Tennessee Comptroller's Office Broadside
G. W. Blackburn issued this broadside on June 22, 1869 as a public notice informing the state's revenue officers of the treasury's dire financial situation. Blackburn explains his recently acquired legal rights as comptroller to issue bonds (in this instance, bonds valued at $400,000) to pay the state's debt. Due to increasing expenditures and shrinking tax revenues, the Tennessee state treasury faced a potentially dangerous situation: if they defaulted on their bonds (held by the Fourth National Bank in New York) their credit would be severely damaged. The broadside particularly targets the treachery of some railroad companies who have failed to make interest payments on their loans and strongly encourages revenue officers to apply pressure to those who owe taxes to the state.
Dates
- 1869 June 22
Conditions Governing Access
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Conditions Governing Use
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Extent
0.1 Linear Feet
Abstract
G. W. Blackburn issued this broadside on June 22, 1869 as a public notice informing the state's revenue officers of the treasury's dire financial situation. Blackburn explains his recently acquired legal rights as comptroller to issue bonds (in this instance, bonds valued at $400,000) to pay the state's debt. Due to increasing expenditures and shrinking tax revenues, the Tennessee state treasury faced a potentially dangerous situation: if they defaulted on their bonds (held by the Fourth National Bank in New York) their credit would be severely damaged. The broadside particularly targets the treachery of some railroad companies who have failed to make interest payments on their loans and strongly encourages revenue officers to apply pressure to those who owe taxes to the state.
Biographical/Historical Note
George Washington Blackburn was born to William Alfred and Ruth (Cawthorne) Blackburn in Rhea County, Tennessee on January 23, 1817. He married Margaret Bingham (1830-1915) in Columbia, Tennessee on August 2, 1858 and the couple had five children, Mary (1857-1942), Ruth (Blackburn) Parham (1860-1894), Edwin C. (1873-1900), George Washington Jr. (1865-1910), and William Augustine (1870-1893). G. W. Blackburn served as the Comptroller of the State of Tennessee from 1866 to 1870. He died on December 10, 1904 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Columbia, Tennessee.
Arrangement
This collection consists of a single folder.
Acquisition Note
Special Collections purchased this broadside.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository