you the interest felt by myself in some of the many subjects that will be submitted to your consideration; or, if in the attempt to do so, I should be adjudged as trespassing upon the limits prescribed, by good taste, for communications of this character.
It will be seen by reference to the last message of my predecessor, that the public debt at that time was $1,579,875 60. (This sum exceeded the true amount as has been since ascertained, $1,000.) At the session of 1847, $375,000 00 were appropriated for the completion of the Western and Atlantic Rail Road, and $22,222 22 for the payment of the claim of Peter Trezevant—making the entire public debt and the liabilities incurred by the acts of 1847, $1,976,097 82 on the 1st day of January, 1848.
The Bonds directed to be issued for the completion of the W. & A. R. Road, and for the payment of the claim of Peter Trezevant, were prepared with as little delay as possible; the former were placed in the hands of the Chief Engineer, from time to time, to be applied to the construction of the railway from Dalton to Chattanooga, and the latter paid over to the Agent of Trezevant in discharge of his claim against the State. In addition to the Bonds referred to, before the close of the last session of the General Assembly, it was found necessary to make provision for the discharge of sundry obligations entered into by Gov. Crawford and the late Chief Engineer of the W. & A. R. Road, (Mr. Garnett,) with certain Banks and individuals, secured by the hypothecation of the State's 6 per cent. Bonds, amounting to the aggregate sum of $183,500 00. This class of bonds was made to draw interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum. From the neat style in which they were gotten up, the facilities extended to the holders in collecting the interest, as it falls due, at convenient commercial points, an additional value was imparted to these securities, that enabled me to effect a satisfactory arrangement with this class of the public creditors, by the substitution of the new issue of 7 per cents, for the hypothecated bonds of an equal amount, and also to redeem the obligations of the late Governor and Chief Engineer, although, in a few instances, past due.
In consummating this arrangement, it is gratifying to state, that no additional burden was imposed upon the Treasury, except the small expense incurred in preparing the bonds, conducting the negotiations, and the difference between the rate of interest of the bonds hypothecated and the issue substituted under the act of 1847 Under an act, passed at the last session, for the relief of the Central Bank, bonds to the amount of $225,000 were issued in 1848, and $237,000 in the present year, to meet the accruing liabilities falling due in the same period.
At the close of the fiscal year 1847, the bonded debt of
