The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-11-03
0he0tttelE1qe1rce
RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION.
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
THEDEBF OF VIRGINIA

How Much Is it ? a Great Discrepancy
Somebody in an EereElOuS Error
What Proportion OF tho Debt will
She Pay: West Virginia Called into
the AecOunt---ycry high Notions
About the Rebel War Debt--.Presi-
dent Johnson Taken to Task for IliH
Advice to Rcpud1nte it.
We have before us a copy of the re-
vived Richmond Enquirer, of the Both
ult. From its columns we take the fol-
lowing important and interesting arti-
Gle: ~
We publish this morning the proceed
ings of meeting of the bOnd-hOlders
of the Southern States in England, at
the London Tavern. A committee was
appointed to look into the matter, and
suggest as IL basis of settlement the cap
italiZing of the arrears into new bonds
bearing like interest with the old, with
coupons payable in London and re-
deeInable in twenty years. This is lib
eral and fair, and we hope and believe
that Virginia will promptly assent to
such terms. This question of State
debt brings up the subject of the dis
membermcnt of Virginia. This debt
has pledged for its redemption the re-
sources of the State as it was before
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Tho bOnd-holders
have a just and fair claim upon Virginia
and West Virginia for the payment of
their bonds. Virginia has been divided
without the assent of her people, and
neither law nor justice will exact from
herthe payment of this debt unless the
proper proportion is assumed by West
Virginia. will tho bond-holders be
willing to surrender Virginia bonds and
take the bonds OF West Virginia? To
divide their securities when they
have just and legal demand upon
the undivided State? We doubt
very much if the bond-holders
Virginia to pay the whole debt and
West Virginia to pay none, when near
ly the whole debt was contracted for
the benefit of West Virginia? If that
is expected from Virginia, somebody
will be disappointed. We hope that
Virginia will pay every, dollar of her
lndebtedneSS-thut due before the war
and that created by the State during
the war. 1t should be the earnest wish
of every American that no blot or stain
should rest upon the credit of any State
in the Union. If the Southern States
are forbid and prevented from paying
their just indebtedness incurred during
the war, let the world know that COM
pulsiOn only has caused their dishonor.
We are not speaking of Confederate
Indebtedness, but of the debts incurred
by the States i'll their individual ca
paclLy. lneSe laSG debts are as much
binding as any incurred, and their re-
pudiatiOn will be just as disgraceful,
and its effect as injurious as the repudi-
alton of the anti-war debt.
1t is true that Virginia has been dis
membered, desolated, devastated, al
most destroyed; but her honor is intact;
she must never permit her fair name
to be sullied with damning disgrace of
reputation. If her ACKNOWLEDGMENT is
legal and the people of the Trans-Alle-
ghany will not again return to the old
homestead, but prefer TO live separate
and apart, we hope they will promptly
take steps to assume their just proper
ton of this debt.
The Chairman of the London Tavern
Meeting states Nirginia's Indebtedness
i'll England at Ell 200, 900, with arrears
for four years, or very nearly Gl2,O00,-
600. There must be some very great
error in this amount. From the Audi
tors report of 1861 we extract the fol-
lowing:
"The ascertained debt of tho State,
on the 1st of January, 1852, was SILL
81, $3.50. There has been redeemed
81, 700, 73O.3l, leaving, on the 1st of OctO-
Der, 1861, of that debt, the sum of SlO,-
27l, ,lO7.99. The debt created i'll each
subsequent year is nscertained, and the
amount necessary for redemption must
be set apart as required by the Consti-
tMtiOn- II iS iOllNySs