Page:Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 1849.djvu/99

96 Mr. Jones offered a resolution, and the same being read was agreed to, as follows:

Resolved, That the committee to whom was referred the memorial of John D. Gray & Co. be and they are hereby required to report to this House at an early day, the propriety of agreeing to the prayer of the memorialist to appoint a committee to visit and examine the work and report thereon. On motion of Mr. Harris, of Clark, the rule was suspended and the message of his Excellency the Governor and the accompanying report of the Director of the Central Bank, was taken up and referred, without being read, to the Committee on Finance; which said communication is in the following words, to wit:

I have the honor to lay before both branches of the General Assembly the annual report of the Director of the Central Bank, with the accompanying statement of the Cashier, exhibiting the condition of said Bank on the 5th inst. By the 5th section of an act passed 28th December, 1843, it is made the duty of the Governor "whenever the public interest shall require it," to cause the assets of the Central Bank to be deposited in the Treasury of the State. It is not believed that period has yet arrived, and consequently no transfer of the assets has taken place. It is apparent to the most casual observer from the amount of outstanding claims, the most of which are in a train of settlement or reduced to judgment, that a large amount must be entirely lost to the Bank if transferred to the Treasury where they must abide the pleasure of the debtor for payment. Nor is it to be supposed that the burden of collecting these debts can be undertaken by that officer with any reasonable expectation that the care and vigilance so indispensible to success in winding up this concern can be bestowed by him. Many of the transactions are of that character that they can only be explained by the cashier; it has been his business to gather many important facts connected with the claims of the Bank now in process of collection, without which inevitable loss would result. The success of the Director in compromising debts heretofore regarded as hopelessly insolvent and thereby securing the handsome sum of $36,606.35 as exhibited by his report, fully establishes the well founded belief that no inconsiderable sum may yet be realized from the class of assets regarded insolvent. The only inducement to a transfer of the assets from the Bank to the Treasury is to avoid the expense of the salary of the Director and Cashier; and yet it is believed that this reason will appear more specious than solid when carefully