USA > Arkansas > The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas > Part 25
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In the report of State Superintendent of Public In- struction, George B. Cook, for 1912, he used the follow- ing language : 11 "The permanent school fund is safely invested in State bonds bearing 3 per cent interest." If
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by "safely invested" Superintendent Cook meant that they were safe from the pilfering of any thief who might break into the State Treasury, he was correct, for no such cul- prit would ever stop to pick up such a bond any more than he would a Confederate bond that he might find lying in the Treasury, as both were of no value.
I venture to say that never in the history of any State have more dishonest methods been resorted to. Could the masses of Arkansas, through the density of their igno- rance, discern the truth and have a lawful opportunity to make effective their will, no Government so conducted could, in my opinion, survive the first test at the polls.
The next Republican policy attacked by the Democrats was the loaning of State Aid to Railroads. On April 10. 1869,12 a law was passed by the Republicans providing for the payment of the interest by the railroad companies on the State bonds loaned to them. The railroad compa- nies were perfectly satisfied with this law and were not asking for any relief. Nevertheless, this law was imme- diately repealed 13 by the Democrats upon their accession to power, and the railroad corporations were thereby relieved of their just and acknowledged liabilities.
The taxpayers of Arkansas were not required by the State Aid Law to pay one cent of interest or principal on account of the State Aid bonds. Under the strict provi- sions of the law the Railroad Companies and not the peo- ple were required to do so.14 While I was Governor every railroad company receiving State Aid fully acknowledged this liability.
It is a matter of record in the United States Court at Little Rock that in the suit of W. S. Pierson, Watson Matthews, and R. K. Dow vs. The Memphis and Little Rock Railroad Company, Sam Tate, et al., that company had bought up 931 bonds of $1,000 each, "which bonds were issued to the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad
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Company ; fifty-eight (58) to the Arkansas Central Rail- road Company; thirty-two (32) to the Mississippi, Ouachita, and Red River Railroad Company; and nine (9) to the Little Rock and Ft. Smith Railroad Company. And also five hundred and one (501) detached coupons from 'State Aid Bonds.' The character and number of said 'State Aid Bonds' and coupons are shown upon Ex- hibit 'H' hereto. Which last named bonds and coupons your Master holds subject to the order of the Court, and asks that he may make some disposition of the same or be otherwise relieved from responsibility for their custody.
"CHAS. P. REDMOND, Master."
These bonds were undoubtedly purchased for the liqui- dation of an equivalent part of the State Aid debt con- tracted by that company. In the Pulaski Chancery Court it is also a matter of record in the suit of W. B. Worthen vs. The Little Rock and Ft. Smith Railway Company that this company had bought up $627,000 of these bonds, inclusive of all overdue coupons, for the purpose of liqui- dating its indebtedness to the State in a corresponding amount, leaving only $373,000 of its original State bonded indebtedness to be provided for.
Other companies were preparing to do the same thing, but when the Democratic party came into power in Ar- kansas they repealed that portion of the law providing for the payment of interest on the bonds.
This repeal was passed before the courts had denied the validity of the Railroad Loan Act; therefore, unless the members of the Legislature who voted for the repeal knew beforehand that the courts would invalidate that act, they deliberately relieved these corporations of their just liabilities and compelled the bondholders to look to the State for their money.
By a technicality never dreamed of by anyone during. the years the railroad companies were receiving and sell-
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ing bonds, the Act was declared unconstitutional. The alleged flaw was that upon the passage of the Railroad State Aid Bill the aye and nay vote was not made a mat- ter of record, as required by the Constitution !
As it was with the Funding Bonds so was it with the State Aid Bonds. None of them were owned by citizens of the State. They had been sold to Northern and Euro- pean purchasers, and no one in Arkansas was concerned in their behalf. I consider it a very bad policy for a State to issue bonds for any purpose when none of them are owned by its citizens.
But worse things than these were to follow. Their methods now became wholesale. In the year 1879 W. M. Fishback, the Democratic convert, introduced a joint reso- lution in the Arkansas Legislature providing for an amendment to the State Constitution, which should pro- hibit the making of any appropriation to pay either prin- cipal or interest of the Funding, or "Holford," bonds, the bonds issued to aid in the construction of railroads, and those known as the levee bonds.
