of $5,000,000 -- to the State of Texas, in arrangement of certain boundary claims made by that State. The bonds, which were dated January 1st, 1851, were coupon bonds, payable, by their terms, to the State of Texas or bearer, with interest at 5 percent semi-annually, and "redeemable after the 31st day of December, 1864." Each bond contained a statement on its face that the debt was authorized by act of Congress, and was "transferable on delivery," and to each were attached six-month coupons, extending to December 31, 1864. In pursuance of an act of the legislature of Texas, the controller of public accounts of the State was authorized to go to Washington, and to receive there the bonds; the statute making it his duty to deposit them, when received, in the treasury of the State of Texas, to be disposed of "as may be provided by law;" and enacting further, that no bond, issued as aforesaid and payable to bearer, should be "available in the hands of any holder until the same shall have been indorsed, in the city of Austin, by the governor of the State of Texas."Most of the bonds were indorsed and sold according to law, and paid on presentation by the United States prior to 1860. A part of them, however, -- appropriated by act of legislature as a school fund -- were still in the treasury of Texas, in January, 1861, when the late Southern rebellion broke out.The part which Texas took in that event, and the position in which the close of it left her, are necessary to be here adverted to.At the time of that outbreak, Texas was confessedly one of the United States of America, having a State constitution in accordance with that of the United States and represented by senators and representatives in the Congress at Washington. In January, 1861, a call for a convention of the people of the State was issued, signed by sixty-one individuals. The call was without authority, and revolutionary. Under it, delegates were elected from some sections of th...
