointed two receivers, with power to 

 take possession of the road from Chattanooga 

 to Meridian, but provided in the decree that 

 said receivers should surrender it to any par- 

 ties to whom the State of Alabama should sell. 

 The appointment of receivers was designed to 

 effect a delivery of the entire road and movable 

 property belonging to it to the purchaser, with- 

 out molestation or hinderance. The decree 

 invested the receivers with power to raise 

 $1,200,000 bymortgage on the road, to complete 

 its construction and amply equip it. The re- 

 ceivers have taken possession of the road, re- 

 paired and put it in operation throughout its 

 entire length. The purchasers, in accordance 

 with agreement, have paid to Colonel Gindrat, 

 the Governor's agent, $75,000, part of the 

 $158,000 to be paid in cash to the State, prom- 

 ising to pay the balance in a short time. This 

 they have thus far failed to do. Nor have they 

 yet complied with the other stipulations of the 

 contract. Hence, no conveyance has been 

 made to them. 



The session of the Legislature which began 

 in November, 1871, came to a final adjourn- 

 ment on the 26th of February. Besides the 

 measures relating to the finances and railroads, 

 already alluded to, several important acts were 

 passed. First in importance was a new elec- 



tion law, the result of a compromise effected 

 by a joint committee of members of both po- 

 litical parties. It provides that every male 

 citizen, or person who has declared his inten- 

 tion of becoming a citizen, twenty-one years 

 of age and upward, and a resident of the 

 State six months, and of the county three 

 months before the election, shall have the 

 right to vote. It declares that the residence 

 shall not be lost or acquired by temporary ab- 

 sence without the intention of remaining ab- 

 seut, by being a student in any institution of 

 learning, by being confined for safe keeping in 

 a jail or penitentiary, by navigating any waters 

 of the State, or the United States, or the high- 

 seas, without having acquired any other resi- 

 dence, or by being absent in the civil service 

 of the State or the United States. The time 

 of the election of various officers is fixed in 

 accordance with their constitutional terms of 

 office, beginning with the first Monday of No- 

 vember, 1872, and provision is made for special 

 elections, to be ordered by the Governor, 

 whenever they become necessary on account 

 of vacancies. The counties are to be divided 

 into election precincts in January of each year, 

 and the places of voting are to be designated 

 by the county commissioners. The Judge of 

 Probate, Sheriff, and Clerk of the Circuit Court, 

 or any two of them, must appoint their in- 

 spectors and one returning officer for each 

 precinct. The inspectors are to conduct the 

 election, and must take an oath to perform 

 their duties to the best of their ability. The 

 polls must be opened between seven and eight 

 o'clock in the morning, and continue open until 

 six in the evening. Whenever any person votes, 

 one of the inspectors must receive his ballot 

 and call his name audibly and distinctly ; and 

 the name of each elector, whose ballot has 

 been received, must immediately be taken 

 down by each clerk on separate lists, which 

 are headed "names of voters," and called poll- 

 lists, and the number of the order in which 

 such elector votes must at the same time be 

 entered by each clerk against his name, the 

 first elector voting being numbered one, and 

 the second number two, and so on to the last 

 elector voting. Each ballot must be numbered 

 in the same way, and deposited in the proper 

 box without being examined. A board of 

 challengers is to be appointed at the same time 

 with the inspectors, and by the same officials. 

 The members of said board of challengers 

 must reside in the county, and, if practicable, 

 in the precinct for which they are appointed, 

 and shall consist of two intelligent and discreet 

 electors from each political party in the State. 

 And it shall be the duty of said board, or any 

 member thereof, to challenge any person, offer- 

 ing to vote, whom they, or either of them, may 

 know or suspect not to be lawfully entitled, 

 and duly qualified as an elector. And, if said 

 board of challengers, or either of them, shall 

 fail or refuse to attend at the time of opening 

 the polls, it shall be the duty of the inspectors 