This joint resolution was passed by the General As- sembly, and the adoption of the Amendment was sub- mitted to the people at the general election held in Sep- tember, 1880. Among the prominent men who took a stand against it was A. H. Garland, who fought it, as he declared, "inch by inch, foot by foot, step by step." In a great speech made by him at Russellville on July 12. 1880, in a debate with W. M. Fishback, the author of the amendment, he used the following language :15
"If these bonds are ignored, repudiated, destroyed, yet still the debt remains to haunt the courts and the State. If these bonds are rejected, you will still have to meet the question at last,-where is the debt which these bonds represent ?- and, until the paper is drawn in and receipts
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passed, there is no settlement before God or man or be- fore gentlemen-and the State cannot afford to be any- thing else but a gentleman before the world.
"I think this Amendment is conceived in a mistaken policy. I think its advocates and friends have gravely erred in propounding it to the people of Arkansas and urging it upon them for adoption. If they were the sworn enemies of the State, armed with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, determined to do the State the utmost damage, they could not, in my opinion, more completely accomplish their end than by having the pro- posed Amendment incorporated in the Constitution. . . . The adoption of the Amendment would, in my opinion, be the memorial blunder, if not the crowning crime, of the age."
This was from an ex-Governor of their own party, and even the Gazette, the Democratic organ, took ground against the adoption of the Amendment. When it went to vote it was defeated.
But the Democrats were not content with this expres- sion of disapproval by the people, and efforts for the adoption of the Amendment were renewed by Mr. Fish- back in the Legislature of 1883. Through his influence it was passed again by that body 16 and re-submitted to the people in 1884, when it was ratified, and it thereafter became a part of the State Constitution.17 It had by this time become generally known that the hated New Eng- land "Yankee" owned the bonds sold by the State, and that fact alone was a sufficient reason with the ignorant population of the State for their repudiation.
By this act they succeeded in nullifying all the efforts made by my administration to restore the credit of the State. Innocent purchasers were robbed,-people of moderate means who, relying upon the honor of a great
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State, had invested their earnings in its securities,-and Arkansas was placed forever among the black-listed States in the markets of the world.
This is a strong and sweeping statement, yet the his- tory of the State from its admission into the Union in 1836 down to the present time, exclusive of the period of Republican administration, fully justifies the charge of procuring loans for the benefit of its individual citizens and afterward relieving them of their just liabilities by repudiation.
Henceforth the name of William M. Fishback will always be connected with this most disgraceful and un- American act,-an act that cast over the annals of the State a blot so dark that all the water of the two oceans could never wash it away.
Up to this time I have dealt with the actions of the Democrats as a party. I shall now make mention of several individuals that occupied high places under the Democratic Government.
Among the officers elected by the Democrats under the new State Constitution was ex-Confederate Maj .- Gen. T. J. Churchill, Treasurer. He was elected for three suc- cessive terms covering from 1874 to January 12, 1881, and his six years of service as Treasurer were followed by his election in 188 1 to the office of Governor.
Soon thereafter, in spite of all efforts at concealment, it leaked out that large defalcations existed in General Churchill's accounts as Treasurer. This matter was taken up by the Legislature of 1881 and resulted in the appointment of a Senate Investigating Committee. This Committee made a partial report toward the close of that session,18 but no definite action was taken until Janu- ary 20 and 22, 1883, when a joint committee was raised 19 to investigate the accounts of Treasurer Churchill.
After an examination of the books kept during his
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first term as Treasurer the joint committee, on February 26, 1883, made a report to the Legislature setting forth in detail the deficit for this term, amounting to $294,- 876.37, which report was adopted.20
On the 16th of March, 1883, the joint committee made its report to the Legislature on its investigation of the books kept by General Churchill during his second term of office, which showed a net balance to his credit of $86,097.05. This report was also adopted.21
On the 24th of March, 1883, the joint committee made its final report to the Legislature showing in detail the shortage existing in General Churchill's accounts for his third and last term as Treasurer, which amounted to $24,837.57.
