294 



FLORIDA. 



by which the bondholders will take the lien 

 upon the road and the bonds of the road for 

 tho State bonds. 



The receipts for the year ending December 

 81, 1878, from the collection of taxes and li- 

 censes, applicable to general State expenses, 

 were $320,886.68, and the expenditures, ex- 

 cluding the borrowed money and interest on 

 1^71 bonds, were $314,817.11. Of this, $246,- 

 711.65 were for the regular expenses of 1873, 

 and $68,105.46 were used in payment of ex- 

 penses incurred previous to 1878, including 

 debt due Lunatic Asylums, to Bank Note Com- 

 pany, etc. 



"Thus for the first time sine* reconstruc- 

 tion," says the Controller, "have the legiti- 

 mate expenses of the government been de- 

 frayed, and not only so, but more than $50,000 

 of floating debt of the State paid." Tlie force 

 of this statement will be made more apparent 

 by the following review of the receipts and 

 expenditures for each year from November 1, 

 1866, to January 1, 1873: 



In the reports of 1871 and 1872 there ap- 

 pears among the receipts the sum of $88,432, 

 under the heading of School and Seminary 

 Fund interest, which does not properly belong 

 there, as it was only a transfer of that amount 

 by Controller's warrants from one account 

 to another, and the warrants for this transfer 

 were charged as expenditure*, 



Therefore, in e.-tinmting the receipt? and 

 expenditures for those years, $88.4:>'2 should 

 be deducted from each account. Milking; this 

 deduction, the expenditures from November 1, 

 1866, to January 1, 1873, were $1,718,225.72, 

 and the receipts, $1,368,681.75, showing an 

 excess of expenditures of $849,598.97. Among 

 the receipts are estimated $221,861.49 ari-in;: 

 from the sale or hypothecation of bonds, which 

 should be added to the above excess to show 

 the expenditure over the receipts from taxa- 

 tion ; which inrikes $570,955.47 as the debt in- 

 curred during this period. 



The Controller is of opinion that the levy 

 of four mills upon the assessed valuation of 

 the real and personal property of the State, 

 i was authorized by the Legislature in 

 February for the purpose of payim: the inter- 

 e*t and forming a sinking fund for the lmds 

 of 1H73, may be reduced to three- mills. When 

 the law was paused it was supposed that this 

 Talnation would not exceed $24,000,000, wherc- 

 M at the and of the year it approached $30, 

 000,000. 



The $4,000,000 bonds of the Jacksonville, 



Pensacola & Mobile Railroad Company above 



alluded to arc largely held in Holland. Some 

 of these Dutch bondholders having written 

 from Rotterdam to Attorncy-Ccneral Cork.-, 

 of Florida, as to their rights, that otlicial re- 

 plied in a letter, dated July 15th, in which, 

 among other things, ho .-aid : 



There is no provision made by law for wscssine a 

 tax to pay either princi; t on these I 



Until tlu'.i is done, neither can over be paid. That 

 the Legislature will ever authorize a tax 

 for such purpose, no man, as for as I am informed, 

 believe*; no set of men. no party will attempt it. 

 Not that the State will refuse to pay any d< l>t it may 

 owe, but the enormous frauds perpetrated in tlie i- 

 guing and circulation nf these bonds, and the want 

 of legal authority on tho part of the Governor then 

 in office to sign the bonds, convince all just and 

 honest men that the State doea not owe the sums in- 

 dicated by said bonds. 



The bondholders may hold those responsible from 

 whom they obtained the bonds, but against the State 

 they are without remedy in any court. Suits cannot 

 bo brought against a State. 



I know not what better advice to give than that 

 the bondholders appoint nn nvr< nt t" e->ni',T with the 

 authorities nf tin 1 to make a negotiation 



for the return of the bonds, on condition that the 

 Hen of the road may be substituted ther 



By the terms of the law under which the ~- 

 bonds were i-^ued to the Jacksonville, Pcnsa- 

 cola& Mobile Railroad Company, that corpora- 

 tion was to pay to the State from its net earnings 

 the interest on the bonds, and the State was 

 to pay the interest to the bondholders. Tho 

 road, however, has never paid tin* in! 

 owing, doubtless, to its want of success. In a 

 communication made to Governor Hart in 

 February, Attorney-General Cocke 

 that "the Legislature should make provision 

 for the protection of the interest of the State 

 in tho public work it has loaned tlie credit of 

 the State to complete, and to compel those 

 who have fraudulently possessed themselves 

 of money arising from a sale of the bonds to 

 refund it with interest; to defeat t! 

 that are on foot to work further wrong ami 

 injury to the State; and to insure proper ap- 

 plication of the proceeds of the bonds nnd a 

 completion of tho important enterprise itself, 

 that adventurers be no longer allowed to make 

 the said public work a means of raisins enor- 

 mous sums of money to bo dissipated with 

 reckless profligacy." 



Mea-ure^ having been instituted for tho sale 

 of the road on January 1, 1^74. an injunction 

 restraining the sale was grant, d by tho Su- 

 preme Court of the United States, on the ap- 

 plication of Florida. 



Tin' question of nmipxini: Western Florida 

 to .M:th)imn was agitated -'.nicwhat during the 

 year, especially in Western Florida, v. 

 there seems to be a strong popular opinion in 

 favor nt the measure. In Alabama, an act 

 -. d in the e.-irly part of the ye.'ir in 

 f-ivor of annexation, but no action wa taken 

 during the year in Florida. 



According to the report of tlie Superintend- 

 ent of Public Instruction, dated September 80, 



