CHAPTER XXV
At the date of publication, there are four railroads running through Henry County; one, the main line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas system, which enters the county at the northeast, passing through the city of Windsor, and going in a southwesterly direction through Calhoun, Lewis Station, Clinton, Deepwater and Montrose; a branch line of the St. Louis & San Francisco or Frisco road (formerly known as the Kansas City, Osceola and Southern, or Blair line), which runs through Blairstown, Maurine, Harvey, Clinton and Brownington; the other, which is also in reality a branch line of the Frisco system, called the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield, (or "Clinton Line") passes through Urich, Hartwell, Clinton and Deepwater. With the building of the three railroads named, there is little that is not common to the history of other railroads. The fourth is the St. Louis-Kansas City branch of the Rock Island, which passes through the city of Windsor.
The greatest interest in the railroad history of Henry County centers around the issuing of bonds for a railroad which had to be paid by the people of the county. After the payment of the bonds, they were burned in Clinton, on Saturday, October 2, 1915. The following account of the burning is taken from the Henry County Democrat:
"The day of Jubilee: Henry County freed of the fraudulent debt placed upon her happy homes and fertile fields nearly a half century ago, rejoices and is exceeding glad.
"It was a happy inspiration which prompted the suggestion, months ago when the end of the long road was foreseen, that the payment of the last dollar of indebtedness and the burning of the bonds be made a day memorable for the people of Henry County. As the plans developed, it was determined to invite all of Missouri to rejoice with us, and especially, to urge the presence of Missourians of prominence. Then, since the soul of Missouri is hospitality, came the thought of hospitable entertainment. The present county court arising to the spirit of the occasion resolved to provide out of the funds left after paying the last dollar of bonded debt and interest, an old-fashioned barbecue and burgoo, such as delighted older Missourians, such as the present generation has heard related around the fireside but has never witnessed.
"The spirit of the Bond Burning Jubilee was contagious. Our invitation has traveled far and wide to the remotest part of the State, for our lighted candle has not been hidden under a bushel. Henry County towns vied with each other in arranging for delegates, while our railroads fully co-operated by providing special trains. There were bands of music galore, and the greatest crowd of Missourians ever gathered together for such an occasion.
"For all roads Saturday morning led to Clinton. At midnight, when the long trenches in the court house yard shone with the embers and there were laid across them the sacrificial animals which would later give forth delightful odors to the hungry, there also shone in many a Henry County farm house the lamp which lighted the family with their preparations for the long drive through the crisp October morning to Clinton to see the bonds burned. As the morning advanced there were in every country lane and road, long processions of neighbors who fell in at the crossroads and jogged together, save when some impatient auto swept by with staccato jeerings at faithful Dobbin. And then came the excursion trains, on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Frisco and the Clinton line, otherwise in local vernacular, the "Katy," the "High Line," and the "Leaky Roof," each bringing in their hundreds.
"So the crowd came; and coming, filled the spacious Clinton square, told to be the largest square in the State, as it was never filled before; and neighbor greeted neighbor and friend hailed friend, as they circulated around and sniffed the aromatic aroma arising from the west side of the court house yard where trench and kettle steamed away right merrily. "Let us tell you about the barbecue. There were 200 feet of four foot trenches in which glowed the embers of ten cords of wood burning since 4 o'clock the afternoon before. There were twelve beeves and eight sheep slowly roasting over this open fire, under the watchful eye of that prince of barbecuers, John Calloway, and his helpers. A few feet distant were the kettles, a whole flock, 20, count 'em, simmering away importantly, filled with that delicious stew of the Southland, the Burgoo. Into it were put material things which can be scheduled; but there went also the spirit of hospitality, the rare October sunshine, the sharpness of the atmosphere, the zest of the occasion which brought it to perfection. But let us also classify the material things which went into the kettles: Of beef, 500 pounds; of mutton, 100 pounds; of soup bones, 300 pounds; forty-eight chickens, with two turkeys for good measure; 75 cans each of tomatoes and corn, 200 pounds of cabbage, 50 bunches of celery and a bushel each of carrots and onions and two bushels of beans.
"Then there were 1,800 loaves of bread and a crew of lads put in the morning slicing them. Of tin cups, spoons and plates, 4,000 each were provided; and tables which if put together would reach considerably over a quarter of a mile awaited the serving.
"The excursion trains arrived from 9 to 10 o'clock, adding to the crowds and bringing willing hands to help the hilarity of the occasion. The special from Windsor had attached the sleeping coach with the State officials and others prominent in politics. They were met by a numerous reception committee and escorted in parade to the Elks club-rooms, which was headquarters for the day for visitors.
"At 10:30 the program commenced at the south platform. Chairman Stevens, of the Commercial Club, extended a welcome to all visitors, and Hon. Peyton A. Parks followed with a condensed historical review of the bonds, which is well worthy of preservation as an accurate survey of the experience which Henry County has gone through. Mr. Parks said:
"This is a scene, an occasion the like of which has never been witnessed by any of us; in fact, an event unique and novel in the history of this State. Assembled with the body of the citizenship of this county, we have more distinguished guests and eminent men than ever gathered together at one time in a city of this size; we have with us in addition to the speaker of the day, Judge John F. Phillips, judge of the Supreme Court, both United States Senators, members of the Public Service Commission, Congressmen, the Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Superintendent of Education, and other State officials, former Secretary of State John E. Swanger, Hon. Walter S. Dickey, Hon. E. E. E. McJimsey, the vice-president, general attorney, general passenger agent, and other high officials of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and of the Clinton and Frisco lines, and other public men of note.
"The citizenship of our neighboring towns and vicinity are brought here through the kindly assistance of the officials of all railroads centering here, are brought with their bands on special trains to help us celebrate.
"This afternoon the County Court, with the supreme judges sitting with them, and with our distinguished guests and witnesses selected by the court in compliance with the statute, in the sight of assembled thousands, will burn the bonds which we have been paying in principal and interest for forty-eight years; an event, an occasion which is a source of inspiration and at the same time a lesson to the young, a matter of greater rejoicing for the old and of congratulation and joy to all.
"Many of our people, those who have in recent years come as welcomed citizens into our midst, and those who have been to the manor born since the earlier bond history, have been and are today asking for information. To answer in a measure, at this opening meeting of the day, I have been placed on the program for an address at this time, chiefly because my father. Judge James Parks, fought the bonds from the inception, so that through him perhaps with the exception of Major Salmon I am more familiar with the history of our bonds, litigation and settlement than any other now living.
"Necessarily the address should be, and will be, as short as it can be, in fairness to the occasion. The history of our bonded indebtedness, commences with 1866 and ends with 1915; with the year following our Civil War, while the passion of that era still curtained the hills of our commonwealth; a span of a half a century of marvelous growth and development; brief illustrations of which are not now permitted by time allotted for the address.
"Such history for sake of clearness of statement, logically subdivides itself into four periods:
(a) The creation of the debt;
(b) The litigation over the debt;
(c) The compromise and refunding of the debt;
(d) The payment of the debt.
