786 



TEXAS. 



that Court for further proceedings in accordance with 

 the opinion. 



The views which the dissenting judges held 

 on this important question are shown in the 

 following extracts. Chief Justice Waite said : 



It is an historical fact that the banks of the insur- 

 gent States, and especially those owned by t lie States, 

 were used extensively in furtherance of the rebellion, 

 and that all or nearly all their available funds were 

 converted in one way or another into Confederate 

 securities. . . . If the bills of the Bank of Tennessee 

 were, in fact, issued in aid of the rebellion, they are 

 void as obligations of the State. So the Constitution 

 of the United States as amended provides, and so 

 this Court has decided in every case where the ques- 

 tion was raised that has come here since the war 

 closed. As 1 construe the ordinance of Tennessee, 

 it is an authoritative declaration, in an appropriate 

 form, by the people of the State, who were cognizant 

 of the facts, that all the issues of the bank after May 

 6, 1861, were in furtherance of the rebellion. In this 

 way, the people in effect prohibited the tax-collector 

 and officers of the State from receiving such issues 

 in payment of public dues. 



Mr. Justice Bradley expressed the following 

 opinion : 



It can not reasonably- be doubted that the very ob- 

 ject of this extraordinary new issue of bank circula- 

 tion was intended for the purpose of enabling the 

 Government to carry on its operations. The fact 

 that the bills themselves commanded only a fraction 

 of their par value is proof that they were not issued 

 in- the regular course -of business, but that the pro- 

 ceeds received therefor were destined for other uses 

 than legitimate banking. . . . Now, if the position 

 of the majority of the Court is correct ... I do not 

 see why all the obligations issued by the State during 

 the war, whether in the shape of bonds or certificates 

 of indebtedness, or otherwise, are not equally as ob- 

 ligatory as these bills. How is it to be proved which 

 of them were issued for carrying on the war, and 

 which were not? Upon the assumption made they 

 are all prima facie valid. But this of course is only 

 a collateral consideration. 



I deny the assumption that the governments of 

 the insurgent States were lawful governments. I 

 believe and hold that they were usurping govern- 

 ments. 



Mr. Justice Harlan said : 



But in the view which I take of this case, and the 

 principles which must govern its decision, it is im- 

 material whether the notes were or were not issued 

 in direct aid of the rebellion. They were the obli- 

 gations of an institution controlled and managed by 

 a revolutionary usurping State government, in its 

 name, for its benefit, and to prevent the restoration 

 of the lawful government. It was that revolutionary 

 government which undertook to withdraw the State 

 of Tennessee from its allegiance to the Federal Gov- 

 ernment and make it one of the Confederate States. 

 . . . But I am unwilling to give my assent to the 

 doctrine that the Constitution of the United States 

 imposed upon the lawful government of Tennessee 

 on obligation, which this Court must enforce, to 

 cripple its own revenue by receiving for its taxes 

 bank notes issued and used under the authority of 

 the usurping government for the double purpose of 

 maintaining itself and of defeating the restoration 

 of that lawful government to its proper relations to 

 Ihe Union. 



TEXAS. The State of Texas embraces a 

 territory of 274,356 square miles, or 175,587,- 

 840 acres, a large part of which is still wholly 

 nnoccupied or very sparsely settled. The coast 

 counties nre nearly level for 60 or 80 miles in- 



land, and then the country becomes undulating 

 and finally hilly in the north and west, but the 

 highest elevations hardly exceed 500 feet. The 

 population is gradually increasing, and is now 

 about 2,000,000, and agriculture is making 

 rapid advances. The cotton crop of the year 

 amounted to about 900,000 bales; the cat- 

 tle trade is said to approximate $10,000,000 

 annually; and the wool interest is large and 

 increasing. 



The public debt of the State on the 1st of 

 September was $5,086,783.15, showing a de- 

 crease of $123,290.90 in two years. There 

 remain $1,115,009 of 10 per cent, bonds out- 

 standing, subject to call after July 1, 1879. The 

 rest of the debt has been funded at 6 per cent. 



Considerable progress has been made in im- 

 proving public institutions, establishing schools, 

 and enforcing laws for the protection of life 

 and property ; and the outlook for the State is 

 more promising than for many years past. 



The political campaign of the year was quiet 

 and peaceable, the two principal parties to the 

 contest being the Democratic and the Green- 

 back. The Democrats held a convention at Aus- 

 tin on the 19th of July, and nominated Oram M. 

 Koberts for Governor, Joseph D. Sayers for 

 Lieutenant-Governor, George McCormick for 

 Attorney- General, Stephen H. Darden for 

 Comptroller, Frank R. Lubbock for Treasurer, 

 and W. M. Walsh for Commissioner of the Land 

 Office. The platform recommended adherence 

 to the two-thirds rule in making nominations ; 

 declared that State troops should be kept in 

 the field for the protection of the frontier; 

 made the basis of representation in future con- 

 ventions one delegate for every 300 votes cast; 

 recommended an amendment to the State Con- 

 stitution exempting farm products from tax- 

 ation : demanded taxation of United States 

 bonds ; pledged devotion of Texas Democrats 

 to the Union of the States ; and declared that 

 faithful adherence to the following principles 

 is necessary to the preservation of the Govern- 

 ment, viz. : Home rule; the supremacy of the 

 civil over the military power ; the separation of 

 church and state ; the equality of all citizens be- 

 fore the law ; absolute acquiescence in the law- 

 fully expressed will of the majority, and mainte- 

 nance and perfection of a common-school sys- 

 tem. It was also declared that the investigation 

 of the frauds committed at the last Presidential 

 election, in Florida and Louisiana, ought to 

 have been made by the Electoral Commission ; 

 its refusal to do so was a violation of the spirit 

 of the law under which it was organized, and a 

 gross outrage on the people of the United States ; 

 and while the decision, as made by the Forty- 

 fourth Congress, of the question as to who should 

 be declared President of the United States for 

 the present Presidential term, should not be 

 disturbed, that decision ought not to preclude 

 an investigation and exposure by the proper 

 authority of all the frauds connected with that 

 election, and the due accountability of all who 

 were guilty and connected with them. 