This report set forth that his entire defalcation amounted to the appalling sum of $233,616.89, and it was adopted by both Houses of the Legislature. In addi- tion to this amount it was also shown that there was a deficit in the permanent school fund amounting to $50,- 237.23.22
Two days thereafter, on March 26, 1883, a concur- rent resolution was introduced in the House by Mr. Bar- ker, directing Gov. T. J. Churchill to cause suit to be brought against the recent Treasurer T. J. Churchill- himself, -- on his official bond for the recovery of the miss- ing school fund, which was read and adopted.23 It was then sent to the Senate, where the resolution was lost.
So far as the Legislative proceedings and court rec- ords show, no decision was made as to the burning of the scrip belonging to the permanent school fund, which Gen- eral Churchill admitted was burned by him through mis- take.
The law providing for the Burning Board was passed by the Democrats on May 28, 1874, and reads as fol- lows :24
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"The governor, secretary of state, and auditor shail be, and they are hereby, constituted a board for the pur- pose of examining cancelled scrip, treasurer's certificates, warrants, and other securities that may now be in the State treasury, or that may hereafter be received and borne on the accounts of the auditor and treasurer as funds on hand or balances, with authority to count and destroy the same by burning or otherwise.
"Whenever such funds or securities shall accumulate in the treasury in sufficient quantity to make it necessary or advisable to have the same destroyed, the treasurer shall prepare a statement thereof and submit the same to the governor, who shall thereupon assemble said board for the purpose of examining the funds scheduled or stated for examination ; and if said board shall find, upon a careful and particular count and investigation, that such funds are correctly stated and agree in every particular with the schedules thereof, said board shall so certify and shall thereupon immediately destroy such funds or cause the same to be done in their presence; and the certificate of said board shall be sufficient authority for the auditor to credit the treasurer's account with the amount of funds so destroyed."
It will be seen at once that this act could be used to cover any amount of corruption, and it was so used. It was disclosed in testimony taken by the joint committee that the scrip to be burned was put up in packages and scheduled at the will of the Treasurer, and he received credit for the amount shown to be burned by the schedule prepared by himself.
This law opened the door for the perpetration of the grossest frauds against the State and left no check what- ever on the Treasurer. There was absolutely nothing to prevent him from giving out to be counted over and over
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the same identical packages of scrip, taking credit on his accounts each time, as once a package had been scheduled for burning by the Treasurer it was not investigated by any other officer and was burned by clerks without having been opened. Therefore any amount of scrip could have been extracted from each package by the Treasurer, and that fact remain undiscovered. This defaulting officer, Churchill, so completely covered his fraud by his manipu- lation of the Burning Board that at the expiration of his third term as Treasurer his defalcation was not disclosed and he was elected to the position of Governor of the State.
After the first report of the joint committee was made to the Legislature, while the defaulter Churchill was Gov- ernor, as before stated, a concurrent resolution was intro- duced in the House directing the Governor to bring suit against himself for the deficit shown to exist by the investi- gations of the joint committee. This resolution was adopted by both Houses; the vote in the Senate was 22 to o, and it was 79 to o in the House.25
Thus we have the unique situation of a Governor of the State being directed by an act of the Legislature to have suit instituted against himself. Under this resolu- tion suit was brought by the Attorney-General on May 30, 1883, in the Pulaski Chancery Court against T. J. Churchill, Governor of Arkansas, and his bondsmen, for the amount of his defalcation while Treasurer of the State.
A decree was rendered therein on the 11th day of February, 1884. On the 10th of March, 1884, Thomas H. Simms was appointed Special Master by order of the court, to state the accounts in the cause. On June 20, 1884, he reported 26 that his investigations showed that General Churchill's defalcation amounted to $80,522.01,
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for which sum a judgment was rendered against the Democratic Governor of Arkansas.
The report of Mr. Simms does not show that any action was taken to replace the scrip belonging to the per- manent school fund, which was burned by mistake.