"Recurring to its creation, the history of which will be given this afternoon by one of the distinguished men of this State, one of Missouri's greatest orators and jurists. Judge John F. Phillips. He was part and parcel, both in war and in peace, in the history of this State, preceding and during the creation of the debt. He defended Henry County in the bond litigation which went to the Supreme Court of the United States. For him is reserved to place before you that history of creation and litigation and the lessons taught thereby as well as by the subsequent history of the compromise and payment.
"Suffice it now to say that this bonded debt which we have been paying for over forty years, originally amounted to six hundred thousand dollars and was created in three separate issues. The first issue of $150,000 was issued on January 1, 1867, after a vote in its favor at a special election on September 26, 1866. This issue bore 7 percent compound interest.'
(The author has included in the address of Mr. Parks, such information as did not appear in the issue of the paper, but is necessary to make a complete history of the transactions leading to the creation of the debt and to the litigation which followed, up to the compromise in the payment. The matter not in Mr. Parks' address is enclosed in parenthesis.)
The order of the court which is a record of January 5, 1867, is as follows:
"In response to said resolutions and in compliance with the vote of the county at a special election held on the 26th day of September, 1866, it is considered and ordered by the court: That the County of Henry, in the State of Missouri, take and subscribe to the capital stock of the Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company, fifteen hundred shares of one hundred dollars each, amounting to the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and that Royal L. Burge, be, and he is hereby appointed, the agent of said county, to subscribe said shares to the capital stock of said company, with full power and authority to represent said county and transact all business of the same pertaining to said stock. It is further ordered that a single bond of said county for the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, bearing date on the first day of January, 1867, payable ten years after date, with interest at the rate of seven per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, and both principal and interest payable in the City of New York, be issued and delivered to said company for its immediate use; and it is further ordered that upon the return of said bond to said county, that one hundred and fifty bonds of the said county for one thousand dollars each, payable ten years after date, bearing seven percent interest per annum, with suitable coupons attached, be issued in lieu of said bond, and delivered to said company in payment of the subscription aforesaid. It is ordered by the court that Peter A. Ladue be requested to prepare form for said bond with coupons attached and ascertain the expense of lithographing the same, and report to the court at the next February term thereof."
This is, therefore, the first issue of bonds by the county; however, it is not the first project which had been suggested to the people of Henry County and for which they have been asked to subscribe for stock; for in the year 1851, the people at the August election subscribed $10,000 to the stock of the Pacific railroad; we find no record that this stock was ever taken by Henry County. A year later, the County Court at a meeting held on the 25th day of August, 1852, made the following record of a vote held at the election in August of that same year:
"Under the direction of a majority of the people in this county, it is ordered by the court that $50,000 worth of stock be subscribed to the Pacific railroad on the part of the county, provided, that said road is located on the route surveyed on the dividing of the Missouri and Osage Rivers, known as the Kirkwood Survey, passing by the high point of Tebo, or through the county. The county bonds for which stock to be issued whenever the railroad is under contract to the county line, or north of it, and upon the further condition that the Legislature of this State hereafter legalizes the action of this court."
Six months passed, until in February, 1853, the court appointed James M. Gatewood as the agent to subscribe stock to the amount above named, or $50,000 for and in behalf of the county. The court also appointed William Wall, Joseph Davis and Asa C. Marvin, as agents to attend the meeting of the directors of this proposed Pacific railroad and vote its stock. In 1854, at the February term of the court, ten percent of the subscription, or $1,100, was ordered paid over; in order to get this money, it was necessary to borrow from the road and canal fund $3,860; from William M. Hall, the county borrowed $500 and paid him in lieu of the cash, $914 worth of swamped land bonds. In addition to this, the court ordered a warrant for $800 drawn in favor of Joseph Davis on the money to be paid on the call made by the Pacific Railroad Company. The receipt for this $5,000, or ten per cent of the subscription, was presented at the May term of the court by Asa C. Marvin, who was the financial agent of the county in railway matters. It was signed by George R. Smith, the agent of the Pacific Railway Company.
The tax levied for the purpose of paying interest and cost on stock in this Pacific Railroad Company, was resisted by one J. Davis, who got out an injunction restraining the sheriff, or ex-officio collector, from collecting the taxes; as a result of this injunction, the sheriff at the February term, 1857, was ordered to pay back the railroad tax to parties who had already paid it and await the result of the injunction proceedings.
In May, Robert Allen, was appointed commissioner with full power to act on behalf of Henry County in all railroad matters. He was requested to give a bond in the sum of $20,000. At the October term of the following year, 1858, the commissioner was ordered to turn over all the money he had collected by taxation into the county treasury, while at the November term, the sheriff, Dewitt C. Stone, reported that he had at that time in his hands funds amounting to nearly $1,800, arising from the railroad tax. This money also, was ordered placed in the county treasury by the County Court. Nothing further appears on the records as to the Pacific railroad matters, other than the payment of $400 for attorney fees, to Russell Hicks, in the year 1861 until June 12, 1863, when the treasurer was ordered to invest all the railroad funds in the county treasury in county warrants, the same to be held for the use of the railroad tax fund. This order of the court seems to be the last chapter in the Pacific Railroad Company. However, in 1866, there was some correspondence with a view to transfer the stock held by the county to the new Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company; as a result of this, in August, 1866, an order was made for an election to be held as above stated, on September 26, 1866, to determine whether or not the people of the county would vote $150,000 in stock to the Tebo and Neosho railroad; the question was carried and the $150,000 was subscribed to the railroad stock.
These bonds were to be signed by the president of the County Court and countersigned by the county clerk, when issued. On July 17, 1867, the first of the single series were signed and ten of them were turned over to the county treasurer. Additional bonds were issued and placed in the hands of Roy L. Burge, the agent of the county, until 107 had been issued. After that, upon order of the court held October 8, 1868, the later bonds were turned over to the treasurer of the Tebo and Neosho railroad.
"The second issue of $250,000 was issued on January 1, 1870, by the County Court (one of its members spreading his protest on the record). This issue bore ten percent compound interest. This issue was made without an election."
(This issue was authorized in May, 1869, and was to be in coupon bonds of $1,000 each. The principal condition was that the road should run diagonally across the county in the direction of Ft. Scott and that $150,000 of it should not be paid to the road until the cars were running as far as Clinton. On these bonds, the principal and interest were payable to the Park Bank, New York City; the bonds were drawing ten percent interest, the interest payable semi-annually. William Jennings, a member of the court, was made county agent to subscribe the stock to the railroad.)
"These two issues of bonds, aggregating $400,000, were for stock in what was then known as the Tebo and Neosho railroad, which was built and is now a part of that great system which accords to Missouri a place in its corporate name, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway. The third and last issue was for the aggregate sum of two hundred thousand dollars in two blocks of bonds, one for $150,000, and the other for $50,000, both issued on January 1, 1871, and bearing ten percent compound interest. This issue was made by the County Court without an election.
(One member, Judge Jared Stevenson, protested as in the case of the second issue. As a matter of private history, this protest was written by my father for Judge Stephenson, at his request.)
