The Louisville & Nashville Railroad was the purchaser, under the decree of the Chancery Court at Nashville, of the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad. At the date of the sale, one-half of the purchase was discharged in State bonds, pursuant to contract, and the residue of $850,000.00 is not yet due. By agreement, it was not to be paid until the State of Tennessee relieved the road of a debt, claimed by the United States Government, of $340,000.00, with interestsince 1865. But this unpaid balance against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company continued to be and is yet a lien upon the road. The debt claimed by the United States is yet unsettled. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company are now anxious to pay so much of their debt as may be in excess of the debt due to the United States, and place bonds for the payment of the balance in some depository to be selected by both parties, until the debt due to the United States can be settled, and in the meantime that the State relinquish her lien upon the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad.
SOURCE: Tennessee. State of Tennessee And the United States: Extracts From Records, Journals And Documents, for Use In the Matters of Controversy Referred to In House Joint Resolution No. 25, Acts of Tennessee. Nashville, Tenn.: Brandon printing company, 1895.