and the Railroad Companies, while the State has nothing but the debt and the obloquy resulting from her inability to pay it. The amount realized from the public property in Tennessee by the Federal Government can only be approximately estimated. The net earnings of the Louisville and Nashville Road for the year ending in June, 1865, largely exceeded $2,000,000. For the same period, for some months after, and for nearly two years before, the General Government was operating all the other roads of the State, and took all the profits, besides removing public property amounting in value to nearly $2,000,000.

All of this property and its profits had been put in pledge by the State as the primary security for the payment of the bondholder, and at last whatever injury the bondholder has sustained, resulted from the injustice of the Federal Government in refusing to pay what was justly due for the property and profits pledged to the bondholder and appropriated by it.

The obvious equities as to the State debt proper, are: First, the funded war interest ought to be expunged and all other funded interest. Second, all payments upon the war interest ought to be credited upon the principal at their value at the time of payment. Third, where funded at a greater rate of interest than the contract origially bore, the original rate ought to be restored. Fourth, where interest has been paid at a greater rate than the original contract, the excess ought to be credited upon the principal at its then value. Fifth, as the debt at the time of its creation was payable in gold or silver, and as by Federal legislation the State has been deprived of the opportunity to pay in the cheaper metal, the State ought to be allowed the difference between the market value of gold and silver.

So much of the State debt proper as is owned by the Federal Government ought to be entirely rejected, until it is willing to pay the State the money justly due her. The bonds loaned the Agricultural Bureau ought to be embraced in the settlement of the primary debt of the State. A settlement of this branch of the debt upon these principles of justice will be right and ought to command the approval of all.

The next branch of the public debt in order of merit is that of the ante-war bonds issued to insolvent railroads, turnpike and plank road companies. All the equities existing as to the State debt prop

er obtain as to this, and in addition the whole loss of the iron appropriated by the Federal Government upon which these bondholders had a lien, ought not in justice to be thrown upon the State, but as a matter of right those bondholders ought to have an assignment to them by the State of the claim, if they have confidence in the ability and willingness of the General Government to pay a just debt. As to that branch of the debt comprising the bonds issued to solvent railroad companies, it is not probable any adjustment of it can be made until the question of lien is settled. If the decision is in favor of the roads, the adjustment will be with the bondholders, and if in favor of the bondholders the adjustment will be with the companies.

As to that part of the debt embracing the post war bonds, no part of it should be settled now, or hereafter, only in so far as the bonds were issued, sold and used in conformity to law.

The State is able to provide for the first branch of the debt when adjusted, and it ought to be done now. It is probable an investigation will disclose the ability of the State to provide for the second branch, and if so, it ought to be done, but no more ought to be attempted than can certainly be accomplished. Prudent and cautious steps will lead to satisfactory results, but if more is attempted than can certainly be accomplished, the result will necessarily be disastrous.

If an adjustment is made the coupons ought not to be made rcceivable for taxes. The demand for this condition implies a want of confidence in the integrity of the State, and ought for that reason to be rejected. But as a matter of principle the State should never consent to put her sovereignty, which she holds in trust for the welfare of the whole people, in pledge for debt. Famine or pestilence may befall and cut off revenue, and then it will happen to us as it has elsewhere, where this demand was conceded: that the public schools will be closed, and the administration of the Government paralyzed in all of its functions, for the want of necessary means. If an adjustment is made, however, certain sources of revenue may be set apart for the payment of interest. If any part of the debt is adjusted, the bonds ought to be payable after five years, at the option of the Government, so as to give the opportunity to take up the bonds, or refund them at a lower rate of interest, if opportunity

offers.

If any plan of adjustment is adopted, it ought to be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection at the ballot-box, and if it is approved by the people at the polls, the Legislature will be convened, if necessary, for the purpose of enacting it into a law. That pledge has been made to the people, and it ought to be respected. If disregarded upon any ground, it will only afford occasion for distrust, and insure the ultimate defeat of any adjustment made. As the history of our State debt shows that in every contest with the bondholder and railroad companies on one side, and the tax-payers on the other, that the tax-payers have gone down, it is not remarkable that they demand the right to protect themselves.

The fact that a great variety of opinion exists as to this vexed question of the State debt, and that mutual concession alone can lead to a successful result, is appreciated and with an earnest desire that a satisfactory solution may be reached, these suggestions are submitted for your consideration.

ECONOMY.

