USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 48
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5. Surveyor and collector of the port of Memphis, to which he was appointed by President Johnson.
6. County court clerk of Shelby county, Tennessee, for four years.
7. Mayor of the city of Memphis two years.
8. Member of the legislature of Tennessee.
9. President of a bank.
HON. JOHN LOAGUE.
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10. Three successive elections to the office of public admin- istrator of Shelby county, which includes Memphis, an office he now holds.
And last, but not least, he is a lawyer, and in that relation accepts an Oliver for his Roland.
These offices sufficiently indicate his power and popularity. He has always been on top in politics and never out of office for the last quarter of a century. He is full of warm impulses and never neglects a friend. In the classic language of the times, he rarely " goes " for an enemy, but when he does, the luckless fellow is apt to think all Dublin at his heels. The worst break he ever made was when he took Powell Clayton and company into his confidence and exchequer, and made that experience the occasion of a left-handed compliment to the author, at the expense of the bench and bar of Arkansas. For more than twenty years Mr. Loague has been the warm personal friend of the author. Socially, he is one of the most genial and companionable of men - is rich in that wit and happy repartee so characteristic of his nationality. The follow- ing letters explain. themselves :
LONOKE, ARK., December 17, 1886.
Hon. JOHN LOAGUE, Memphis, Tenn .:
MY DEAR SIR -Your caustic and ably-prepared indictment against the people of Arkansas relates to questions of the gravest moment to them. I have, therefore, prepared my an- swer with some degree of care. It has occurred to me that these letters, although written under the seal of privacy, pos- · sess sufficient interest to warrant their preservation. I, there- fore, ask you to consent to their publication.
I am, truly, your friend, JOHN HALLUM.
MEMPHIS, TENN., Jan. 11, 1887.
JOHN HALLUM, Lonoke, Ark .:
MY DEAR SIR - Your favor of the 17th of December, ask- ing my consent to publish my letter of the 13th of December, and your cutting reply of the 17th was not sooner answered, because, at first, I did not look with favor on the idea of be-
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coming tne butt of your sharp, logical and eloquent reasoning, in the effort to sustain and defend a people who have embraced repudiation as a leading provision in their organic law. Al- though I have justice on my side, which ought to carry with it the pride of your people, yet I do not feel that I possess talent enough to vindicate the right. However, I have revised the original, and if you will let me substitute it, you have my consent to the publication.
I am, truly, your old friend,
JOHN LOAGUE.
MEMPHIS, TENN. Dec. 13, 1886. JOHN HALLUM, Lonoke, Ark .:
MY DEAR OLD FRIEND - I see from the press you are en- gaged in writing a book, entitled " Bench and Bar of Arkan- sas." I much regret you find leisure to undertake the per- formance of such a task, which must be as repulsive to you as it is herculean, in my opinion. Pardon an old friend for his gratuitous opinion, and the declaration that he does not think you capacitated by nature or education to voluntarily assume such a task. You have no doubt been professionally engaged to defend the " Bench and Bar of Arkansas," before the great bar of public opinion.
If this is so, it is the best omen hailing from Arkansas since repudiation laid its palsied hand on her fame. Even the recog- nition that such a public necessity exists is a healthy indication that all of her people are not dead to her financial degradation. In pleading for and defending the " Bench and Bar of Ar- kansas," you have a wide and difficult field for the display of great ability. The necessity for such a defense is recognized and will be appreciated in all the moneyed centers of the United States, as well as in many moneyless and obscure homes. Personally I am interested about $60,000 on the wrong side of the trial balance of " Bench and Bar of Arkansas," in the shape of repudiated railroad aid and levee bonds, a result brought about by the teaching and the preaching, the artful dodging and special pleading of " Bench and Bar of Arkansas." I carry them all along with the trial balance, because the opinions of the Bench, unsustained by the Bar, would not long shadow the
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name of Arkansas. There may be exceptions, but if there are, they are too obscure to engage the attention of the world, and all such will consider themselves exempt from this shot, as obscurity has no just demands on fame. What great talent it requires to paint, and picture, and color the " Bench and Bar of Arkansas " so posterity will not give their memory a dose of their own repudiation ! Where, oh where, my fertile and in- genious friend, do you find margin enough for truth and wit, grace and elegance of diction, to give and lend an honest charm to the " Bench and Bar of Arkansas ?" When repudia- tion becomes respectable abroad, and not until then, will your talent find its reward for defending the " Bench and Bar of Ar- kansas."
