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thence up to and during the war, in making it a source of revenue instead of a public burden.

It had now passed into the hands of an administration, was controlled by appointees not possessing the public confidence, and was being made a wreck as to material; and also a drain on the public treasury. The party had power to pass a pending bill to sell the road, and, as we have seen, had wonderful facility for spending and squandering the money. Foster Blodgett, the superintendent under Governor Bullock, who with him had drawn out upwards of $600,000 of the State's funds from Clews, her agent for the sale of bonds in New York, on the pretence of paying the expenses of the road, was then asking the Legislature for an appropriation of $500,000 to repair the road.

During the twenty years that had elapsed since the completion of the road, upwards of $4,000,000 had been appropriated out of the treasury from time to time for it, a sum far exceeding the amounts paid into the treasury from it, leaving out the war period of heavy payments in depreciated currency.

The public mind was ready to accept a solution of the matter which promised to stop the immense leakage from the treasury and increase of taxation to meet it; prevent the loss of the property, proven in the time of Governor Brown to be immensely valuable, by a sale of the road, and sequestration and peculation of the proceeds by unsafe men in power; and, in addition, a reasonable and steady income to the State for a period of twenty years, with the road and all its appurtenances reclaimed from waste, kept and returned in good order at the end of the lease. The public mind was still better satisfied and pleased when the lease was awarded to a company

headed by Ex-Governor Brown himself. It was at once an assurance of its success as well as good faith and integ rity.

The Legislature had been elected without reference to it. There were strong prejudices against Governor Brown, and some of his associates who were Northern men; there was vindictive feeling against Governor Bullock, then a refugee from the State. There was also a competing company for the lease, having among the members many men of worth, integrity, political and social influence, and financial ability, to which power and influence was added that of some of the most able and popular men in the State, who were retained as attorneys.

The charge through the press that the lease contract was fraudulent was easily made, and met with the sympathy of a large number of the best people in the State; and there was no solution to satisfy either side but a thorough and sifting investigation. It was made by able lawyers who composed the committee, men of integrity, and resolute to bring out facts, with the period of several months within which to perform their work.

When their report came in at the July session, 1872, the matter was ably discussed for consecutive days in each House, a large majority in each House agreeing with the minority of the committee, sustaining and vindicating the lease in full harmony with an overwhelming majority of the people of the State, as everywhere indicated by their outspoken voice and through the press.

It was against all the committee except Mr. Nunnally, and against a highly respectable minority of the General Assembly, many of whom in the heat of the contest adhered to their original convictions and feelings against the lease.

The General Assembly adopted this resolution, which put the whole matter at rest thence to this time :

"That, in the opinion of this General Assembly, the lease of the Western & Atlantic Railroad secures to the State a certain sum for rental much larger than can be hoped for under political control."

The wisdom of preventing the sale of this public work by this plan to lease it is abundantly manifest by the fact that the company, after expending large amounts of their own money to repair, improve, equip and make it a first-class road, and having kept it up to that standard, has paid into the State treasury the monthly rental of $25,000 for nine years and three months (this April, 1880), making an aggregate of $2,975,000 which have gone in lieu of the people's taxes. The company has also made money largely, and holds the road for the State with its value largely enhanced.

The lease act made $25,000 per month the minimum rate of rental, required bond and ample security of $8,000,000, that the lessees be at least seven in number, and a majority of them be bona fide citizens of this State, and that they be worth above their indebtedness at least $500,000, and forbade the governor to lease to a company that tendered even doubtful security.

A bid of $36,500 was made by a company all of the city of Atlanta, composed of M. G. Dobbins, Foster Blodgett, A. K. Seago, Henry Banks, W. B. Dobbins, John R. Wallace, Wm. McNaught, James Ormond, Thomas Scrutchins, James M. Ball, A. C. and B. F. Wyley, T. J. Hightower & Co., P. and G. T. Dodd, Abbot & Bro., John Collier, S. B. Hoyt, John M. Harwell, W. J. Tanner, and A. Leyden, who showed that they were worth above their indebtedness, $950,000; and tendered as security the

Central Railroad and Banking Company, the Southwestern Railroad Company, and the Macon & Western Railroad Company.

Notice was filed with the governor, by W. S. Holt, president of the Southwestern Railroad; A. J. White, president of Macon & Western Railroad; and W. B. Johnson, agent of the Central Railroad & Banking Company, denying the authority of this company to tender those corporations as security, and refusing to become their security on their proposal to lease.

The company who obtained the lease showed that they were worth above their indebtedness $4,000,000. It was composed of Joseph E. Brown, Benjamin H. Hill, Wm. S. Holt, John T. Grant, Andrew J. White, Benjamin May, Hannibal I. Kimball, John P. King, Richard Peters, Charles A. Nutting, Wm. B. Johnson, Wm. C. Morrill, Alexander H. Stephens, and H. B. Plant, all of this State, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, John S. Delano of Ohio, Wm. T. Walters of Maryland, Thomas A. Scott of Pennsylvania, Edmond W. Cole of Tennessee, George Cook of Connecticut, Ezekiel Waitzfelder of New York, Thomas Allen of Missouri, and Wm. B. Dinsmore of New York.

They offered as security the Central Railroad and Banking Company, the Southwestern Railroad Company, the Macon & Western Railroad Company, the Georgia Railroad & Banking Company, the Atlanta & West Point Railroad Company, the Macon & Brunswick Railroad Company, the Brunswick & Albany Railroad Company, all in this State; Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad Company, and the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Company, with verification as to the worth of the applicants and the securities offered.

Governor Bullock decided that this was the only bid that complied with the requisitions of the lease act, and awarded the lease to this company. And thereupon the road and all the property that appertained to it were turned over to them, at the stipulated rental of $25,000 per month, or $6,000,000 for the whole period.

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