"This $200,000 bond issue was for the branch line through the counties of Jackson, Cass, Henry and St. Clair, which was never built. The issuing of bonds for this branch resulted in the killing by enraged taxpayers of Cass County of a promoter and county judge of that county in the litigation in Henry County and in the troubles in our neighboring county of St. Clair. It is the hope of the people and the speaker that our neighbor may escape the clutches of the speculators in that fraudulent issue and we express our admiration for the courage of her people and their valiant fight to protect hearth and home.
"These bonds were issued for stock under the provisions of the law as it then stood and is now found in section 17, page 338, General Statutes of 1865, which provided that County Courts could subscribe for stock to build railroads and issue bonds for same with the provisions that the same should be authorized by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters voting on the proposition.
"Many of the citizens of this county fought the issuance of all these bonds in the election mentioned and in the county court. Most of them have passed over to that realm where it may be said 'the bondholders cease from troubling and the taxpayers are at rest.' Among those who opposed the creation of the debt were James Mason Avery, A. P. Frowein, Judge James Parks and many others whose names memory and time do not permit the mention of. Such opposition of men of that character, then criticized as "mossback" and "lacking in progress" was unavailing and the debt was created by the issuance of the bonds as stated."
The $200,000 in bonds, above referred to, were issued as subscriptions to what was known to be a branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad, to be called the Clinton-Memphis railroad. This railroad was run in the direction of Memphis and certainly was to extend to Osceola, in St. Clair County. This proposition was made at the August, 1870, term of the County Court. At the same time, the Clinton and Kansas City branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad was proposed and $50,000 was the subscription to be authorized for it. Both of these stock subscriptions were made without a vote of the people and by a vote of two to one in the County Court. The presiding judge of the County Court, William Jennings, entered his protest on the record against the last of these bonds: "First. The court is prohibited by the seventeenth section of chapter 63, of the General Statutes of Missouri, from taking the stock it subscribed, or to lend its credit to said proposed railroad, without having first ordered an election at which two-thirds of the qualified voters of Henry County should give their assent to said subscription. There having been no such election, the subscription is illegal and void.
"These bonds were issued for stock under the provisions of the law as it then stood and is now found in section 17, page 338, General Statutes of 1865, which provided that county courts could subscribe for stock to build railroads and issue bonds for same with the provisions that the same should be authorized by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters voting on the proposition.
"Second. Because there is no legal corporation organized under any law of this state by the name of the Clinton and Memphis Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad, nor any lawfully organized corporation by the name of the Clinton and Kansas City Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad.
"Third. Because the County Court has no right to do indirectly what she is prohibited from doing directly by the statutes before cited, namely, to vote money and aid to a railroad organized since the adoption of the new constitution of Missouri, without the preliminary steps of an election at which two-thirds of the qualified voters of the county should vote in favor of the subscription.
"Fourth. Because by the order of the County Court of last term the subscription was agreed to be voted by the majority of the court, upon a petition of a majority of the taxpayers of Henry County, and there has been no legal or sufficient evidence produced to the court that said majority have been so petitioned.
"Fifth. Because in view of the burdensome taxation already imposed on the citizens of Henry County, I consider this new tax ruinous in its tendencies and inexpedient at this time.
"WILLIAM JENNINGS, President.
"(Signed) August 4, 1870."
In November, 1870, the court ordered $150,000 in bonds to be delivered to the committee on construction.. In 1871, the court turned over $50,000 in bonds to the chairman of the construction committee of the Clinton and Kansas City branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad. The order to turn these over was protested by Jared Stevenson, as recited by Mr. Parks above. The following is the protest entered by Judge Stevenson: "To the above action of Judges Munson and Hillegus in appointing an agent to cast the vote of Henry County, I enter my protest, for the following reasons:
"First. Because the said Clinton and Kansas City branch and Clinton and Memphis branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad have no existence in law, and any subscription of stock to said branch roads by the County of Henry for the construction of said branch roads is void.
"Second. Because the pretended subscription made by the County Court to aid in the construction, of said branch roads was made in violation of law and against the interest and wish of the tax-paying citizens of this county.
"Third. Because the bonds of said Henry County, issued in payment of said subscription to said branch roads are illegal and utterly void.
"JARED STEVENSON.
"(Signed) August 15, 1871."
The stockholders of the Clinton and Memphis branch and of the Clinton-Kansas City branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad, held a meeting on the 13th of August, 1871, at which time they voted the franchise to a new company known as the Kansas City-Memphis and Mobile Railroad Company. The County Court accepted 2,000 shares of a par value of $100 each in the new company in lieu of its interest in the branch roads above set out. For the $200,000 bonds, the county has never received any fund. By the two issues of bonds totaling $400,000 the county was enabled to aid in the building of the present Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad.
Some of these bonds passed into the hands of what the Supreme Court of the United States afterward declared to be "innocent purchasers." The County Court refusing to pay, led to the period of litigation described by Mr. Parks in his address as follows:
"A period of eleven years, from 1871 to 1882, was devoted to the resistance of the debt. The test case of Nicolay vs. Henry County was commenced in April, 1873 or 1874."
The case referred to is the case of A. H. Nicolay against Henry County; the plaintiff secured a judgment of $25,000 and mandamus was issued compelling the county to pay. In order to do so, a levy of fifteen cents on the one hundred dollar assessed valuation was made, in May, 1878. Other suits followed and it soon became necessary to levy a tax to pay the judgments and buy all the bonds that could be bought at forty cents on the dollar.)
"The county was defended by Judge Phillips, who will deliver the leading address this afternoon, and by our distinguished fellow-townsman, Judge James B. Gantt. The county lost in the trial court and appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, where this test case was decided against the county on the ground that the bondholder was an innocent purchaser. Under this judgment thus affirmed, an execution was issued and the lands of the sureties on the appeal bond, which included A. P. Frowein, J. A. Avery and James Parks, were advertised for sale by the United States marshal of this district.
"The county protected its securities by making a levy in 1878 to pay the judgment, and through the taxes collected, the Nicolay judgment as well as the Church judgment, a similar case pending at the same time, were with all costs of litigation paid. Other bondholders reduced their bonds to judgment, and the payment of the debt was thus fastened on the county either for its compromise or for a long continued fight as has been pursued by other counties in this State.
"During this period there sat upon the County Court one of the leading business men of Clinton, Judge E. Allison, one of its leading farmers, Judge Lewis P. Beaty, both longheaded men of rugged integrity, common sense and natural ability, who, with others, foresaw that in the long run it would be more profitable to compromise than to continue for years a warfare with the bondholders. While Judge Beaty was a member of the County Court, the county still owned its stock in the Tebo and Neosho, or as reorganized in the Missouri, Kansas & Texas. Such stock could have been levied on and sold under the judgment. In other counties, this was done and the bondholders bought in the county stock for a song. The County Court with the assistance of Major Salmon and Judge Gantt sold this stock for over $85,000, and with that sum bought in bonds, coupons and judgments for over $183,000,000."