It would be some consolation to the outside world, in this age of progress, if we could be satisfied that the teaching and the preaching of the " Bench and Bar of Arkansas " had ad- vanced the political sagacity of her Bourbon population above the attainment of her aboriginal inhabitants. But it requires poetic stretch of imagination to embrace such rugged consola- tion. I, who have paid $60,000 for the financial information confirming these conclusions, ought to be heard before the bar of posterity when the case In re " Bench and Bar of Arkan- sas " comes on to be heard ; and, if it is not asking too much, I beg you, as you are going to that Bar, to hand in this paper to the old chap for his dispassionate consideration ; and, if you please, say to him, I would have come myself to press my suit but that I had the misfortune to be robbed by the other side, in consequence of which I am unable to defray the expenses of the long journey. But throw glittering generalization away, however well founded and cogently supported, and come to the unadorned truth connected with that greatest of all crimes- violation and disregard of the plighted faith of the State. ()n that high ground can Arkansas defend against the odium of repudiation, in face of the admitted and undenied fact that her lawfully constituted legislature authorized the issue of the rail- road aid and levee bonds of the State ; in face of the admitted fact that these bonds were issued by her authorized officers and were disposed of by them, as by law directed ; in face of the ad- mitted fact that her levees and her railroads were, to a great
sore f
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extent, built with the money procured from innocent parties, who advanced it to the State on the plighted faith of these bonds ?
Don't, I pray you don't, tell me your supreme court has fallen below the judicial standard ordained by Paganism, and has been carried away in the political maelstrom of hatred against the party in power when the bonds were issued. Don't, I pray you don't, tell me that the decisions of that high tribunal in- validating these bonds, are founded in and based on technicali- ties. If you do, let me assure you how great the wounded pride and deep the penitential humiliation of a people, who are forced to confess themselves driven to such miserable shel- ter. Technicality is a bastard, an alien to the throne of reason and justice, and has no place, no share in the glory and good name of a great people. It originated in the black-letter ages of our semi-civilized ancestors, and has no place in the shield and halo of light and reason which now encircles the world. A supreme tribunal is the nearest approach in theory and beauty of conception man ever makes to his God in disposing of the affairs of this world. Such a tribunal can have no higher incentive than the enlightened administration of law, and to shield and preserve the honor of the people who created it. Pardon my anticipation, because I have studied your laws and have kept up with your decisions and are familiar with the only ground you can occupy in reply. That your courts have yielded to the popular frenzy of the electors who placed them in power, and have fixed the loss on the innocent bond- holders, and left them without remedy, may be a physical, an arbitrary fact ; but it is no answer to the great principles. involved in my indictment against them.
The State has my money and I am powerless. Is there an impartial judge in the world who would say, a stranger who had advanced his money to the State, to aid in its moral and physical development, in conformity to the solicitation and laws of the State, ought not to recover his money ? Legalized fraud under the specious forms of law is but the crystallization of odium, the deathly fruit of repudiation. It seems to me that the laborious task on which you have entered in defending the " Bench and Bar of Arkansas," is full of Herculean obstacles,
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and that the best thing you can do, after you write finis at the end, is to consign it to everlasting obscurity. Repudiation, indorsed and sanctified by the legislature, defended by the Bar and sustained by the Bench, is indeed a fearful indictment to meet at the enlightened bar of public opinion, either now or in the great hereafter. The amendment to your State consti- tution, denying the creation of a tribunal to investigate and separate the good from the alleged fraudulent debt, is an anomaly to the English speaking races of the world. It carries your people back to the worst reigns of the Stuarts and Plan- tagenets, and repeals Magna Charta, the great chart of our liberties, " the grand original." It condemns without hearing, and confiscates without adjudication. The vote of a large majority of your people in favor of such retroactive, organic provision, sweeping millions of debt away, by arbitrary fiat ; without permitting investigation of questions growing out of its bonded debt, was a grave mistake against the laws, tradi- tions and liberties of our race. Innocent creditors have been stricken down with ruthless hand, deceived and robbed. The most sacred sanctions and guaranties have been violated.
