Page:Disunion and restoration in Tennessee (IA disunionrestorat00neal).pdf/55

 $5000 a year. This was followed by other bills increasing the salaries of the various State officials. This resulted in an enormous increase in the current expenditures of the State.

The whole expenses of the State government for the years 1851 to 1861, inclusive, had been about $6,500,000. The entire expenses during the Brownlow administration, which lasted only three years and a half, were $7,301,352. The taxes in 1868 were fourfold greater than in 1861, yet on the former date, the Comptroller announced in his report to the Legislature that the State was on the verge of bankruptcy.

But the most troublesome legacy Mr. Brownlow left the people of Tennessee was an increase in the State debt of $21,647,000.

By an Act of the Legislature in 1852, known as the General Internal Improvement Law, the Governor had been empowered to issue State bonds to the amount of $8000 per mile in aid of railroad companies, upon the following conditions: "1. That the company shall first secure bonafide subscriptions to its capital stock to an amount sufficient to grade, bridge, and prepare for the inner rails the whole extent of the main trunk line proposed to be constructed; 2. That it be shown by the company to the Governor that the said subscriptions are good and solvent; 3. That the company shall have graded, bridged, and made ready to put down the necessary timbers, for the reception of rails, and fully completed a specified number of miles at either terminus in a good and substantial manner, with good material for putting the iron rails and equipments in place, and that the State shall be given a first-mortgage lien on their property; 4. That the Governor shall be notified of these facts by the written affidavits of the Chief Engineers and President of the Company, together with the written affidavit of a competent engineer appointed by the Governor to