786 



TENNESSEE. 



TENNESSEE. STATE OFFICERS. Gover- 

 nor, Alvin Hawkins ; Secretary of State, D. A. 

 Nunor; Treasurer, M. T. Polk; Comptroller, 

 James N. Nolan; Superintendent of Public 

 Schools, W. S. Doak (died in July), succeeded 

 by G. S. W. Crawford ; Commissioner of Ag- 

 riculture, Statistics, Mines, and Immigration, 

 A. W. Hawkins; Attorney-General, B. J. Lea; 

 Adjutant-General, Ernest Hawkins. Judges 

 of the Supreme Court : J. W. Deadrick, Chief- 

 Justice ; T. J. Freeman, Peter Turney, W. F. 

 Cooper, and W. J. McFarland, Associate Jus- 

 tices. United States Senators, Isham G. Harris 

 and Ho well E. Jackson. Members of the Forty- 

 seventh Congress : J. D. C. Atkins, L. C. Houk, 

 J. F. House, Benton McMillan, W. E. Moore, 

 A. H. Pettibone, C. B. Simonton, W. C. Whit- 

 thorne, Richard Warner, and George G. Dibrell. 

 Speaker of the State Senate, George H. Mor- 

 gan ; Speaker of the House of Representatives, 

 H. B. Ramsey. Members (elect) of Forty-eighth 

 Congress First District, A. H. Pettibone, Re- 

 publican; Second District, L. C. Houk, Re- 

 publican; Third District, George C. Dibbrell, 

 Democrat ; Fourth District, Benton McMillan, 

 Democrat; Fifth District, James D. Tillman, 

 Democrat; Sixth District, A. J. Caldwell, Dem- 

 ocrat ; Seventh District, J. G. Ballentine, Dem- 

 ocrat ; Eighth District, John M. Taylor, Demo- 

 crat ; Ninth District, Rice A. Pierce, Democrat ; 

 Tenth District, Carey Young, Democrat. 



FINANCES. The biennial report of the Treas- 

 urer, dated December 20, 1882, states as fol- 

 lows: 



Balance in Treasury December 20, 1880 $222,424 39 



Amount received to December 19, 1881 1,087,147 18 



Amount received to December 19, 1882 783,076 84 



Total $2,092,648 41 



Amount paid out on Comptroller's payable 

 warrants from December 20, 1S80, toDecem- 



ber20,1881 $680,231 87 



Amount paid out from December 20, 1881, to 

 December 20, 1882 904,401 46 



Total $1,584,633 33 



leaving a balance on hand December 20, 1882, 

 of $508,015.08. The State tax levy for 1882 

 was 20 cents on the $100, which, on the as- 

 sessed value of the taxable property in the 

 State, amounting to $221,929,813, should pro- 

 duce $443,859.60, of which up to December 

 20th only $142,823.72 were collected, leaving 

 unaccounted for or uncollected $301,035.88. 

 The taxable property of the State for the year 

 is as follows : 



Acres of land, 25,199,578, valued at ... . . $146,657,833 



Value of town lots 48.725.735 



Value of other property 26,546,245 



Total value $221,929,813 



This is a decrease of $3,360,060 as compared 

 with 1881 ; but the value of personal property 

 in 1882 shows an increase of $10,412,907 as 

 compared with that of the previous year. 



The State debt, upon which no interest has 

 been paid since July 1875, with the exception 

 of those bonds held by educational and chari- 

 table institutions, and by the widow of Presi- 



dent James K. Polk, has agitated the State 

 during the entire year. The decision of a ma- 

 jority of the Judges of the Supreme Court of 

 the State, in the case of Henry J. Lynn et als 

 vs. M. T. Polk et als, delivered in February, 

 declared the act of April, 1881, "to settle and 

 compromise the bonded indebtedness of the 

 State," to be unconstitutional and void. This 

 act was designed to fund the entire debt at 100 

 cents on the dollar in bonds bearing 3 percent 

 annual interest, payable in ninety-nine years 

 after date of issue, but redeemable at any time 

 after five years at the pleasure of the State, 

 and the act further provided that the interest 

 coupons of the new bonds be receivable, at 

 and after maturity, for all taxes and debts due 

 to the State, and that the Secretary of State, 

 Comptroller and Treasurer should constitute a 

 "funding board" to carry out the purposes of 

 the act. The court, by three of the judges 

 (Judges Turney, Freeman, and McFarland), 

 against two (Chief-Justice Deadrick and special 

 Judge Ewing), held that the 3 per cent adjust- 

 ment was legal, but that the part of the act 

 making the coupons receivable for taxes was 

 illegal, because the Legislature has no power to 

 contract away the State revenues for such a 

 time, or to make any contract which a subse- 

 quent Legislature can not modify or repeal. 

 Said Judge Turney : 



If the proposal to compromise is held good and 

 shall be accepted by the bondholders, it will then be 

 out of the power of any Legislature to at all interfere 

 with the law under any circumstances. The provis- 

 ion that the coupons shall be receivable for taxes and 

 all debts due the State becomes a contract. 



The language of the provision gives to the holder 

 the right to employ such means and legal process as 

 will compel compliance, and so far the financial agency 

 will be transferred to the creditors and through them 

 to the courts, taking the management and control of 

 the Treasury out of the hands of the Legislature and 

 placing them beyond the protection of the courts of 

 the State. 



The moment the contract is executed it becomes 

 the subject of Federal jurisdiction, and all the State 

 courts are subordinate jurisdictions, and whatever 

 may be the rulings of the State courts, and whenever 

 the suit may be instituted for the enforcement of the 

 contract, the Supreme Court of the United States will 

 have the final and, of course, conclusive jurisdiction. 

 Its decisions will be binding upon the State courts. 



This will be a surrender of sovereignty. The State 

 will no longer be its own guardian, with power to 

 make provisions for its support and existence, but 

 will be the ward of the Federal Government for ninety- 

 nine years, its estate to be administered at the beck 

 and nod of the bondholder, a centralization of the 

 worst form. 



A further consequence of the act will be a surren- 

 der by the State of its inherent as well as constitu- 

 tional right of determining when and in what court 

 and in what form it may be sued, or of withholding or 

 withdrawing its liability to suit at its pleasure. 



It is the right and duty of the State to hold its own 

 purse-strings, to be its own financial agent, to provide 

 for its own necessities, and to maintain its own sover- 

 eignty. These rights and duties must be exercised 

 and performed at any cost and under all circum- 

 stances. 



If the act before us is declared to be constitutional, 

 they are all gone by an absolute transfer to the bond- 

 holders to be administered in a foreign court. 