Judge Gantt's report is as follows:
"To the County Court of Henry County, Missouri: I have the honor to report that in compliance with the order of this court, made and entered of record at the August term, 1879, and on the twelfth day of August, 1879, appointing me the agent of Henry County to exchange the 4,000 shares of stock held by Henry County in the Tebo and Neosho Railway Company, for a like number of shares of the stock of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, and to sell the same for the use of said county, and in pursuance of the verbal instructions of the court, that I should associate with myself Major H. W. Salmon to assist and co-operate with me in effecting the exchange and sale of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway stock. We proceeded to New York City, reaching there on Saturday, the fourth day of October, 1879. We succeeded in effecting the exchange of the old stock, and the issuance of the new stock in the name of H. W. Salmon, on the eighth day of October, 1879, and sold said new stock on that day, and the day following, through the firm of S. F. Johnson & Company, No. 2 Nassau street. New York City, whose statement of the sale and accounting for the proceeds thereof, are herewith filed and made a part of this report, and is marked "Exhibit A."
From these statements it will be observed they account to Major H. W. Salmon for the proceeds of 7,000 shares, instead of 4,000 shares, the amount of Henry County's stock. This excess of 3,000 shares is the stock of Vernon County, Missouri, whose agent. Judge Paul F. Thornton, accompanied us and transferred the stock of Vernon County to Major H. W. Salmon, also, in order to accomplish for Vernon County the same purpose we had in view, and in accounting Vernon County had three seventh and Henry County four-seventh of the net proceeds. That is to say, the whole amount received by Major H. W. Salmon of S. F. Johnson & Company was $151,525, of which amount I received of Major Salmon four-sevenths, or $86,585.71, and Judge Paul F. Thornton for Vernon County three-seventh, or $64,939.29; so that I have had in my hands the said sum of $86,585.71, which sum, after deducting the amount of our expenses incurred in this behalf - that is, for traveling expenses, hotel bills and other expenditures on this account, which were both for Major Salmon and myself, $600 - left in my hands for investment $85,985.71.
You will further notice that the stock was sold at from $21 per share to $22 1/8 per share, thus averaging the highest price that Missouri, Kansas & Texas stock had ever commanded in the stock market, as can readily be seen by the 'Stock Report' compiled from the record of the New York Stock Exchange covering a period of twenty years from 1860 to 1880, which shows in tabulated form the highest and lowest prices this stock brought during each month since it was placed on the stock board of the New York Stock Exchange, which said report I also file herewith as a part of this report of mine, making it "Exhibit B."
It may be proper for me to state in this connection that this Missouri, Kansas & Texas stock declined and advanced for several weeks after this sale, going as low as $20 per share in November following our sale in October and afterwards advancing in the late winter and spring until some of the counties, viz.: Pettis County, sold for $30 per share.
While, on the one hand, it may be a subject of regret that we did not hold this stock and obtain the highest price therefor, yet it will and must be remembered that the order of the court was made under peculiar circumstances. For years the stock had been considered utterly valueless, and even in January, 1879, was quoted at three and five-eights dollars per share, so great was the mortgage debt of the railroad and the continued default of the company to pay interest on its first mortgage bonds.
When your honors determined to sell the stock, you had a two-fold object in view, namely: To prevent a levy and sale of this stock in favor of some of the numerous judgments, creditors of Henry County, who had obtained their judgments in the United States courts prior to your order, as had been done in a number of cases against other counties, notably Schuyler and Callaway Counties, and they entirely sacrificed the stock and at the same time paid out its proceeds at dollar for dollar on these judgments. Your order prevented this sacrifice and saved thousands of dollars to the county. Your other object as to obtain from this stock a fund with which you could purchase in the outstanding railroad indebtedness of the county while they were at a large discount. This you have accomplished in a large measure and whatever the result has been, no one can question the motives of the court, and considering the advance in securities of all kinds the past year there is still no doubt you sold at the proper time. In carrying out the verbal instructions of the court and furthering its purpose to invest the money received from the sale of this stock in buying in the outstanding indebtedness of the county consisting of its railroad bonds together with the interest thereon and the judgments obtained on the same against the county, I have, with the aid and assistance of Major H. W. Salmon, whom I called to my assistance as desired by the court, bought Henry County bonds, judgments against the county, interest coupons and interest thereon amounting in the aggregate to $183,301.77, buying the same as rapidly as I could under the circumstances, avoiding at the same time making any purchase that was in our opinion calculated to advance the price of the bonds of the county and thus increasing our indebtedness, and, as your honors are aware, consulting in almost every instance with the court, prior to making an investment.
By reference to a detailed statement herewith filed, marked "Exhibit C", you will find that I have purchased with the funds aforesaid fifty-one bonds of $1,000 each of tens of 1870; fifty-four bonds of $1,000 each of tens of the C. & M. Branch Tebo and Neosho railroad of 1871, and twelve bonds, tens of 1871, of $1,000 each of the Clinton and Kansas City Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad, with interest coupons thereto attached as per statement; also judgment against the county on railroad bonds and coupons and a small amount of extra detached coupons from bonds.
The total expenditures on account of the purchases made as stated above together with the expenses of H. W. Salmon, myself and W. D. Tylor, incurred in traveling expenses, telegrams and express charges, etc., amounts to $84,666.57, leaving in my hands $1,319.14, which sum I now here hand to the court. Concerning the prices paid for these bonds, I will say that the bonds of Henry County, as well as the bonds of other counties, and all other securities have advanced since this business was undertaken, caused, as all are aware, in a large measure by the easy money market, and the general prosperity of the country.
He Bears Testimony.
Before closing this report I desire now and here to bear testimony to the skill and fidelity to Henry County shown by Major H. W. Salmon throughout this whole business. I do not desire to arrogate to myself the credit of having made the purchase of these bonds, and managing the negotiations with the various persons with whom we had to deal, as I have relied in a great measure on his large experience and extensive acquaintance with such matters.
At one time we thought it best to send some discreet person to Kentucky, where a large number of our bonds are held, and we selected for this purpose Mr. W. D. Tyler, cashier of the First National Bank of Clinton, and while he did not succeed in making the purchase, he obtained much valuable information, and his expenses, $125.00, I have paid as was agreed beforehand. In conclusion I desire, both in behalf of Major Salmon and myself, to thank this court and its individual members for the uniform courtesy and confidence reposed in us in the management of this matter, coming as it did unsought by us. And I will only add, in my own behalf, that every act and move I have made in the premises has been to subserve the best interests of Henry County. All of which is respectfully submitted for your approval.
JAMES B. GANTT."
The following are the papers referred to:
"Exhibit C."
Statement of bonds, interest coupons and judgments purchased for Henry County with funds arising from sale of Tebo and Neosho stock, showing the date of each purchase, from whom purchased and the amount paid therefor:
November 1, 1879. Lot No. 1. - Bought of Donaldson and Fraley twenty-two bonds Clinton and Memphis Branch Tebo and Neosho rail road, Nos. 76, 77, 78, 70, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, S8, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 and 97, with coupons of 1872 and subsequent. Paid $11,000.
January 28, 1880. Lot No. 2. - Bought of Alfred Ennis, attorney for Portsmouth Savings Bank, forty bonds, tens of 1870 issue, Nos. 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 148, 149, 150, 152, 156, 157, 158, 166, 167, 168, 169, 182, 184, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219 and 220, with July, 1879 coupons and those subsequent. Also three coupons of July, 1878, from bonds 142, 143 and 144. Also two judgments in favor of the Portsmouth Savings Bank vs. Henry County, in the United States Circuit, Western District of Missouri, Nos. 1035 and 1300, as per statement accompanying said bonds. Paid $28,368.90.
