the High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi unanimously decided, that these acts were not required to be performed as conditions precedent to the issue of the bonds, and that the issue and sale of the bonds were perfectly valid before these acts had been performed. The bonds then are in exact conformity with a law, which was passed by two successive Legislatures, precisely as provided by the constitution.

In 1836 there was great pecuniary embarrassment in Mississippi, attributed by many to what was called the specie circular, and soon followed a suspension of the banks. Under these circumstances, there was an almost universal demand in Mississippi for relief measures. As a consequence, the attention of the Legislature was absorbed almost exclusively in the consideration of remedies for the existing embarrassments. The result was, the enactment, on the 21st January, 1837, of the law, creating the Union Bank of Mississippi. This bank was based upon loans to be obtained upon bonds of the State, the proceeds of which, when sold, were to constitute the capital of the bank, which money, by the terms of the charter, was to be loaned to the "citizens of the State," to relieve the existing embarrassments.

The fifth section of the Act, was the only one, in which any authority was given for a loan by the State, and any power to pledge its faith. That section, entire, was as follows:

"That in order to facilitate the said Union Bank for the said loan of fifteen millions five hundred thousand dollars, the faith of this State be, and is

hereby pledged, both for the security of the capital and interest, and that 7500 bonds of $1000 each, to wit: 1875 payable in twelve years; 1875 in fifteen years; 1875 in eighteen years; and 1875 in twenty years, and bearing interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum, shall be signed by the Governor of the State to the order of the Mississippi Bank, countersigned by the State Treasurer, and under the Seal of the State; said bonds to be in the following words, viz.:

"$2000. Know all men by these presents, that the State of Mississippi acknowledges to be indebted to the Mississippi Union Bank in the sum of two thousand dollars, which sum the said State of Mississippi promises to pay in current money of the United States to the order of the President, Directors, and Company in the year with interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly, at the place named in the indorsement hereto, viz.: on the of every year until the payment of the said principal sum: in testimony whereof the Governor of the State of Mississippi has signed, and the Treasurer of the State has countersigned these presents, and caused the seal of the State to be affixed thereto, at Jackson, this in the year of our Lord.

Governor.
Treasurer."

The whole act, of which this section was a part, was passed by the Legislature and approved by the Governor in 1837, and the entire section as to the

loan as required by the provision of the Constitution of the State, was referred to the action of the next succeeding Legislature. That succeeding Legislature was chosen in November, 1837, and assembled, at its regular session, in January 1838. After full discussion in both houses, this act of 1837 was passed by large majorities in both branches of the Legislature, and approved by the new Governor, A. G. McNutt, on the 5th of February, 1838. The act of 1837, including the 5th section, before quoted, was thus re-enacted by the succeeding Legislature, without any change whatever. There was then a full, complete, and undisputed compliance with the requirements of the Constitution, and, under this act, thus sanctioned by two successive Legislatures, it is conceded, that the faith of the State was pledged, and that the bonds might be issued and sold. But it is contended by Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his first, as well as his second letter, before quoted, that the bonds are invalid, because of the supplemental act of the 15th of February, 1838. Now, it will be observed, that no change whatever was made by this supplemental act, in this 5th section of the original act, before quoted, by which alone the faith of the State was pledged for the payment of these bonds, and which section alone, as required by the Constitution, had been referred to the action of the succeeding Legislature. No change whatever was made by the supplemental act in that section of the original act, the bonds were issued and sold in precise conformity with its provisions, and, indeed, these bonds, thus actually issued and sold, are a

precise and literal copy of the form of the bonds as given in the original act, as before quoted. The supplemental act changed only some of the "details" of the charter of the Bank, but made no alteration whatever in the 5th section. This supplemental act, which is now denounced by Jefferson Davis as unconstitutional, was passed, after the fullest investigation of this question, as to the power of the Legislature, with favourable reports as to the Constitutional power by the joint Committee of both houses. The Committee reported to the Senate, that, by a "a supplemental bill" "it is competent for this Legislature to alter and amend the details of the bill, incorporating the subscribers to the Mississippi Union Bank, passed at the last session of the Legislature of this State."-(Senate Journal, 103.)

The report of the Committee to the House was as follows:-"The said Committee are of the opinion, that it is within the province of the Legislature to amend or change the details of the said Mississippi Union Bank Charter," &c. (House Journal, p. 117.) Such was the opinion of the joint Committee of both houses of the Legislature, which reported this supplemental act, which act was passed by the vote of 22 to 3 in the Senate, (Journal, 320,) and 55 to 22 in the House (Journal, 329-30.) It would appear, then, that in the opinion of an overwhelming majority of both branches of the Legislature of Mississippi, the supplemental act was constitutional; and the act was approved by A. G. McNutt, the Governor of the State, and thus became a law on the 15th of

February, 1838. Indeed, the idea that a subsequent Legislature could change none of the details of a Bank charter, because there was embodied in the act a separate and distinct section authorizing a loan of money by the State, seemed to me never to rise to the dignity of a question. Such, we have seen, was the view of the Legislatures of 1838, 1839, and 1841, and such was the unanimous decision, hereafter quoted, of the Chancellor and Circuit Judge of Mississippi, and of the Supreme Judicial Tribunal, the High Court of Errors and Appeals of the State, in two decisions, on this very point, and in favour of the constitutionality of this law. One of these decisions was made in January, 1842, and the other in April, 1853. These decisions were conclusive against the State, and binding upon the Legislature, the Governor and the people, for the following reasons. The Constitution of the State of Mississippi contains the following clause :

"Article II. Distribution of Powers. "Sec. 1. The powers of the Government of the State of Mississippi shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them confided to a separate body of magistracy; to wit, those which are legislative to one, those which are judicial to another, and those which are executive to another.

"Sec. 2. No person or collection of persons, being of one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted."—It is not pretended that