I shall now give an illustration of the difference be- tween Democratic and Republican methods :
Col. Henry Page was State Treasurer during the en- tire time the Republicans were in power in Arkansas. When he resigned on May 20, 1874, his accounts were checked and vouchers to the amount of $2,788.46 were missing. Although Colonel Page felt certain that they would be found, knowing, as he did, his absolute freedom from fraud, yet, to protect his bondsmen from loss, he deposited that amount of money with the fiscal agent of the State, the Union Trust Company of New York, and received from the auditor a certificate of non-indebtedness to the State.
Years passed, and when the large defalcations of Treasurer Churchill came to light, as above detailed, and the joint committee was appointed to investigate his ac- counts, it was deemed advisable by them to examine the closed accounts of his predecessor, Colonel Page. In making this examination all the old cancelled bonds were removed from the treasury vault for checking, and the. envelope containing Treasurer Page's missing vouchers was found on the shelf underneath the bonds, where it had remained for years. This information was conveyed to Colonel Page by Mr. Woodruff, who was then Treasurer of the State.
This envelope contained warrants corresponding ex- actly to the amount Colonel Page had deposited with the fiscal agent of the State-$2,788.46-but the State has persistently failed to refund Colonel Page's money, and that amount is still due him.
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The name of Col. Henry Page, as an honest and faithful public official, is held in high esteem by the Re- publicans of Arkansas, and will go down into history as the Treasurer of the State who came out of office with an absolutely clean record.
Maj. John Crawford was State Auditor and a mem- ber of the Burning Board during the greater part of the time General Churchill was Treasurer, his term of service having been from January, 1877, to January, 1883. Dur- ing the investigation of the accounts of Treasurer Church- ill it was found that a shortage also existed in the ac- counts of Auditor Crawford. A suit was instituted against him in the Pulaski Chancery Court and a judg- ment was rendered for the sum of $9,922.09.
This is the same Major Crawford whom the militia pulled out of the loft of a Ku Klux den at Centre Point by his heels, as described on page 113.
After the accession of the Democrats to power in Ar- kansas they attacked and destroyed every measure that had been advocated or accomplished by the Republicans. They repudiated the bonded indebtedness of the State, which had been so solemnly approved by the people at the polls, and placed in positions of trust men who were guilty of the grossest frauds against the State Treasury.
It may be asked why a party guilty of such abuses as I have exposed should have been permitted by the peo- ple of a State to remain in power continuously since 1874. I answer with the adage: "Possession is nine points of the law." The election machinery through which they would have to be deposed has been in their hands, and they have not hesitated to use it. Their election law is an infamous measure providing for a State Board of three members, and the Republicans have never been allowed any representation thereon.
I remember one instance when the three officers who
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composed this State Board of Election Commissioners were candidates for re-election, and they counted the votes for themselves; and at each election at least one member of the Board was also a candidate for re-election to a State office.
In addition to their complete control and manipulation of the election machinery, as each biennial election drew near in Arkansas some new version of the evils of the Reconstruction period was brought forth to distract the attention of the voters from the misdeeds of the Demo- cratic Party ring, and make it possible for them to avoid giving an account of their stewardship. The wild- est and most fallacious stories have been told by them. That the reader may understand the nature of their per- versions, I will give the following illustration :
While I was serving my country as Ambassador to Mexico, Jefferson Davis, who was a candidate for re- election to the Governorship of Arkansas, announced, without explanation or specification, from the stump to large audiences that I had murdered his aunt. This was gulped down with great relish by his ignorant followers. Later, to keep himself solid with them, he refused to at- tend a banquet given at Little Rock by the Board of Trade in honor of President Roosevelt, where by virtue of my position I was seated at the Presidential table. In explanation of his gross lack of courtesy to the President he told him that I had murdered his aunt and that he could not sit down to a table where I was a guest.
Soon after the banquet I called on President Roosevelt in Washington. He remarked to me in a facetious man- ner, "Governor Davis says you murdered his aunt; why didn't you murder his uncle ?"
While I was fully aware of the falseness of this ac- cusation, I realized that unless it were absolutely proved to be false there were those who would believe it.
