GEORGIA. 



369 



ought to take when inarmed that a subordinate in 

 his department has thus made gain of his official 

 action. 



3, The third question for the Legislature will be 

 whether, if this practice be legitimate in a subordi- 

 nate, it would be wrong in the chief to engage also 

 in the practice, or share the gains of his subordinate. 

 On this point the case is one of circumstantial evi- 

 dence. 



The Committee made a majority and a minor- 

 ity report about December 10th. The latter 

 was signed by only two members. The majority 

 express the opinion that u the reports and ru- 

 mors that connect the Governor's name with 

 any improper conduct in the matter of the en- 

 dorsement of the bonds of the Northeastern 

 Railroad Company are vile and malignant 

 slanders." The minority report presents the 

 case of the Northeastern Railroad more fully. 

 The officers of the company first applied to 

 the Governor of Georgia to have the State's 

 endorsement placed on their bonds in Octo- 

 ber, 1874. This application was unsuccessful. 

 Governor Smith declined to determine at that 

 time the right of the company to receive the 

 endorsement, on the ground that it was pre- 

 mature. Other informal applications were 

 made until late in the fall of 1875, when no- 

 tice was given to the Governor of the comple- 

 tion of the road, with a request for the ap- 

 pointment of commissioners to examine its 

 condition. They reported forty miles com- 

 plete and free from liens, etc. It appeared, 

 however, that the act granting State aid was 

 repealed in March, 1874, and at that time there 

 was no continuous section of twenty miles 

 completed in the terms of the said act. The 

 Attorney-General at this time furnished the 

 Governor with an official opinion adverse to 

 the right claimed by the company. On subse- 

 quent importunity, Governor Smith suggested, 

 in view of the alleged equities underlying the 

 claim, that the matter be brought before the 

 Legislature. This was the state of the case 

 when Governor Colquitt was inaugurated. A 

 diversity of opinion prevailed. The claim of 

 the company was brought before the Legisla- 

 ture, but at so late a period of the session that 

 an adjournment took place before any action. 

 The rolling-mill company that furnished the 

 iron had received bonds of the railroad com- 

 pany, and were anxious for the endorsement. 

 The Governor suggested proceedings in the 

 courts under the repealing act of 1874, to de- 

 termine the right of the railroad company to 

 have the endorsement. The case went to the 

 Supreme Court, which denied the constitution- 

 ality of the section of the act under which suit 

 was brought, and the whole matter was th.us 

 virtually relegated to the Governor. He again 

 urged delay until the session of the Legislature. 

 When the suit against the company was about 

 to culminate and its entire property be sacri- 

 ficed, he passed an executive order on January 

 18, 1878, to sign the bonds, " in pursuance of 

 the advice of some of the most prominent and 

 wisest men of the State." The Committee 

 VOL. xvui. 24 A 



also say : " It appears farther that during the 

 year 1877 intimations were made to an offi- 

 cial of the rolling-mill company that for a sum 

 of money to be paid to an employee in the of- 

 fice of the State Treasurer the endorsement of 

 the bonds could be procured. No arrangement 

 or contract was then perfected, but early in 

 January of the present year these negotiations 

 were reopened, and a written contract was en- 

 tered into between the official above referred 

 to and the Citizens' Bank of this city, in which 

 it was stipulated that $8,000 should be paid to 

 Samuel B. Hoyt, if the Governor of the State 

 should within ten days pass an order for the 

 endorsement of the bonds, and the signing of 

 the same should actually begin. On the 10th 

 of January, by a supplemental contract, the 

 time within which the order for the signing of 

 the bonds was to be passed was extended to 

 twenty days ; the order for the signing of the 

 bonds was passed on the 17th of January, and 

 the money was paid to Mr. Hoyt for Mr. J. W. 

 Murphy, then and now clerk in the Treasurer's 

 office, on the 23d of January. The services 

 rendered by Mr. Murphy, and for which he 

 received the sum stated, consisted in procuring 

 and presenting to the Governor the opinions, 

 official and professional, of ex-members of the 

 Legislature, and of prominent lawyers in At- 

 lanta and elsewhere, and in arguments made 

 by himself and by Colonel D. P. Hill, his attor- 

 ney, before the Governor, urging the endorse- 

 ment of the bonds. It further appears that 

 during the progress of his efforts to procure 

 the favorable action of the Governor, Mr. 

 Murphy informed him that he was interested 

 in the endorsement ; but it is shown by the 

 testimony that neither the terms of Mr. Mur- 

 phy's employment, nor the fact that a fee was 

 to be paid to him, were known to the Gover- 

 nor until after the endorsement was made and 

 the bonds delivered. Whatever, then, may have 

 been the motives that moved the parties to this 

 contract to enter into it, it is absolutely certain 

 that neither its terms nor anything growing 

 out of it could have in the least degree influ- 

 enced the conduct of the Governor in endors- 

 ing the bonds ; and we do, therefore, brand as 

 a libel the insinuation that the determination 

 of Governor Colquitt to endorse the bonds 

 was induced by any sinister influence or un- 

 worthy motive." 



The Committee then proceed to remark on 

 the evils that must flow from the toleration of 

 the practice among officials or employees of 

 any department of the Government of exacting 

 fees, or receiving rewards, in consideration of 

 influencing, or attempting to influence, the offi- 

 cial conduct of other officials of the same or 

 of different departments of the Government. 

 They say: "It has banished members of this 

 body for weeks from their appropriate places 

 of duty, and so hindered the public service ; it 

 has filled the public mind with anxiety and 

 alarm; it has furnished food for the whole 

 brood of malignant slanderers; and, worse 