Before I invested in these bonds I went to Little Rock and consulted with Governor Clayton and all the State officials high in authority, as to the validity of these bonds, and I was assured by his excellency and all of them that the bonds were issued in strict conformity to law, and I left them, perfectly satisfied that such was the case, and I am still so satisfied. But there is no guaranty against repudiation with a people who have no State pride. You have placed the seal of condemna- tion on your Governor Clayton, your Auditor Berry, your Treasurer Page and Secretary of State White, for the part taken by them in the issue of these bonds. Do these gentle- men stand disgraced in the State, or have the people said to them : We appreciate your action in getting our railroads and levees built with bonds which we do not intend to pay, and we honor you for your skillful management ? Answer these questions to the satisfaction of the present and future genera- tions, my lord advocate of " Bench and Bar of Arkansas," and you will achieve a niche worthy of your talents. What can you tell us about your amended constitution, designed as an
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everlasting seal to the glory of repudiation ? You must admit that it is a movement of stupendous folly, a solemn mockery of the laws and traditions of our race for the last six centuries.
The late civil war with all its train of evils was nothing compared to the destructive elements thus recognized and es- tablished as organic law. The old Norman lords and barons of England accomplished nothing for Arkansas at the begin- ning of the thirteenth century, when they foolishly seized King John in that historic isle of the Runnymede and made him sign the great chart of English liberty and law. The achievements of those rude but sturdy old ancestors for long centuries have been regarded as the greatest recorded in the annals of our race, and they have been worshiped as historic idols in every quarter of the enlightened world except be- nighted Arkansas. The law-making sages of your State have applied the torch to this heritage. As matter of curiosity to the future historian and reader, I herewith give you a synop- tical copy of two of these bonds, and beg you to preserve them in your book, should you persist in publishing it. I hope you will give these bonds that profound consideration the subject deserves, and that you will not swing to the other end of the pendulum so far as to disqualify yourself from representing my interests. Arkansas ought to be brought back to her proper mooring, and by enlightened persuasion, it may possibly yet be done.
I am, truly, your old friend,
JOHN LOAGUE. 2-$1000 Bonds.
United States of America.
. It is hereby certified that the State of Arkansas is indebted unto the Mem. and Little Rock R. R. Co., or bearer, in the sum of one thousand dollars.
Signed, In the city of Little Rock, 1st day of April, 1869.
J. R. BERRY, Auditor. POWELL CLAYTON, Governor.
ROBT. J. L. WHITE, Secretary. HENRY PAGE, Treasurer.
Seven per cent interest payable April and October. Coupons of April, 1873, and subsequent, attached.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
2-$1000 Bonds.
United States of America.
It is hereby certified that the State of Arkansas is indebted unto the Miss. and Ouachita and Red River R. R. Co., or bearer, in the sum of one thousand dollars.
Signed, In the city of Little Rock, 1st day of April, 1870. POWELL CLAYTON, Governor. J. R. BERRY, Auditor.
ROBT. J. L. WHITE, Secretary. HENRY PAGE, Treasurer. S
Seven per cent interest payable April and October. Coupons of April, 1873, and subsequent, attached.
The good name of Arkansas has been slandered and her people traduced at home and abroad. This answer to the indictment against both is designed to put the facts and the authors of the wrongs inflicted in their true light, sustained by indubitable proofs.
THE AUTHOR'S LETTER IN ANSWER TO JOHN LOAGUE. LONOKE, ARK., Dec. 17, 1866.