March 20, 1880. Lot No. 3. - Bought of the Farmers and Merchants', Hannibal, Missouri, one bond. No. 24, Clinton and Kansas City Branch of Tebo and Neosho railroad, with July, 1878, and subsequent coupons attached. Paid $410.
March 20, 1880. Lot No. 4. - Bought of W. J. McNight, four January, 1876, coupons, from bonds Nos. 139, 145, 149 and 150, of issue of 1867. Paid $52.
May 5, 1880. Lot No. 5. - Bought of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson, twenty-one bonds, Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 49, 50, 56 and 57 of Clinton and Memphis Branch, and Nos. 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 49 of Clinton and Kansas City Branch of Tebo and Neosho railroad, with coupons of 1879 and subsequent attached, also judgment No. 1297 of E. C. Lewis vs. County, June 30, 1879, for $8,852, in United States Court. Paid $16,832.67.
August 29, 1880. Lot No. 6. - Bought of Donalson and Fraley, ten bonds, Nos. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 44, 45, 46 and 47, Clinton and Memphis Branch, Tebo and Neosho Railroad, with coupons of July, 1876, and subsequent. Paid $7,775.
September 1, 1880. Lot No. 7. - Bought of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson ten bonds, Nos. 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109 and 110 Clinton and Memphis Branch, Tebo and Neosho railroad, with coupons of July 1875, and subsequent. Paid $7,850.
November 10, 1880. Lot No. 8. - Bought of Donalson and Fraley one bond, No. 64, Chicago and Memphis Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad with coupons of 1875 and subsequent. Paid $860.
December 1, 1880. Lot No. 9. - Bought of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson "Patty B. Lex bonds," nine bonds, 10s of 1870, Nos. 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233 and 234 with coupons January, 1879, and subsequent, together with judgment of W. R. and Patty B. Lex vs. Henry County in the United States Circuit Court, Western District of Missouri, No. 1274, November 21, 1879, for $2,570.50. Paid $8,542.50.
December 1, 1880. Lot No. 10. - Bought of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson one bond. No. 4, 10s of 1870, with coupons of July, 1876 and subsequent. This bond is now held by Donnell, Lawson and Simpson, of New York, for H. W. Salmon. Paid $885.
December 6, 1880. Lot No. 11. - Bought of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson, one bond, No. 109, 10s of 1870, with coupons of July, 1876, and subsequent. This bond is also in the hands of Donnell, Lawson and Simpson, of New York, held for H. W. Salmon. Paid $915.
December 6, 1880. Lot No. 12. - Bought of James M. Avery, one bond, No. 120, Clinton and Memphis Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad, 10s of 1871, with coupons of January, 1875, attached, and subsequent, and six extra coupons, Nos. 153 and 154, July, 1874, 10s, 1871, and July, 1876, January, 1877, July, 1877, and January, 1878; coupons from bond 24, Clinton and Memphis Branch of the Tebo and Neosho railroad. Paid $1,050.
Lot No. 13, W. D. Tyler's expenses to Kentucky, $125. Total amount expended, $84,666.57.
"Which said report, being seen and duly considered by the court, is ordered filed. And now comes James B. Gantt and turns over to the court all the bonds, coupons and judgments as per statement in his report, including bonds Nos. 4 and 109, mentioned in lots 10 and 11, also the treasurer's receipt for balance not expended of $1,319.14. It is thereupon ordered by the court that James B. Gantt be fully released from further responsibility as agent of Henry County in the matter aforesaid. It is further ordered by the court that the bonds, coupons, and judgments, aforesaid, and all other papers in the matter be filed in the office of the clerk of this court, and that said bonds and coupons be and are hereby cancelled in the presence of the court, by writing the word "cancelled," date, etc., across the face or the signature on the bonds with red ink.
"It is ordered by the court that a warrant be drawn on the sinking fund for the sum of $400, payable to James B. Gantt for legal services on behalf of county per account, this day allowed and filed." This report was made to the county court and entered of record December 8, 1880.
There was also in the county treasury subject to levy by the bond holders at one time, $18,000. Again on the advice and with the assistance of Judge Gantt and Major Salmon, this sum was used to buy in bonds at from thirty to forty cents on the dollar. At another time something over $11,000 was used with the assistance of Charles B. Wilson to buy in bonds at a little over forty-one cents on the dollar. Charles B. Wilson expended $11,946.80 in cash in the purchase of coupons and bonds.
He gave the number of the coupons and bonds and his account was correct, but there were so many of them and of different dates, that it was a good job to figure! them up. Again an entry was made that two bonds were purchased for $700 and five were purchased for $2,050. These were $1,000 bonds but how many coupons were attached, if any, was not stated. The purchases showed a pretty good bargain, one being at about 30 percent and the five at a trifle over 40 per cent, the over-plus, probably, being commission on purchase. However, the reduction of the debt can be got at pretty close. It is given below:
Forty-five bonds, of $1,000 each, bought for $18,058.10
Two bonds, of $1,000 each, bought for 700.00
Five bonds, of $1,000 each, bought for 2,050.00
Twenty-nine bonds, C. B. Wilson at a little over forty-one cents on the dollar 11,754.90
Making eighty-one bonds, costing $32,754.90
Sale of Missouri, Kansas & Texas stock invested $84,666.57, reduced the debt $183,301.77, but of this $117,000 only were bonds, the remainder being coupons, judgments and costs. So from these purchases we have a reduction of the principal, that is in bonds of $169,000 besides the bonds purchased by Mr. Wilson, say a full reduction of $180,000 of the principal; the balance being paid in coupons or interest. The County Court have in new six percent bonds $525,000.
The speaker may be pardoned for a brief statement that during all this period Judge James Parks was one of those whose advice and assistance was sought by and given without fee or recompense to the County Court. The result of this timely and efficient management was to greatly reduce the debt when the era of adjustment and compromise came.
Era of Compromise and Refunding, 1882-1902.
In 1881, in obedience to the mandamus of the Federal Court, the County Court of this county made the levy of one dollar and forty cents on the $100 as "railroad taxes," but in order to defeat its collection, such taxes were extended in a special tax book for that purpose separate from the tax book containing the general taxes, and it was tacitly understood that such railroad taxes would not be paid and that no effort would be made to collect, with the result that these taxes were not paid. In 1882, a compromise of 75 cents on the dollar was submitted to a vote of the people, and the compromise was authorized by a very strong vote in its favor; the majority in favor of the proposition being 880.
The debt thus remaining was thus originally refunded at 75 cents on the dollar in six per cent bonds for approximately $525,000. In a few instances the bondholders refused to accept and were paid 90 cents on the dollar, and perhaps as much as par in the windup. The bonds could none of them be paid under five years. Private interest rates were high, many of the farms were encumbered by eastern loans bearing a higher rate of interest than the new bonds. During this period we built our new court house with a $50,000 issue, and paid that court house bond issue in full by 1902, so that during the period from 1882 to 1912 the County Court contented itself with refunding the bonds at lower rates of interest ranging from five per cent down to four per cent, and with building and paying for court house, county jail and bridges.
