6 and rewrite state laws to match the new provisions, Hall wrote. Lawmakers would have to keep close watch on the State Convention scheduled to begin Jan. The first legislation of the new session increased the governor’s salary from $3,000 to $5,000. One recommendation was accepted even before it was delivered. It is only counties which are regarded as in sympathy with the rebellion that these bands frequent and make their headquarters.” “It is a fact well established that guerrillas do not, to any great extent, infest loyal communities. “An experience, however, of three years has demonstrated that the people themselves can rid the state of these pests to society, if they will but do their duty,” he wrote. Missouri, nominally a Union state, remained split, and Confederate sympathizers were responsible for prolonging the terrible guerrilla war, he wrote. “I think it manifest from this statement that the receiver will never be paid any net earnings and yet, there is no doubt the net earnings of the road, under prudent management, would be very large,” he wrote. While losing about $400 a month, the railroad was paying $1,816 monthly to 10 officers, including four who were receiving salaries as large or larger than the $3,000 paid annually to the governor. The officers who were milking the railroad for large salaries to ensure it lost money were another matter. A judge refused an injunction because the state had no appropriation allowing it to post a bond required in civil suits.Ī change in law could exempt the state from the bond requirement, Hall wrote. First the officers discovered that the deeds giving them control of the right of way were invalid, leaving nothing to seize. “I know of no way of accomplishing this but by increasing our revenue.”Īn attempt to foreclose on the Platte County Railroad exposed flaws in state law and the scheming ways employed by the railroad officers to prevent losing control of their property, Hall wrote. “Something should be done at once to stop this accumulation of State indebtedness and to satisfy in part, at least, the demands of our creditors,” Hall recommended. The sum was too meager, however, to address long-term debt - most of it $23.7 million borrowed to finance railroad construction, with $5 million in unpaid interest that increased $1.2 million annually.
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