Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1856-03-07

HANGED in value in Europe, their yalus
lis proportionately z increased sin thi,
couptry. They are the standards %
value, and credit may be relatively a,
4 high, and Virginia credit now, is instrinsi.
cally as high, below 100, as it was before
I when above thatsrate. IL is vain to cits
/ abnormaL instances in contradiction o
this. The New York skies may seem tc
be running higher than those of Virginia,
at this time but it is owing to the fact,
that the city of New York is the great
centre of trade, at home in nearest CONS
mercial connection with. the great centres
abroad and, from the same temporary
cause, has the benefit of the first advan-
ces Of credit, and the benefit of the dow
of specie to the centres. under the opera
ton of causes have named. And is il
reasonable to expect that Virginia State
bonds of six per cent, can be sold in the
market at par at all, so long as corpora
tions, in which the State is party, are
authorized by law to issue bonds bearing
an interest of seven per cent; and so long
as these companies are permitted to sell
their six per cent bonds at discount of
20 per cent. or more? Ought not all
bonds to be kept at an even rate of inter-
est, at least with these of the State, and
ought not all -cOrporations,sin which the
State is party, to be required. to sell
their bonds at minimum discount, if not
at par These causes are special and
under our control, but as a general truth,
repeat, that the times only have chang
ed with them; that is all, and it is not
that Virginia credit has yet been at all
| 7 ~,
by panic and know of no more, eff
fectual way of causing panic. than by
stopping the main public works of the
State on the avowed pretext of want Of
means.
Is Virginia destitute of the means to
carry on her leading lines ofimprovement? Of
Can she otsupply them? ? She can.
dcfantly declare to any and to all dis.
posed TO dispute. her ability to meet all
deficiencies. to pay all her debts, and to
perform every State duty, and to construct
every State work appealing to her honor,
her energy, her interest or her will. But
the ways and means cannot be supplied
by issuing and hawking State bonds in
the market. 1t is we'll that they canpot
be- 1t is time that the bad practice ol
anticipating debts by issuing State credit
was stopped, or State credit will and must
sink and the public works will have TO be
stopped. II Virginia bonds are iptrinsi-
cnlIy below par at all, it is mainly be.
cause they have been issued TO pay State
debts and thereby avoid taxation. The
new Constitution, in its funding system.
never intended that State bonds should
be anything else than the mere evidences
OF debts-never that they should be the
means resorted to for paying State debts.
There is no royal road to pay debts in
this country. II a private individual
owes money, he must labor for his solven.
cy if State owes a debt, it must exert
the sovereign remedy Of taxation.
The State debt may be secured by the
bond. it must be paid by taxes. And the
attempt to pay public debts, or to avoid
or postpone taxation, by The hocus pocus
and legerdemain of legislative devices to
bolster public credit, will always end iu
bring upon tax payers largely more bur
thens. at last, than those Of prompt tax
alton, honestly and openly laid on. nj
first. Honest bona, tide taxation, wisely
laid, economically applied and expended,
can alone insure public credit and make
State bonds bring par in the market. All
credit is sensitive and tonder. No credit
can stand the habitual hawking of its
bonds. I, therefore, submit that it is
most polite TO advertise for loans, rather
than to pursue the practice Of putting the
State bonds up to bidders for sale. They
will realize more, at less loss and risk.
Means may thereby be increased, but the
main reliance must be upon the taxes.
Can Virginia bear more taxation
Imaintsin that her taxes are not as great
as they ought TO be, in proportion to her
wealth aud her necessities for taxation.
The per cent. upon her taxable property,
as it is now enumerated and assessed, is
not as much, by 100 per cent, as it will
bear Gd VGioreDa ) Eot IS much, By
4 than the amount. as the State re-
i quires and not as much, by more than
that amount, as many States of less
wealth Ia proportion to population, are
successfully and prosperously taxed. And
1 the enumeration and assessment of our
i taxable property are exceedingly tefec-
tive, owing both to the law and its exc
cution. An amended Law, properly exc
cuted, would produce large amount ol
revenue, With less burtheu to the people.
i But, has Virgins no resources besides
taxation She has vast aud inexhaustiN
! BILE sources OF revenue untouched and nm
noticed. She has an Eastern mine oi
wealth, part of her eminent domain.
public property, belonging to the State,
which Yields per snnum more than i've
millions Of dollars to individuals, and TO
the State lot one cent Of revenue, because
it has heretofore been wholly overlooked
and neglected for fiscal State purposes.-
She has from the Potomac TO Lynn Ha-
/ ven hara from two miles up the Eastern