Hon. JOHN LOAGUE, Memphis, Tenn .:
DEAR SIR - Your characteristic letter of the 13th, so full of irony and impetuous indignation against the Bench and Bar of Arkansas, is in keeping with the impulsive nature of your race. Ireland for centuries has been unable to inaugurate a compact revolution, because the impulses of her sons override and over- balance her judgment. So with you, my friend, your impulses, growing out of your violent prejudice, destroy your capacity to make a compact argument. Invective and denunciation, however attractively clothed in beautiful and felicitous language, can never take the place of reason. In our efforts to captivate the admiration, we often lose sight of the less dazzling, yet higher at- tainment, necessary to command the assent of reason. But com- pensating balances may be found in other national traits peculiar to your race. When an Irishman cannot play the lion, he scorns to play the fox. If he is your enemy he disdains secret injury, shouts his war cry at noonday, and comes at his enemy like an eagle cleaving the clouds. These are noble traits, and will always command the respect of men, however disqualifying for
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the latitude of diplomacy. There can be no doubtful construction of the issue you tender the Bench and Bar of Arkansas, but you accord me an honor, to which I am not entitled, in assuming that I am their champion. The gentlemen composing these honorable bodies are fully competent to the task of taking care of themselves, and it would be an act of unauthorized arro- gance in me to speak for the living, but I may be pardoned for resenting an imputation on the memory of the dead, to which I will presently devote myself.
. In this free country criticism is alike the property of the · fool and the sage, and nothing of public concern is with- drawn from its touch. The right to criticise public measures is one of the primal laws of our democratic system, of which you have with immunity availed yourself in framing your ingenious indictment against the Bench and Bar of Arkansas. You arraign the people of Arkansas on political considerations as one of the prime causes of the injustice you complain of. As you invite and challenge criticism in that direction, you cannot complain if reminded of the fact that you have " passed through every sign of the political zodiac," from the Scorpion in the house of radicalism which stung you so fearfully, to the honest Virgin in the house of democracy which both enriched and re- warded you with so many honors and offices since you renounced alliance with the political sins of the party that robbed you. Follow up this history, and every impartial mind will soon be convinced that your denunciation is alone deserved by the radical party, to which you accorded allegiance at the time you bought the bonds. Personally you have been singularly fortunate in escaping the vices and embracing the virtues of all parties. And, if you have been indiscreet and at times too confiding in your political affiliations, it has never been discovered in time to keep you out of a fat office. When radicalism sank with its accumulated weight of odium, you sprang to the deck of the old democratic ship, where you have never lost one dollar be- cause of the affiliation.
You say that before the purchase of the bonds in question, you took the precaution to go to Little Rock, and advise with Governor Clayton, and the other officials whose names appear on the bonds you hold, as to their validity, and was assured by
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all that they were issued in strict conformity to law, and would be promptly paid by the State. This confession softens and appeases that asperity of criticism which your caustic letter might otherwise encourage. My dear sir, is it a fact that you had temerity enough to march right into the camp of the spoliators, and ask them if the booty was legitimate and lawful ? Did you think they would open up the secrets of the confessional to you, even though you were the favored pet of radicalism in a neighboring Commonwealth ? Your honest con- fession is the crystallization of simplicity, and draws with it compassion, instead of criticism. And now, because the Bench and Bar and people of Arkansas refuse to indorse and ratify the acts of the public plunderers, who sought to rob and bank- rupt the State, you hurl your harmless philippic at them. But this, so far, is unsupported assertion by me, and if I fail to make it good with substantial facts, I am guilty of calumny. To this end I will now direct myself, commencing with a short histor- ical resume, which is necessary to a clear understanding of the case. Arkansas was then overrun and oppressed by a set of political adventures (a very large majority of them being born alien to her soil), who had charge of the State government. A large majority of the white tax-paying population of the State were disfranchised. When your bonds were authorized, Powell Clayton, together with Robert J. L. White and Benjamin Thomas, were railroad commissioners, and Clayton was gover- nor, and head and front of the dominant party, and was ex- officio railroad commissioner, charged with the issue of railroad aid bonds, which he did without lawful authority.
