I ask your Honor if it would be wise for any savings bank to be permitted by the Superintendent of the Banking Department to become thus exposed to ruin? A State that is abundantly able to meet her obligations and dishonors them is too despicable for either credit or tolerance in a civilized community, and it is a disgrace to the nation that States comprising it have the power to make such obligations and repudiate them at will and screen themselves behind their sovereign rights, whereby they cannot be sued, and in consequence leave the outrageously wronged innocent bondholders without means of redress whatsoever. If the United States Government ever expects to obtain that permanent high credit in the money markets of the world to which the immense resources of this magnificent country justly entitle her, the great and growing evil of State repudiation must be remedied. For States to repudiate with impunity, as the State of Georgia has done, leaving no means whatever for redress on the part of the victimized creditors, is a blot upon the escutcheon of the whole country. This is not a fight, your Honor, on the battle field against the South; it is a fight on the financial field, and, as it is second only in importance to the other, it must be settled, and now is the time to strike the blow, as it will do the most good in that direction. We, the creditors of Georgia, have not only borne the loss and hardship of having our securities made valueless by a legislative body, and many of us ruined thereby, but we have also been vilely defamed - being branded as conspirators to rob the State - simply because we were found to be holders of these dishonored bonds. This has been done by the State to cover up her own infamy, and make it appear that we were the guilty parties and not the State. The attitude of the State of Georgia, your Honor, is not unlike that of a pickpocket, who, after rifling his neighbor's pockets, is the first to cry "stop thief" to elude detection. All that the bondholders ask and claim is to have the entire case submitted to a proper judicial tribunal. This right we have been denied by the State, and the Constitution leaves us powerless to enforce it. The State simply says, the bonds are fraudulent and we will not pay them. It is a very remarkable circumstance, however, that there has not been a single one of the numerous officials, from ex-Governor Bullock down, who were connected with the issue of these so-called fraudulent bonds, prosecuted to conviction in the thirteen years that have intervened since their issue. Still these bonds are all repudiated on the ground of being fraudulently issued, and the innocent bondholders alone are made to suffer the harsh penalty imposed for having staked their money on their belief in the honor and integrity of the people of Georgia, which it is quite apparent are now non est.🏁

I ask your Honor if it would be wise for any savings bank to be permitted by the Superintendent of the Banking Department to become thus exposed to ruin? A State that is abundantly able to meet her obligations and dishonors them is too despicable for either credit or tolerance in a civilized community, and it is a disgrace to the nation that States comprising it have the power to make such obligations and repudiate them at will and screen themselves behind their sovereign rights, whereby they cannot be sued, and in consequence leave the outrageously wronged innocent bondholders without means of redress whatsoever. If the United States Government ever expects to obtain that permanent high credit in the money markets of the world to which the immense resources of this magnificent country justly entitle her, the great and growing evil of State repudiation must be remedied. For States to repudiate with impunity, as the State of Georgia has done, leaving no means whatever for redress on the part of the victimized creditors, is a blot upon the escutcheon of the whole country. This is not a fight, your Honor, on the battle field against the South; it is a fight on the financial field, and, as it is second only in importance to the other, it must be settled, and now is the time to strike the blow, as it will do the most good in that direction. We, the creditors of Georgia, have not only borne the loss and hardship of having our securities made valueless by a legislative body, and many of us ruined thereby, but we have also been vilely defamed - being branded as conspirators to rob the State - simply because we were found to be holders of these dishonored bonds. This has been done by the State to cover up her own infamy, and make it appear that we were the guilty parties and not the State. The attitude of the State of Georgia, your Honor, is not unlike that of a pickpocket, who, after rifling his neighbor's pockets, is the first to cry "stop thief" to elude detection. All that the bondholders ask and claim is to have the entire case submitted to a proper judicial tribunal. This right we have been denied by the State, and the Constitution leaves us powerless to enforce it. The State simply says, the bonds are fraudulent and we will not pay them. It is a very remarkable circumstance, however, that there has not been a single one of the numerous officials, from ex-Governor Bullock down, who were connected with the issue of these so-called fraudulent bonds, prosecuted to conviction in the thirteen years that have intervened since their issue. Still these bonds are all repudiated on the ground of being fraudulently issued, and the innocent bondholders alone are made to suffer the harsh penalty imposed for having staked their money on their belief in the honor and integrity of the people of Georgia, which it is quite apparent are now non est.🏁