End of Payment, 1902-1915.
For the adoption of the policy which has resulted in the final extinction of this railroad debt, the people of this county are indebted to Judge Joe Boyd, who was presiding judge of the County Court from 1899 to 1907. Judge Boyd came to my office within the first year he was on the bench. He said that he made it his rule not to get into debt if he could help it, and to pay out as quick as he could, and he wanted to "start to paying off the bonds;" that he wanted the county to pay off its court house bonds which would fall due in 1902 and then to commence to pay off the railroad bonds and to pay them as fast as could be done without hardship to the taxpayers, and that he hoped to live long enough to see them paid.
The last court house bond was paid on July 31, 1902, and the first railroad refunding bond was paid July 2, 1902, at which date railroad bonds were paid amounting to $20,000. This policy thus organized by Judge Boyd was continued through his administration with the help of Associate Judges Wilson and McCann, and under the administrations of Judges Ogg, Amick and McKnolly, aided by Associate Judges Sullivan, John Harrison, Frank Boyd and W. B. Collins.
As the debt was cut down, the interest was reduced and the payments of the principal increased under the same levy without any substantial increase in taxation.
At times others have claimed credit for this policy but to Judge Joe Boyd, the rugged, honest, old-fashioned farmer, the credit belongs and I take benefit of this occasion to help to see that he gets it. He did not live to see the bonds burned, but this memorable event, made the more so by the attendance of so many eminent Missourians, is a testimonial to him and the policy he caused to be commenced and followed. Peace to his ashes and honor to his memory!
This address would lack in justice if it did not take time enough to say that the refunding and payment of the bonds was honestly and faithfully attended to during the years from 1882 to 1915 by the judges of the County Court comprising a splendid type of citizenship in the names of Judges Mark Stewart, E. Allison, Lewis P. Beaty, James M. Harrison, C. H. Hartsock, O. M. Bush, George H. Hackney, William M. Allen, John S. Kelly, M. F. Finks, William Moore, S. A. Marks, Joe Boyd, J. H. McCann, William M. Wilson, T. W. Ogg, Alfred Slack, M. R. Amick, John Harrison, P. H. Sullivan, Frank Boyd, J. M. McKnolly and W. B. Collins, nine dead and fourteen living.
After paying all the bonds in full there remains a surplus and your present County Court has deemed it but just to join with the other citizens of this county in this jubilee of rejoicing and commemoration, and to that court on behalf of the executive committee and of the people thanks and credit is given.
In conclusion, many have asked how much has been paid in all from inception to finish in this period spanning practically half a century on account of this debt. It is difficult to obtain and give exact figures, because at the time we were in litigation the County Court and its clerk had to keep a private index to the records to keep the bondholders from learning through their local agents and attorneys what the County Court was doing, in selling the stock of the county, and in buying county bonds at a discount. A laborious search through the records no doubt would show. However, the total amount paid since the compromise in 1882, principal and interest, is one million, two hundred and twenty-eight thousand, three hundred and ten dollars and ninety-four cents ($1,228, 310.94). So that it is safe to say that this experience has cost the tax payers in all something like one and one-half million of dollars.
However, it should not be forgotten that during this period of forty-five years the railroads have paid to Henry County and its citizen toward from $350,000 to $400,000 in taxes and will continue in the future to thus contribute in taxes. A further tribute should be and is paid to the people of this county, those of the splendid old and the splendid new, to the pioneers as well as the good people who of choice and with wisdom have made this county their home, all of. whom through years of toil have contributed their share to the extinction of this debt. And now, without regard to party, with our faces to the future, in the presence of so many distinguished guests who honor us with their presence and contribute to the success of the occasion, we are met to rejoice that Henry County's bonds are all paid. And we now return our thanks to our guests, our neighboring citizen towns, and to the great newspapers of the State for the help extended and we welcome one and all to our good county and our fair city.
The chief speaker at the celebration was Judge John F. Phillips of Kansas City. Probably nowhere has his connection with the bond matters been so closely set forth as in his speech which, with the introduction by Mr. Peyton A. Parks, follows:
Introduction by Hon. Peyton Parks. "I deem it one of the greatest pleasures of my life to take part in this demonstration. Not only because of my father, who fought these bonds' issue, and afterwards helped to pay the debt; but there is another reason and that is because I have the privilege of presenting to this magnificent audience the life-long friend of my father and the able lawyer who presented the side of this county in the controversy that culminated in the defeat of the county in the Supreme Court of the United States. As a boy, in the old court house, my esteem and admiration for the speaker of the afternoon commenced. In all the years that have passed, about fifty - a half a century - it has grown both in esteem and admiration and love, and I take pleasure now in introducing to this audience one of Missouri's most distinguished orators, one of her greatest citizens and one of her ablest jurists. Judge John F. Philips."
Address by Judge Philips.
"Ladies and Fellow-citizens: The remarks of your distinguished chairman call to my mind the fact that fifty-eight summers and winters have passed over my head since I first came to Clinton, and I came on horseback and through the mud. I was then in the lustihood of young manhood. Today I stand before you an old man, over eighty years of age. I have seen three generations of lawyers come upon the stage and pass behind the curtain. The faces that greeted me with gladness when I first came among this people have turned to ashes, and today if I were to look for their names I would find them engraved on the tablets and monuments in your beautiful City of the Dead.
"I am too old to flatter - to flatter anybody or to be flattered. I was drawn to the people of this county by reason of their broad hospitality, their rugged honesty and possession of that rare faculty of common sense which is the first to defense and the last to surrender in the battle of life.
"I have no language to express to you, my fellow citizens, how it rejoices this old heart of mine today to be here with these people to share in the celebration of a civic event that proclaims to the people of the world the commercial integrity and high sense of honor of the people of the best county in the State of Missouri. Conservative in action, broad in its policy and progressive in its spirit, this was one of the first counties in southwest Missouri to recognize the importance of railroad communication with the outer world and the march of trade and commerce.
"In 1859 your representative in the Legislature of Missouri procured the adoption of the charter of the old Tebo and Neosho Railroad Company at a time when there was not a railroad south of the Missouri River, west of the Osage and extending to the southwest border of the State. The purpose of that chartered road was to get a connection with the Pacific railroad then projected from the city of St. Louis westward toward the border of the State. It was intended to bisect this county from the north to the southwest. Today I can appreciate the fact of the prescient wisdom of the men who then lived here and projected that enterprise.
"Kansas was a new State, Texas was far away, but the far-seeing, wise men of this community looked down the vista of time and they foresaw that on the west would spring up a great State and that farther to the South lay the empire of the State of Texas and there was the Gulf looking out on the march of commerce in the old world.
