"The said road made default in payment of January and July, 1871, interest, which the state paid as its owner and creditor, $508,000. "There are eight or ten other roads for which the state, under the law above referred to, is liable as indorser." The state auditor reported this summary of liabilities September 30, 1871: Direct indebtedness $ 8,761,967 37 Present conditional indebtedness 15,420,000 00 Conditional indebtedness provided by law 14,200,000 00 Under Democratic administration, a committee of the legislature investigated the railroad deals and reported that "Two millions of state bonds which the law authorized the governor to issue in aid of said company (Alabama and Chattanooga) in sums sufficient to pay off the cost of having constructed a certain amount of road in excess of the state indorsement of $16,000 per mile, were issued in bulk, with reckless haste, and were hurried away to the money marts of Europe"; that "there has been no record kept by any officer of the state of the number and amount of the bonds issued or indorsed by the state in favor of the various railroads entitled by law to the aid of the state, except as to loans of bonds to the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Company, $300,000 in amount, and the indorsement of bonds in favor of the Mobile and Montgomery Railroad Company." R. M. Patton testified that although he had accepted the presidency of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company, he was ignored because he opposed the loan bill. D. N. Stanton, of Boston, was elected president, and Patton "was not invited or expected at the consultation of friends of the road. He said: "I do not think the stockholders ever paid in any of the capital stock of the company." Arthur Bingham, state treasurer from 1868 to 1870, asked whether he knew of any fraud or illegality in connection With the issue or indorsement of the railroad bonds, declined to answer upon the ground that by so doing he would criminate himself. Mr. Holmes testified that on the last day of the session of the legislature of 1869-70 Mr. Gilmer, president of the North and South Railroad, borrowed from him and Mr. Farley $25,000. Next day Mr. Gilmer complained that John Hardy, of Dallas county, chairman of the committee of the legislature, had treated him shabbily; that "he had agreed to pass the bill for him for $25,000, but that at the eleventh hour he went back on him and made him pay $10,000 more, making in all $35,000."