The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-10-02
Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
Reputation.
LOUISA COUNTY, Va, September 2


noticed in your paper Of the 18th in
slant quotation from letter written by
a member of the Legislature, in which he
seems to be very respondent, fearing that
the Legislature, at its next meeting, will
either extend the present stay law or pass
law Of general reputation. The sum
and substance of all he said on the sub
ject was that we had lost all we had save
our honor, and he feared that that too
was about to be offered on the altar of
Mammon; that poverty with honor could
be endured, but poverty without honor
would be insuferable. Still he is passion
ately in favor of man paying his debts,
and violently opposed to reputation. Does
he mean that a man must sacrifice his
honor in the discharge of his debts, that
being all left after his misfortunes or does
he mean that our debts are to be held up
over our heads all our lives as milestone
of degradation; or arc they to be made q
penal attribute by which to appease the
wanton thirst of the heartless Shylock !!
who, during the war, acted in concert
with our enemies to hasten our common
ruin, and as soon as that was consum-
mated, was among the first to vote for
the abolition of slavery, in that way
think releasing all his debtors, from the
fact that the negro was generally the
security for most of the debts, and now he
is resorting to the courts in order to pro-
cure judgments by which he can place his
infamous heels upon the neck ofthc widow
and orphan, and hold them thus in OPP
preston until lie can have his talons suf-
ficiently polished to render sure their de-
struction. l fully concur in the senti-
ments of John Tyler, Jr., Esq. don't
think Virginians ought to be extirpated
through debt, nor the resources OF our
dear old Commonwealth farther sacrificed
through the moneyed combinations of TO-
reign element. think there ought to be
a homestead secured for every head of a
family, and allow them to 60 on in the
peaceful pursuits Of life, after their peri
lous troubles and deplorable disasters.
Should the Legislature allow the liquida-
ton Of all debts to be forced by law, then
will you be able to see in some sections Of
our country vast distances entirely un-
inhabited, from the fact that in some Of
the counties few men would own all the
land. The few citizens that might be able to
remain would be merely hewers of wood and
drawers of water for the ShylOck-their
worst enemy. What does our friend
mean by the altar of Mammon? 1t must
be the evils of war, with the acts of the
mOneyed Spectator as its concomitant, for
he says everything we had save our honor
had been sacrificed upon that altar. Then,
surely we have made abundant offerings to
satisfy the demoniacal appetite of Man,
mon; and think now it ought to be the
policy of our Legislature to preserve our
honor and the little property left us as
tokens Of the love and as monuments of
the respect that our dear old mother State
has for her wounded and bleeding children.
If the honor Of our old State depends upon
the ability Of her citizens to pay their debts,
then she is already dishonored beyond re-
demption, for am satisfied that one-third
of them would not be able to pay ten cents
in the dollar in consequence Of the very
low prices Of property and great amount
of interest that accrued during the war
from an indisposition on the part of the
people to receive Confederate money as
interest. As for my own opinion, l think
the time will soon arrive when these diff
culties will mature and come to their final
solution, and then If dishonor is to be at
tached to our old State at ell, it will be be-
cause she has turned the cold shoulder Of
disregard to the wants Of her own children,
and has proffered her time -honored breast
TO the stockings Of another cline.