The utmost economy compatible with the efficient administration of Government should at all times be practiced, and the present financial distress of the people of the State imposes an imperative duty upon you to retrench expenditures wherever it may be done without injury to the public interest. Whatever is done in this direction should follow careful investigation, in order that the State may suffer no detriment by hasty and imprudent action. I cannot with propriety recommend retrenchment without suggesting the abolition of the office of Private Secretary to the Governor. I am of the opinion that a Clerk at such salary as will command the services of a competent person should be allowed the Secretary of State, and that Clerk charged with the mere clerical duties of the two offices. I am of the opinion that the office of Superintendent of the Capitol ought to be abolished, and some cheaper mode adopted for the care of the Capitol and Capitol grounds. My information is too limited to authorize me to recommend the abolition of any other office, but, if after an investigation, it shall appear that other offices may be dispensed with, it is your duty to abolish them.

TORBET ISSUE.

The notes of the Bank of Tennessee, issued after the 6th day of May, 1861, were repudiated in 1865, and in consequence, fell to a

merely nominal value. With the hope that the tax payers would be required ultimately to take them up, nearly the whole of them were bought by speculators. The question of the liability of the State to receive them for taxes has been before the Supreme Court of the United States upon a collateral question, which question was settled adversely to the State, but the case upon its merits has never been before that Court. It is a duty the State owes its tax payers, to resist the reception of these notes for taxes in every legitimate mode. It is recommended that a proper committee employ a competent Attorney, at a fee fixed in advance, to develop the case for the State, and that the committee employ the Attorney and fix the fee so that both may be subject to your approval.

THE SUPREME COURT.

Concurring in the recommendation of my predecessor upon the condition of the dockets of the Supreme Court, I venture to supplement his recommendation with the suggestion that you raise a committee and direct it to confer with the Judges of the Supreme Court and elicit from them such suggestions as they may be willing to offer with reference to a reform in the practice of the Supreme Court, tending to lighten the labors of its Judges and expedite its buisness. Their suggestions cannot fail to be of great value, and I have no doubt but they will communicate them with pleasure. The vast cost and the great delay of the business upon the docket of that Court have been occasioned mainly in copying the entire record, and the evil ought to be remedied. The reformation of the practice of that Court, however, cannot for some time enable it to clear its docket, and if possible an intermediate court or courts should be established to dispose of the business now on the dockets. A final appeal to the Supreme Court cannot be defeated, but an intermediate court or courts can be established, and the cases now on the docket heard by it or them, and upon an appeal from an intermediate court, the appeal may be limited to questions of law. If there is no constitutional difficulty, this intermediate court or courts may be established without cost to the State by designating certain Chancellors and Circuit Judges to hold it or them, allowing an interchange when incompetent. If this plan meets with favor, temporary absence from their circuits and divisions of Judges assigned, may be supplied by a temporary division of their circuits and divisions

among the other Judges, and, if necessary, by a temporary reduction of the terms of the Circuit Court to two a year.

CRIMINAL COSTS.

The plan of requiring the counties to pay the costs of criminal prosecutions recommended to you by my predecessor, is worthy of trial. The opportunity which will be afforded the County Courts of the several counties to investigate each bill of costs will prove a salutary check upon the extravagance complained of, and as the officers of the Court will be answerable to their constituents for a faithful discharge of duty, it will result that the Courts will be conducted with the utmost expedition and economy. It will be proper perhaps, to require the State to pay the costs in all cases where the defendant by a final judgment is imprisoned in the Penitentiary.

But whether the recommendation of requiring the Counties to pay costs incurred in the prosecution of felonies is adopted or not, the separate items of cost ought to be regulated and embraced in a single act, and each clerk required to keep a printed copy posted in his office.

In all cases other than capital, the jury ought to be permitted to disperse unless for cause shown, the Court otherwise orders.

To prevent frivolous prosecutions, the fees of the Attorneys General, where there is a conviction or submission should be increased, and denied altogether where there is an acquittal or dismissal.

The former act declaring petit larcency a misdemeanor ought to be re-enacted.

All technical grounds for reversal ought to be removed where it may be done consistently with the Constitution, and the law should declare, that all presumptions shall be in favor of the regularity of the proceedings in the lower court, and no error to be considered, save those raised upon the trial; or which the record affirmatively discloses.

CARRYING PISTOLS.

Prosecutions for this offense are a fruitful source of cost to the counties. To prevent the evil, the punishment ought to be increased, and to prevent evasions of the law, the privilege of carrying a pistol while on a journey out of the county or State, should be granted by a license from the Clerk of the County Court of the residence of the party, upon an affidavit of the purpose to take