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Mr. Guy Caron, then the editor of the Republican, kindly offered his services and went to the scene of the alleged murder to investigate fully all the circumstances. From his detailed report, published in the Republican on August 17, 1906, I quote as follows :
"Sitting in the very house where she [the aunt of Jef- ferson Davis] died, in conversation with the physician who attended her last illness, who was also her husband's business partner, this physician, who is still practicing his profession in that county, although speaking reluctantly, admitted to me that there was no foundation to the story of murder, and that no such accusation was ever made until very late years, and that he gave it no credence whatever. This man is a Democrat and wishes neither to embroil himself nor to hurt his party by discussing this question, but he could not in fairness refuse to tell me the truth that Mrs. Hamilton was in good health when the militia left Richmond, and that her death was unex- pected both to himself and her husband, who was also a physician.
" 'For some unknown cause puerperal fever set in, to the surprise of both myself and Dr. Hamilton, which re- sulted very quickly in her death.' Neither of them at that time thought of attributing her death to the presence of the militia, and Dr. Hamilton was never heard to make that charge. . .
"I talked with every other citizen I could find who in 1869 was a resident of Richmond and found that without exception they corroborate the above statements. These old men, who have no selfish interests to pursue, and care only for their honor and the truth, all join in asserting that Mrs. Hamilton died from causes entirely removed from the presence of troops, and that no one accused the
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soldiery at the time of the occurrence, when there was the most reason for bitter feeling and partisanship. . . .
A copy of this statement was sent to Governor Davis. Thereafter nothing was heard from him concerning this monstrous fabrication.
This serves as a conspicuous example of the extent to which Reconstruction perversions were used by the Democrats to divert the attention of the voters from the defalcations and maladministration of their public of- ficials. In every campaign I requested our speakers to devote their time to an exposure of the official misdeeds of the Democrats instead of falling into the trap of de- fending me against their vicious attacks.
But since their advent to power the corrupt malfeas- ance of the Democratic party has continued.
It is plain that the basic principle of good govern- ment, which depends on two parties, the "outs" watching the "ins," is completely destroyed, and that nobody but the members of the Democratic ring of office-holders in Arkansas know what is officially going on.
If for six years Treasurer Churchill could have piled up such an immense defalcation without detection. what can be expected under the more ironclad opportunities which exist there now for official corruption ?
FOOTNOTES FOR CHAPTER XVII
1 Reports of Committees, Nos. 1 to 100, 1874-75, Report No. 2, pp. 223-7.
2 Reports of Committees, Nos. 101 to 149, 1874-75, Report No. 127, p. 9.
3 Reports of Committees, Nos. 101 to 149, 1874-75, Report No. 127, p. 9.
+ Reports of Committees, Nos. 101 to 149, 1874-75, Report No. 127, p. 10.
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" Reports of Committees, Nos. 101 to 149, 1874-75, Report No. 127, p. II.
6 Reports of Committees, Nos. 101 to 149, 1874-75, Report No. 127, p. 12.
7 Arkansas Laws, 1874-75, p. 162.
8 Report of State Auditor, Arkansas, 1875-76.
Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ar- kansas, 1899-1900, p. 28.
10 Report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ar- kansas, 1897-98, pp. 211-12-13.
11 22d Biennial Report of State Superintendent of Public In- struction, Arkansas, 1911-12, p. 5.
12 Arkansas Laws, 1868-69, pp. 147-150.
13 Arkansas Laws, Special Session, May, 1874, p. 38.
14 Arkansas Laws, 1868, p. 151, Sec. 7.
15 Hempstead's "History of Arkansas," pp. 281-2.
16 Arkansas Senate Journal, 1883, pp. 99-100; Arkansas House Journal, 1883, pp. 161-2.
17 Arkansas Senate Journal, 1885, p. 53.
18 Arkansas Senate Journal, 1881, pp. 420-421.
19 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, p. 141; Arkansas Senate Journal, 1883, p. 132.
20 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, pp. 573-586.
21 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, pp. 821-828.
22 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, pp. 964-976.
23 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, p. 993.
24 Arkansas Digest of Statutes, Mansfield, 1884. Sec. 3207-8, pp. 674-5.
25 Arkansas House Journal, 1883, pp. 588-9; Arkansas Senate Journal, 1883, pp. 544-5.
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