MISSOURI. 



549 



copies. There were 3 daily, with a circula- 

 tion of 2,300; 6 tri-weekly, circulation 3,650; 

 3 semi-weekly, circulation 2,400 ; 92 weekly, 

 circulation 60,018; 2 semi-monthly, circula- 

 tion 700 ; 5 monthly, circulation 2,800. 



There were 2,788 libraries, having 488,482 

 volumes. Of these, 2,251, with 400,106 vol- 

 umes, were private, and 537, with 88,376 vol- 

 umes, were other than private, including seven 

 circulating libraries, with 2,430 volumes. 



The total number of religious organizations 

 was 1,829, having 1,800 edifices, with 485,398 

 sittings, and property valued at $2,360,800. 

 The leading denominations were: 



The condition of pauperism and crime is 

 shown by the following statistics : 



Total population ................................. 827,922 



Number of persons receiving support during the 

 year ending June 1, 1870 ....................... 921 



Cost of annual support ........................... $96,707 



Total number receiving support, June 1, 1870. . . 



Native ...................................... 



White ...................................... 



Colored ..................................... 



Foreign ..................................... 



Number of persons convicted during the year. . . 

 Total number of persons in prison June 1, 1870. 



Native ...................................... 



White 



Colored 



Foreign 



809 

 793 

 413 

 380 

 16 

 471 

 449 

 421 

 128 

 293 



MISSOURI. The public debt of Missouri, 

 falling due in 1873 and subsequent years to 

 1892, amounts to $17,846,000. Concerning the 

 bonds falling due in 1872, the Legislature on 

 the 8th of February passed the following reso- 

 lution over the veto of Governor Brown : 



W7iereas, Four hundred and twenty-two bonds of 

 the State of Missouri, of one thousand dollars each, 

 issued during the year 1852, become redeemable the 

 present year, and whereas the following words occur 

 in each of such bonds, to wit : " Said State promises 

 to pay in gold or silver coin," and whereas an act 

 approved February 2, 1851, entitled " An act to ex- 

 pedite the construction of the Pacific Eailroad and. 

 the Hannibal & St. Joseph Eailroad," under which 

 said bonds were issued, which is printed on the back 

 of each of said bonds, does not specify that the words 

 "gold and silver coin" shall be inserted in said 

 bonds, and whereas section seven of said act sets 

 forth the following language: " And is redeemable 

 at the pleasure of the Legislature at any time after 

 the expiration of twenty years from the date there- 

 of:" therefore, be it 



Resolved, by the Senate, the House of Representatives 

 concurring therein, That the fund commissioners are 

 hereby directed to instruct the financial agent of the 

 State, the National Bank of Commerce, of New 

 York City, to redeem the bonds, as they become re- 

 spectively redeemable in the year 1872, in legal- 

 tender notes. 



Soon after, a holder of one of these bonds 

 brought suit in the Supreme Court for a man- 

 damus compelling the fund commissioners to 



make payment in specie, which was refused 

 on the 22d of April. The court was of opinion 

 that the bonds were payable in gold and silver 

 coin prior to the passage of the resolution 

 given above, but, said Judge Bliss in rendering 

 the decision, " The law-making power of the 

 State has interfered and given positive direc- 

 tions in the matter, and the commissioners, as 

 servants and agents of the State, are impera- 

 tively bound by their directions. It is i\ot 

 enough to say that the State cannot impair 

 the obligation of contracts, for there is no w r ay 

 of enforcing such as those under consideration. 

 It is purely a matter of public faith : no suit 

 can be instituted against the State, and no ex- 

 ecutive officer can redeem its obligations 

 further than furnished with money expressly 

 appropriated for that purpose. 



"It is said that the appropriation was once 

 made. True, but the same power may with- 

 draw it in whole or in part, or may prescribe 

 conditions upon which it shall be used. The 

 whole matter is under the control of the Legis- 

 lature, and it would be simple usurpation for 

 the fund commissioners to act other than as 

 directed by that body. We consider the joint 

 resolution as a modification of the previous 

 appropriation. 



"These are axioms of political law, and can- 

 "not be made plainer than by a simple state- 

 ment ; and, that body that peculiarly repre- 

 sents the State having determined to pay in 

 Federal paper the bonds due in 1872, we can- 

 not interfere to require its servants to pay in 

 any other manner, although of the opinion 

 that it has thereby failed to meet the State's 

 obligations. The wrong, if any there be, must 

 be remedied by the Legislature itself." 



Judge Wagner gave a separate opinion, in 

 which he said: "No money can be paid out 

 of the State Treasury without a specific ap- 

 propriation for that purpose, and the same 

 power that makes the appropriation has the 

 sole and exclusive right to determine how and 

 in what manner it shall be paid. It was com- 

 petent for the Legislature to repeal the law 

 appropriating the money to make the payment, 

 or to modify it in such way as they thought 

 proper. And their action in this respect is 

 not liable to superintendence or control by 

 the judical department of the government. 

 The joint resolution prescribed the kind of 

 money in which the obligations shall be paid, 

 and the fund commissioners, who are mere 

 ministerial officers, must obey the law and can- 

 not discharge the liability in any other funds. 

 The State may say in what manner its debts 

 shall be paid or that they shall not be paid, and 

 it may amount to a breach of faith, but there 

 is no power to coerce it." 



The effect of the action of the Legislature 

 was a serious depreciation in the value of the 

 State bonds, and Governor Brown, in his mes- 

 sage to the Legislature of 1873, undertakes to 

 show that the loss from this cause is far 

 greater than the gain from making payments 