"The charter of that railroad authorized the judge of the County Court of their own initiative to subscribe to the capital stock of that railroad. When the Legislature of the State, both by private charter and public statutes conferred this great and dangerous power upon the judges they assumed that they were worthy depositories of such a trust and that it would be conservatively and honestly exercised. The character of men the people of this county elected to the office of county judge was well-known for honesty - they were known for their integrity and for their solid judgment and for their high sense of responsibility. There was no such thing in those days of judges on the bench bartering judgment for pay or becoming the immediate beneficiaries of their own judicial action, and so you can very well understand how it was and why it is that with an honesty constantly discovered that such trusted agents invested with such power should betray their trust and deceive or sell out the people how they would be filled with indignation.
"But the people of this county then wanted this Tebo and Neosho railroad built, but when the war came on all efforts to build it were suspended. When it ended your public spirited men betook themselves to the consideration of the question as to how it might be revived and reinstated. It was discovered that its charter had lapsed by nonusal. Such men as Robert Allen, James Parks, Doctor Thornton, A. C. Marvin and others came to Sedalia to see me to see how this enterprise could be revived and the charter resuscitated. They had no money to pay me for a fee and I didn't expect any. I had so much of public spirit and so much love and admiration for the people of this county that it was a labor of love to me to do what I could to promote it. I drew the act of 1865-6 which revived this charter and the Legislature adopted, and as a mere compliment to me and one that has never borne any revenue, and one that has never brought me any honor that I know of but a great deal of criticism and abuse - but I am one of those people that believes that the less a man is being abused and criticized the less he is doing right. And I was named one of the directors of that road in connection with some of the business men in this and Bates County, and I don't expect there ever was a cruder, rawer set than were got together in that board of directors. There wasn't any of us knew anything about railroads and we had access to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars subscribed for that enterprise and we were actually afraid to have it converted into money because we couldn't trust ourselves with so much money.
"There was an old fellow came up here from Ft. Scott by the name of Wilson. He was a tall, raw-boned, sandy-haired, cadaverous old fellow, and I think he just elected himself general manager of that enterprise. He surveyed the whole route of this road from Sedalia to Ft. Scott on a mule, without assistance. We had what was known as the Striker law, which authorized the people living within an area of ten miles of the road to subscribe to the stock of the road by conceding them land. That old fellow rode up and down this country on that roan mule, making speeches at every cross-road, school house, or wherever he could get three or four farmers together, until the old mule himself got tired of waiting on him and the farmers knew when he was coming by that mule's braying. He never failed to call the board of directors together to make his report, and that got to be so often that it got tiresome. One day he met a peddler down here with a pack, the mule got frightened at the pack and ran off across the road and down to the river, swam the river and Wilson lost his saddle-bags with his survey, his copy of the script law, and his bill for services to the road, which has never been paid so far as I know to this day. So the loss of his notes and maps of the survey and without that mule to carry on the survey, the board of directors found themselves up against it. And, like the fellow from Indiana who moved out into the arid regions of western Kansas who said that he fooled the man to whom he sold his cow and calf by slipping into the bill of sale a conveyance to his one hundred and sixty acres of land, we said we would fool the Missouri, Kansas & Texas corporation - a corporation organized to build a road to Texas - by getting them to take the Tebo & Neosho off our hands.
"I drew the act of 1870-71 which authorized the Tebo & Neosho railroad to transfer by consolidation lease or sale to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Company. That was done and the subscription of this county of $250,000 was turned over to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company and the railroad was built and made good, and you got exactly what you contracted for and what you needed. There was never any question raised by the people of Henry County about the subscription to that road. The whole trouble originated with the subscription made by the County Court to what was known as the Clinton branch of the Tebo & Neosho road. As you will recall, the Constitution of 1865 prohibited any county from subscribing to the railroad stock of any railroad without the concurrence of two-thirds of the voters of the county. Now, I have always tried to make it a part of my public life never to say anything unkind or ungenerous. I would rather exhibit that sort of gentle Christian charity as the old hard-shell Baptist preacher down in Tennessee showed when called upon to preach the funeral sermon of a pretty hard case who died. He said: "Gentlemen, this onery cuss is dead and I come to preach his funeral sermon. He had horses and he run'em, he had pups and he fit 'em, he had cards and he played 'em, but let us forget his vices if we can and remember his virtues if he had any, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." There were some smart, sharp, shrewd promoters and adventurers in this country who conceived the project of avoiding the Constitution of this State, and they got up the act of 1868 known as the act for building branches to railroads.
"Now that board of directors of the Tebo & Neosho railroad, of which I was one, didn't know anything about that. We never asked to build any branch road. We couldn't build a main road, but those fellows took it upon themselves to undertake to build this branch railroad and tried to hitch it onto the charter of the old roads, and they persuaded the County Court of this county then in office, elected when all people couldn't vote, and persuaded them to subscribe a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to this road, two or three hundred had subscribed from St. Clair County, three or four hundred from Cass County and some more from Jackson County, making in the aggregate over eight hundred thousand dollars, and I have never been able from that day to this - nor anybody else - to ascertain whatever became of all that money. It went where the woodbine twineth with the result that only a part of it was applied to obtain the right of way over this route from Kansas City to Osceola and making some embankments and some grading.
"The county judges who came into office in 1872 thought that they would arrest the issuing of the bonds on that subscription, and to that end they employed Parks and Gantt, local lawyers, and George Vest and myself to resist their issuance. We brought an action of injunction before Judge Avery, then of the Court of Common Pleas, as most accessible, and we were right about it. But we were not up to the practices and habits of the syndicates of those days for before we had got out our injunction they had issued their bonds and put them into the hands of a gentleman of this county who, armed by an opinion of its validity by a distinguished old lawyer of this city, went on to New York and sold them to a man by the name of Nicolai for about ninety cents on the dollar - so our injunction was on the wrong fellow. Instead of branding the horse we branded the stable, and so the result was that Nicolai brought suit in Jefferson City on some matured coupons, and we defended it. I have seen, my fellow citizens, an assembly of great lawyers in this State, but I never saw such an array of able-minded and forceful lawyers as gathered around that court to engage in the discussion of questions involving this and other counties in the State. They were such men as Waldo P. Johnson, General John B. Henderson, James O. Broadhead and James B. Reynolds, General John B. Stevens and others, to say nothing of Vest and my humble self. That discussion covered three days. It was a battle royal. If there was anything left unsaid that could have been said, pro and con, I have never been able to discover it, and I want to say here and now one thing, I don't want you to forget that it has been most unjust to attribute the loss of that fight and the fastening on this people of that debt, to the federal judiciary. That court at Jefferson City was presided over by one of the ablest jurists of this land: learned, incorruptible and fearless Judge Dillon. The very moment we began that discussion we were confronted with the fact that the Supreme Court of this State in what was known as the Macon County case had held that the inhibitive provision of the Constitution in 1865 was only prospective in its operation and did not control or limit the operation of a charter granted to a railroad prior to the adoption of the Constitution, and that is, I guess, sound law. Our contention was that that so-called Branch Road Act of 1868 was in effect an independent enterprise; that it could not legally nor honestly be taken on to the antecedent of the Tebo & Neosho railroad. But before that discussion had gotten cold the Supreme Court of this State in an opinion delivered by Judge Wagoner in what is known as the Greene County case held that under that branch railroad act a subscription could be made to any fund on an antecedent charter from which such branch started.
