The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-19

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Dsuviiie nth prices for che purpose Of be.
Inc manufactured there, and thus encou-
rare onr home enterprise and industry, II
we had the money 70 buy II with. It Is
now being bought, however, by manure
turers In Louisville, Cincinnati, and S..
I,ouis. and carried there for the purpose
of covering up their inferior lesi; a e.,
was about to state when my FRIEND IN
terrupted me, that he too was pounu ~ . ~
NIT that his people were not IN con .ha.n
90 nav h.avv taxes, believe tnere
~ .ans,cr on this floor that has not
no ~ hare With a proposition asking that
~. - ,ia be relieved, and that the time
cr s making his returns be postponed be-
rnnd the date fixed by law, or until the
sr.t dsy Of April next. Certain 1t is, that
seyerai bills granting this indulgence have
nassed both branches Of the General As
sembly, and that the arguments upon
which this indulgence was sought for and
obtained was, that the people had no
money /; and upon the further ground that
they could not get their crops in until
May or June. tits little strange that while
the General Assembly is making provision
for the payment Of interest on the State
debt under circumstances Of peculiar hard
ship to the community, they debar indi-
vidual creditors from recovering one years
interest upon their credit until August
next. This was done because the people
had not the money to meet this payment,
and because the tobacco and wheat crop
must necessarily come in; and when
April and August come, we VIII doubtless
hear the general cry raised that Inc Peo-
pie have not got the money TO meet tneir
obligations. This will probably not De the
case with the commercial cities OF the
State, for they have at all times facilities
Of payment not enjoyed by persons In the
rural districts, who are compelled TO await
the returns of their crops to procure the
means to pay off their liabilities. ! con-
ceive, sir, that the constituents OF the
senator from Richmond are always pre-
pared to pay their proportion OF the taxes ;
and | can well understand why that gen.
tleman, in his representative capacity,
comes here and advocates bill of this
character. In the first place, sir, the taxes
Of the Commonwealth are deposited here.
During the last year, if you take the Trea-
surer's statement, you will find that there
has been an average of about 100000
remaining in each of the banks of the city
of Richmond to the credit of the State,
which sum, it will be remembered, has to
be raised from the hard earnings Of the
honest yeomanry Of the country, who are
to-day making every effort to organize
their farms and their system OF labor, which
has been SO utterly deranged by the war.
And, sir, my impression now is, that If you
take this State tax and move these depo-
sits from the city Of Richmond, you cannot
get note discounted for an amount sutii-
Gent to buy cart load Of coal.
Again, sir, will ask where these State
bonds are Does not every man know
that of the amount held in Virginia the
great centre at which they are accumula-
ted is here said the other day that l
did not believe there were five out Of every
thousand persons in the Commonwealth
who were interested in these bonds. My
friend from Petersburg (Mr. Bolling) said
yesterday that he was perfectly astounded
at the number Of these bondholders; but
the senator, when he made the state
ment, did not tell us what proportion of the
people held these bonds, and where they
were held. | had hoped that when he
went into the estimate he would have in
formed us more fully upon these points.
But he failed to do SO, and contented him
self by merely stating generally that three
thousand persons in the Commonwealth
were interested in these bonds, and there
fore DESTROYS for the passage Of this bill. l
believe, sir, that the district l represent
has a population of some sixty thousand,
and do not know but eight or ten out Of
that number who hold State bonds. These,
so far as know, were moneyed men before
the war, and are now doubtless in easy cir
cumstances, and do not require the indul-
gence proposed by this bill. But enough
of that, sir.
NV friend from Richmond (Mr. Ould)
SAYS that the demand made by the bill is
justified; that the assumption of the whole
debt by Virginia is justified upon the
general ground that the internal improve
ments of the State absorbed all the money,
that the lands we're thereby enhanced, and
that therefore we are bound to pay the
whole debt. That iSjuSt ,chat Vest Vr-
qinia says. That is just what they say in
the 9th section Of the ordinance passed by
the Wheeling Convention and that is the
principle upon which they propose to set
tie the debt. They say the money was
expended in Virginia, and that therefore
we ought to pay it.
NV friend, the senator from Richmond,
ought to have stopped, | think, and re-
Elected moment upon the fact that the
largest portion of the tax-paying people OF
Virginia have not got the benefits of these
improvements; that there are large unde-
yeloped regions Of the State that have
never vet heard the whistle of locomo-
tive, and that have not canal, nor even a
turnpike, passing through them and yet
these people, thus deprived of facilities to
market, their long expected hopes OF the
benefits that my friend, the senator from
Richmond, says that other portions of the
State enjoy, paying all the time, and more
than most regions of the State, into the
public treasury, find to-day the astounding
fact presents itself to them that gentlemen
here who are so earnest and ardent to levy
upon them tax which they are unable to
pay are to-day, one by one, with one single
exception, monopoliZiDg the legislation Of
the State in efforts, under the form of ia
cility bills, mill-tax bills, consolidation
bills, and committing bills, to give away all
the assets left Virginia to pay with. But,
so far as / have seen, no scheme has re-
ceived any sort Of sanction tending to de-
velop the unimproved portions Of the State
save one-that of the Valley road-which
has already passed into law, by which
three millions, in round numbers, Of the
public fund was practically given for its
benefit. The other scheme-and the pet
scheme seemingly of abby combinations
unparalleled in the history of Virginia le-
gislation, proposes indirectly, at one fell
swoop, to take more than ten millions of