Page:A History of Banking in the United States.djvu/406

 father of the republican party" to justify himself in signing the act for the Union Bank in spite of his opinion that it was unconstitutional.

The bonds being thus carelessly signed and executed by the Governor, in any one of the debt-contracting States, were generally thrown into the hands of agents who undertook costly journeys at the expense of the State, exacted and gave extravagant commissions, hypothecated the bonds for a fraction of their value with bankers who failed and involved the collateral in their bankruptcy; or sold them to be paid for in installments, delivering the whole in advance, so that when the bankers failed, as a great many of them did. the bonds had passed out, by sale or as collateral, into the hands of innocent holders, and the States obtained nothing for them. What wonder that the whole system was a carnival of waste, extravagance, and peculation, and that all persons who had a share in it behaved in the loosest and most irresponsible manner with respect to all stipulations, guarantees, and duties which would have been proper under the circumstances?

In 1843, there was an anti-repudiation reaction.

In accordance with a requirement of the Constitution an act was passed, February 15, 1843, to give any one who had a claim against the State permission to file a bill in chancery against it, and directing issues to be made up to try the facts. An exemplified record of any finding in favor of the complainant was to be filed in the office of the Secretary of State, and thereupon the Governor was to issue his mandate to the Auditor to draw his order on the Treasurer for the amount so decreed to be paid by the State. Governor McNutt declared that this was unconstitutional, because money could be drawn from the treasury only in consequence of an appropriation made by law.

Several of the great Mississippi banks were still indebted to the United States for deposits. Execution against the Planters' Bank and the Agricultural Bank was stayed, from time to time, until March 4, 1843. During the summer of 1842, the Congressmen from the State were trying to get a longer extension. January 15, 1844, the Legislature asked the District Attorney of the United States to postpone the sale of the property of the Planters' Bank until the Legislature could take action to discharge the judgment in favor of the United States against that bank.

The State Treasury of Mississippi was in great straits in January, 1844.