Xll HISTORICAL MEMOIR. 



hypothecated. The Treasurer of the State and the Treasurer 

 of each Railroad Company for the time being, were made Com- 

 missioners of the Sinking Fund thus created, and each Com- 

 pany was required to pay to the State Treasurer the semi- 

 annual interest on the bonds issued to them thirty days before 

 the coupons should fall due. The State Treasurer was re- 

 quired to select one place in the city of New York for the pay- 

 ment of the interest on all the bonds issued by the State, and 

 to give public notice thereof thirty days in advance. This was 

 a good provision and is calculated to consolidate and strengthen 

 the public credit, while it places the State upon its proper dig- 

 nity in guarding its own honor. So long as the Companies 

 continue to provide the means to pay the interest themselves, 

 as they are required to do, the State Interest Fund and the 

 Sinking Fund will accumulate, and suitable provisions are 

 made for the safe and productive investment of the funds in 

 securities readily convertible. Thus with the lapse of each 

 year, with the increasing value of the railroads and their earn- 

 ings, with the enhancement in the worth of the railroad lands, 

 with the gradual accumulations of the Sinking Funds, and with 

 the constant and steady increase of the public wealth, THE PUBLIC 

 CREDIT OF MISSOURI, not now to be much more extended by the 

 constitution, will be firmly established beyond all contingency. 



James H. Lucas, Esq., was elected President of the Pacific 

 Railroad Company in March, 1856, but resigned about a month 

 afterwards, when William M. McPherson, Esq., was elected 

 President in his place, and Mr. Edward Miller soon after was 

 made Chief Engineer. Mr. McPherson continued to serve as 

 President until March, 1858, when Hon. John M. Wimer was 

 elected in his place. 



By an act approved March 3, 1857, the State agreed to guar- 

 anty the bonds of the Pacific Railroad Company, issued as 

 authorized by the act of Dec. 10, 1855, upon a mortgage of 

 lands on the South-west branch in sums of $100,000 each, to 

 an amount not exceeding $4,500,000 the first $100,000 to be 

 issued upon evidence of a like amount of expenditure on that 

 branch by the Company derived from sources other than guar- 

 antied bonds, but the subsequent amounts were to be issued as 

 fast as each given sum was expended. The Governor was also 



