It is not, therefore, surprising, I think, that having placed my faith in the integrity of that State and the promises of its officials and governing power, and having been so basely deceived, that I should now be aroused to act in self defence, fight for my rights and do all in my power to cause the bonds or securities for which I paid good money to be redeemed, and to have my just claims satisfied. It has therefore, been incumbent upon me to leave no stone unturned in fighting this battle, with the hope of recovering the money, or a part of it, that was filched from me through the ostensible defalcations of these sovereign and chivalrous States. About thirteen years ago the repudiation which has reflected such disgrace upon the South became prevalent in that section, and took the character, for a time, of a severe financial epidemic. It was for this reason that the Legislature of the State of New York, as well as the legislatures of several other States, considered it necessary for the protection of the savings banks, which are the custodians of many hundreds of millions, chiefly of the hard earnings of the working people, to prohibit these institutions from investing in, or loaning upon, the securities of any State in the Union that had within ten years previously repudiated any of its lawful obligations. The laws of the State of New York, in chapter 409, section 260, of the laws of 1882, provides that savings banks shall be prohibited from investing money in stocks or bonds of any State which, in the language of the statute, “has within ten years previous to making such investment by such corporation defaulted in the payment of any part of either principal or interest of any debt authorized by any legislature of such State to be contracted.” It was for this reason that the newly issued securities of some of the Southern States have been unable to find a resting place in the monied institutions of the North. The State of Georgia, recently finding that she had some obligations becoming due, and seeing that money was cheap in the North, and that more than ten years had expired since she repudiated her former obligations, thought there was a good opportunity of issuing a fresh batch of these so-called securities, similar to those that had been dishonored in 1873. The politicians of Georgia thought there was a good opening in the State of New York to remove the restriction placed upon the savings banks in 1882. They saw that the Governor and the Legislature were both Democratic, with a Democratic Attorney-General also, and therefore determined to take advantage of this political condition, which they supposed was highly favorable to their scheme of stealing a march upon the holders of the old repudiated bonds of Georgia, who had been chiefly instrumental in getting the act passed for the safety of savings banks’ depositors in the State of New York.