ARKANSAS. 



dred and fifty thousand dollars for interestj and thirty- 

 eight thousand dollars for sinking fund, which sums are 

 hereby set apart for the purpose aforesaid ; and the first 

 money received in the Treasury annually during the 

 period aforesaid, from any source whatever, is hereby 

 expressly appropriated to said purpose, until the sum of 

 one hundrea and eighty-eight thousand dollars afore- 

 said shall have been applied annually in payment of 

 said interest, and in creating said sinking fund ; and tho 

 right of any holder of said bonds to the benefits hero- 

 in provided, shall be considered as vested and inex- 

 tinguishable from the time of issuing thereof until the 

 said bonds shall have been fully paid off. All moneys 

 belonging to said sinking fund shall be annually ap- 

 plied by the Treasurer, under the direction of the 'Gov- 

 ernor, in the purchase of any of said bonds which may 

 be outstanding, in the same manner as is provided in 

 section nine of this act, for the purchase or bonds by 

 the trustee or trustees ; and any Judge of the Circuit 

 courts of this State or Chancellor, in term time or va- 

 cation, is hereby enjoined and required, upon the ap- 

 plication of any holder of any of said bonds, to com- 

 pel by mandamus or other proper process the authori- 

 ties of the State to levy, assess, and collect the taxes 

 provided for in this section, and to prevent a misap- 

 plication of the moneys set apart for the interest and 

 sulking fund, by injunction or other proper process 

 to compel the proper officers of the State to apply said 

 moneys to the payment of the interest and the pur- 

 chase of the bonds as herein provided for. And it is 

 provided that all the powers herein conferred upon 

 the Judges of the Circuit Courts of the State and the 

 Chancellors thereof are hereby vested in any Judge of 

 the Circuit or District Courts of the United States, and 

 may be so exercised in the event that any bondholder 

 aforesaid desiring the process of the courts shall be at 

 the time a non-resident of this State, and owning and 

 holding a bond not less than one thousand dollars. 



The report of the minority of the Judiciary 

 Committee of the Senate on this measure pre- 

 sents the objections which were considered as 

 sufficient to defeat it, but without avail. The 

 first was, that the issue of bonds to be hypoth- 

 ecated was regarded as a great stretch of pow- 

 er, and only justified as a " military necessity." 

 The original act authorizing the Loughborough 

 bonds was passed after the downfall of the 

 carpet-bag government, which had plundered 

 the Treasury of every dollar and bequeathed to 

 the people a large floating debt ; and its only 

 object was to get money to carry on affairs 

 until the restored government could be estab- 

 lished. As that had been accomplished, no 

 more bonds should be issued. Further, the 

 act surrendered to the holders of the bonds 

 issued under its provisions the sovereignty of 

 the State of Arkansas. Section 10 authorizes 

 the State and United States courts, or the 

 judges thereof in vacation, to issue writs of 

 mandamus against the officers of the State, to 

 compel a levy of taxes to pay the principal 

 and interest of said bonds all of which vir- 

 tually places the State and her citizens at the 

 mercy and in the power of the bondholders. 

 Again, the act authorized the Board of Finance 

 'to hypothecate the bonds of the State at one 

 half their par value, with authority given to 

 the holders thereof to sell them for what they 

 may bring, upon default of the State. Also, 

 the act authorized the Governor of the State 

 to mortgage the bonds of the State to secure 

 the payment of said bonds ; and if the necessity 



should arise for the sale of the bonds hypothe- 

 cated, and they should not bring the amount 

 required to pay for the sum borrowed, a trus- 

 tee is authorized to sell the domain of the 

 sovereign State. Finally, the borrowing of 

 money to defray the current expenses of this 

 State, when it appears that we have $90,000,- 

 000 of taxable property in the State, is an evi- 

 dence to the world of mismanagement, and a 

 want of confidence in the State by her people, 

 and is sufficient, within itself, to cast a grave 

 reflection upon the honor and dignity of the 

 State. 



The acknowledged and undisputed indebt- 

 edness of the State amounted at the begin- 

 ning of the year to $2,969,050, principal and 

 interest, which was then due and unpaid ; 

 and the whole debt was short of five million 

 dollars. All propositions for its arrangement 

 have failed. The Senate at this session passed 

 a resolution from the House providing for a 

 constitutional amendment repudiating certain 

 bonded debts of the State, with a Senate pro- 

 viso that nothing therein contained shall be 

 construed as a prohibition against paying such 

 part of the State bonds as courts of the State 

 may decide to be just and legal. The resolu- 

 tion was recalled by the House from the com- 

 mittee by a vote of 43 yeas to 41 nays, in the 

 following words : 



Whereas, The bonds of this State known as " rail- 

 road aid bonds" and "levee bonds" have been de- 

 cided to be illegal and void by the Supreme Court of 

 the StatCj and the facts as well as the law upon which 

 these decisions rest are easily accessible ; and 



Whereas, The numbers of the bonds known as "IIol- 

 ford bonds " can be ascertained from the books of tho 

 Treasurer of State within twenty minutes ; and 



Whereas, The character of these bonds has been the 

 subject of discussion and investigation for several years 

 and by several legislative bodies, while they involve 

 twelve millions of the people's money and their settle- 

 ment involves tho future prosperity of the State ; and 



Whereas, The Judiciary Committee to whom they 

 have been referred have had them under consideration 

 for nine days : therefore 



Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee bo, and 

 they are hereby, directed to report House joint resolu- 

 tion No. 1 (which provides for submitting to the peo- 

 ple a constitutional amendment forbidding any Legis- 

 lature to pay these bonds) back to the House for such 

 action as it may sec proper. 



This amendment was promptly passed by the 

 House and sent to the Senate. 



A resolution was presented in the Senate ask- 

 ing Congress for the early opening of the Indian 

 Territory to white settlement. It was read 

 the third time, and on the question of its adop- 

 tion considerable discussion ensued, but when 

 put to vote it received 9 yeas to 16 nays. The 

 discussion of the question of the establishment 

 of a territorial government by Congress over 

 the Indian Territory has existed for some time 

 in Arkansas, and is extending to other adja- 

 cent States. More than twenty years ago Sen- 

 ator Johnson of Arkansas introduced in the 

 United States Senate a bill for the organiza- 

 tion of a territorial form of government over 

 the country ; and from time to time since then 



