648 TAXATION AND DEBT. 



years. Subsequent!}' it was in the hands of the newly emancipated 

 negro slaves. 



The convention declared the $2,241,340 of war debt wholly and for- 

 ever invalid. The first negro Legislature that met passed an act, in the 

 fall of 1868, to close the operations of the Bank of the State. Thereafter, 

 the assets of this venerable institution added nothing to the revenues of 

 the State. In 1870, it was placed in the hands of receivers, under whose 

 administration its funds have gradually diminished. 



Thus passed away a powerful institution, which, for more than half a 

 century had exercised exclusive control of the fiscal affairs of the State. 

 Its friends claimed that it had saved, consolidated and made profitable 

 the funds of the State ; that it had furnished relief to many citizens, 

 added to the general revenues of the State, improving and developing 

 the towns of the interior ; its profits were employed in paying the in- 

 terest and in reducing the principal of the public debt ; it preserved its 

 capital entire and its funds safe, maintaining the character and credit of 

 the State in Europe and at home without blot or suspicion. Its most 

 violent opponents admitted the ability and integrity displayed in its 

 management, and declared that the abiding confidence of the people in 

 it was a high but dangerous compliment to the purity of the public 

 characters of the State. 



This was but the prelude to the wreck which the negro government 

 made of the finances of the State. Its policy was of extreme simplicity. It 

 consisted in raising money by every means available, and at any cost, to 

 be squandered in profligate and corrupt extravagances upon the plunder- 

 ers in power. Space does not allow here even a brief summary of the 

 numerous and devious methods adopted for these purposes. Of the high 

 assessments placed on the remnants of property spared by the ravages of 

 war; of the equally high rate of taxation; of the issues of bonds and 

 stocks of the State by the Legislature, by the Governors, Treasurers 

 Speakers of the House of Representatives, and financial agents ; of their 

 sale and hypothecation ; of the army of clerks, messengers, porters, &c., 

 aggregating 2,505, employed by the Legislature ; of the legislative ac- 

 counts for services, including wines, groceries and dry goods, amounting 

 to $543,232 ; and of much more, concerning which statements made by 

 their own witnesses, will be found in the reports on legislative frauds 

 during the years 1871, '72, '73, '74. 



The average of the annual State taxes for the ten years preceding the war 

 — a time of great prosperity and large expenditure — was $442,589. From 

 1869 to 1873, they averaged $1,822,007. During this latter period, the 

 assets of the State disappeared. The interest on the public debt remained 

 unpaid, large deficiencies occurred, no public works were undertaken. 