A majority of the subordinates under him were his hench- men. In this twofold capacity of governor and railroad com- missioner, it was his solemn, sworn duty to protect the people from spoliation and robbery. Now let us see how far this was done, and then we can better tell how far you and Iare justified in the opposing assertions we have made. In this we will now speak by the record, as assertion unsupported settles nothing ; and you may introduce Governor Clayton ; if you don't, I will. We will take for illustration the bonds issued to the "Little Rock, Pine Bluff and New Orleans Railroad Company," because I have the record in that case before me. These bonds are
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ultra vires, and the vice attaching to, and inherent in them pervades all other railroad aid bonds issued during the Clayton reign or reconstruction period. On the 10th of March, 1869, S. W. Mallory - representing the directors of said company, com- posed of himself, G. R. Weeks, O. P. Snyder, J. M. Lewis and J. E. Sickles - petitioned the board of railroad commissioners for State aid to build said railroad, amounting to $15,000 per mile, the main stem and branches aggregating, as alleged in the petition, two hundred and sixty miles of road. They rep- resent they had capitalized the stock of the road at $27,000 per mile, and had authorized first mortgage bonds to the amount of $10,000 per mile. It was also represented that the subscrip- tion to the capital stock of the company amounted to $265,000 ; that, had it been deemed important to the immediate interest of the company, or at all likely to influence the board, the sub- scription might have been enlarged.
S. W. Mallory, the president of the company, further stated that liberal county, municipal and individual subscriptions had been specifically promised, as well as liberal donations of lands contiguous to the road, which, with the State aid prayed for, would swell the assets of the company to $3,000,000. Five days after this, Clayton, as president of the board of railroad commissioners, called a meeting of the board, and granted State aid to the amount of $15,000 per mile for one hundred and twelve miles. Again, on the 25th of June, 1870, the board granted State aid to the company for eight additional miles, and on the 16th day of March, 1871, they granted State aid at the same rate for fifty additional miles of road. From the 26th of April, 1870, to the 25th of September, 1871, in- clusive, Powell Clayton, as governor, with J. R. Berry, auditor, Henry Page, treasurer, and Robert J. L. White issued to this company $1,200,000 in railroad aid bonds. On the 25th of April, 1870, the company executed a mortgage on the road, franchises and property of the company, to secure first mort- gage bonds amounting to $1,200,000. This, according to the statement of Mallory, the president, increased the assets of the company to $3,000,000. With all of these large assets the company defaulted in the payment of interest on its mortgage bonds in 1874, and was sold out under decree of foreclosure in
.
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the Federal court, at the instance of the first mortgage bond- holders. The constitution of 1868, under which these bonds were issued, provides that " the credit of the State or counties shall never be loaned for any purpose without the consent of the people expressed through the ballot-box." And it also provides that no public act shall take effect, or be in force, until ninety days from the expiration of the session at which it was passed, when the act, on its face, does not declare when it is to take effect.
The act of the legislature providing for a general railroad system under which all the railroad aid bonds were issued was put on its final passage the 21st of July, 1868, but it did not pro- vide on its face when it should take effect, and thus left the constitutional provision above quoted operating as a limitation on the act to determine when it became operative as a law. It then becomes of vital importance to ascertain when the session at which the act was passed expired. The session commenced on the 2d of April, 1868, and expired on the 10th day of April, 1869. So the act could not possibly, under the organic limita- tion above cited, become operative before the 10th day of July, 1869, and any act performed by any agent or officer of the government, in anticipation of what might thereafter become legitimate and lawful under the act, was simply null and void, ultra vires, and imposed no obligation on the State or its peo- ple. The twelfth section of the act submitted the question as to whether the State should lend its credit to railroads to the voters at the next general election, which was held on the 3d of November, 1868, and at this election a majority voted for railroads; in other words, for lending the credit of the State to railroads. This vote was taken ten months before the law authorizing it went into effect; there being no law authorizing the submission of the vote, every act based on it was a nullity. . (See State of Arkansas v. Litile Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Ry. Co., 31 Ark. 701, and the luminous opin- ion delivered by the late Hon. David Walker, and the numerous authorities therein cited.) The radical adventurers whose only regard for official obligation seems to have been inspired by the criminal laws of the land, in their frenzied greed and haste for
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