"It has ever been the settled rule of the federal jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States that whenever a certain construction is given to the Constitution of a State or to one of its legislative enactments by one of the highest courts of the State, the Federal Courts are bound by it. In preparing my brief in that case I found an old act of the Legislature of 1860-61 which declared that 'it shall be unlawful for any county to subscribe to any railroad without first obtaining the vote of the people of the county.' As that act was prohibitive in its character and penal in its expression, and as it had been passed before any bonds were issued under the Tebo & Neosho railroad charter, my argument was that it cut up by the roots the subscription made by this county in 1869-70, and Judge Dillon was so much impressed with that proposition that he took the case under advisement until the next term of court.
"And then what happened? I am not going to tell any tales out of school, but I just want to whisper in your ear the fact that between the adjournment of that term of court and its convening the next fall, the Supreme Court of this State in what is known as the Clark County case wrote an opinion, and by one of the very men who had participated in the discussion of this question before Judge Dillon, holding that the act of 1860-61 did not have the effect to eliminate the power granted under former statutes of the State. Well, I am free to confess to you here today, fellow citizens, I have never been able to comprehend that decision. It defies the laws of common sense and the force of human language and the only principle upon which I could ever explain it was that which I heard once in the court room of my old predecessor. Rider Hall was discussing before him the construction of a statute and the old judge said: 'Mr. Hall, stop right where ye is, that statute means whatever this court sees fit to make it mean.'
"When Judge Dillon's attention was called to that decision in the Clark County case he said he felt constrained to follow it, and he said to me after court adjourned that but for that decision of the Supreme Court he was inclined to accept my contention and decide the bonds invalid.
"Well, we didn't resort to the usual alternative of going down to the corner grocery, getting a drink and cussing the court, but we did appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, but I had not more than gotten into the argument until Justice Bradley, with a voice that sounded like the crack of a whip and which I have never forgotten, leaned over and said to me, 'Mr. Philips, how can you expect this court, no matter what our individual opinion may be, to do in the face of the fact that your own Supreme Court has decided that the provision of the act of 1865 did not invalidate these bonds, that the act of 1868 authorized the subscription, and that the act of 1860-61 does not apply? Whatever may be our opinion we are concluded by the decision of the court of last resort in your State.' The only answer I could make was that as these decisions of the Supreme Court of the State had not been made when these bonds were issued, that the Supreme Court of the United States ought to feel at liberty to exercise an independent judgment of its own."
But it said that in view of the fact that the opinions were rendered before the case had reached a conclusion in the Federal Court they were bound to follow it, so I was in the condition of the fellow who was blowing about his wonderful experiences in the mountains, he said he was out hunting one day and he was beset by a band of fierce Indians so he took refuge in a cave, and when he got in there he saw a huge bear with eyes blazing coming right at him, and at the entrance to the cave stood the Indian with painted face and a gleaming tomahawk in hand, coming right at him, and someone said to him 'Well, what could you do with the bear on one side and the Indian on the other, what could you do?' and he said, 'Well, I just died.' So between the Indians of our Supreme Court and the bears of the Supreme Court of the United States, I was literally scalped and done for.
"Well, what was to be done? What, my fellow citizens, could you have expected your lawyer to do under such circumstances? I felt about as bad as you did for I had lost my contingent fees. Mr. Vest and I came home and made our report to the judges of the Cass County Court, which we represented, and the judges of the Henry County Court and St. Clair County Court - that we had fought our battle and lost and that all that was left to be done was to endure what could not be cured, and our advice to the county was 'Get together and make the best adjustment and compromise you can. You can't avert the law of the land as declared by the Supreme Court of the land.' Henry County never hesitated one moment to accept our report. These were a brave and courageous people who loved honor more than they did money, and you made a compromise of seventy-five cents on the dollar for the greater part of it, and some you paid ninety cents, and some you had to take up at face value.
"Fellow citizens, I need not have told you when I began that I was an old man, for you see I talk a long time, but through the courtesy of the chairman of this committee, and the assistance of your county clerk upon my application I received reliable information about the history of these bonds which I have reduced to writing in brief form and I want to read it to you:
"I have reduced to a condensed form the essential facts relative to railroad indebtedness of this c6unty, for the sake of convenience and easy comprehension:
(1) First subscription to the old Tebo & Neosho railroad January 1, 1867, $150,000; second subscription January 1, 1870, $250,000; total, $400,000. These bonds bore seven percent interest.
"In 1879 the County Court, through its commissioner, James B. Gantt, sold its stock in the road for $183,000, which was applied to the reduction of the bonded debt.
Clinton Branch.
"(2) January 1, 1871, the County Court subscribed to the capital stock of the Tebo & Neosho Railroad Company, for the benefit of the so-called Clinton branch, $200,000, making the total subscriptions $600,000.
Compromised Debt.
"The county compromised the greater bulk of this indebtedness at seventy-five cents on the dollar, a small amount at ninety cents on the dollar, and a few remaining bonds, in order to get rid of the annoyance of further attempts at adjustment, were taken up at face value. So that it may be said with approximate accuracy, the indebtedness of the county was scaled down to about $475,000.
Taxes Collected From Railroads.
"Covering the period between the making of the subscriptions and 1914, the county, according to the best data we have, has collected from the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad, the successor of the old Tebo & Neosho Company, $318,645; from the Frisco branch, $102,700; from the Clinton branch, $97,584.75; total, $518,928.75.
"The city of Clinton, an integral part of the county, has collected taxes, in the aggregate, amounting to $10,392; from other cities and towns, through which the road runs, probably $4,000, making the aggregate $532,929; adding to this the $183,000 realized on sale of the railroad stock, makes $715,929.
"Because of the long period of time which the county took to pay off interest and principal, it is estimated that the aggregate paid by the county amounted to $1,223,319, which leaves the excess paid by the county $507,390.
Offset.
"But the county has received further benefits. The population of the county in 1872 was 17,401. In 1915, it is 31,595; gain in population, 14,193. Assessed valuation of property in 1872, $5,464,560. In 1915, it is 11,117,935. Gain in assessed valuation, $5,633,372.
Comment.
"The increase in population may not, at first view, seem large, but it is to be kept in mind that this is essentially an agricultural community, and there are no large cities in it. The lands being so desirable for farming, the owners are content and do not part with their homes readily.
The valuation placed on them by the assessors is so low as to invite the owners to stay. I doubt not that the actual value of property in the county today is not less than $20,000,000. There are more heads of families in Henry County, in proportion to population, who are free-holder, than elsewhere in Central Missouri.
Continuing Benefits.
"The process of collecting taxes from the railroads will not cease with the burning of the bonds today. It will go on in an ever increasing ratio, for all time. This will invite immigration and capital to contribute to the burdens of taxation, and enable the county to add to all those things that make for the public welfare.
"Now, fellow citizens, in conclusion, speech is but dumbness for me to undertake to express to you what is in my heart as I stand here today delivering, doubtless, my valedictory address to this people. It will be another bright oasis in the long journey of my life and it will help to make the gulf stream of youth flow farther and farther into the arctic regions of old age."
