Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1870-12-16

settlement can be made In the meantime
our public creditors are justly anxious 70
some action on your part looking to re
SUMPTION of the payment of interest upo
our debt
A considerable portion of our debt is own
ed by our own people. Is it just to compe
those people to pay the State taxes while tn
State is in arrears OF interest to them? Man,
of our bonds are held by the trustees ant
guardians of widows and orphans dependen
for subsistence and education upon the lin
come from this source. Much of the deb
is held in both this country and Europe by
original investors in the same, at the highest
market value when created. It is true thai
since the war many holders of Virginia
bonds. including numbers Of cur own citi-
zens, have been compelled from necessity t.
part with them at ruinous depreciation
The bonds thus sold are doubtless held by
spectators, who obtained them at half OF
less than half their par value; but does this
fact, in any respect, affect eur liability for
the debt Or afford any excuse or justification
whatever for our violation of plighted faith?
Certainly not The bond held for the ben
eft of the poor orphan and the bond owned
by the rich speculator are of equal dignity
and equally binding upon the State. Each
is her solemn obligation to pay, and the COZ
sideration for both of which she has long
since. received and applied to her own use.
But it matters not where or by whom our
bonds are held, or at what rates they were
obtained, so far as your duty is concerned.
That duty is to reinstate our dishonored
credit The people of this Commonwealth
will never permit the blighting stain of re-
pudation TO tarnish her escutcheon. A neg
lect, however, to provide the means for
meeting the obligations of the State is as
much reputation as would be an absolute
refusal of payment, and far less manly. The
great duty incumbent on you of organizing
the State government, and adapting our
laws to the new constitution, may be regard
ed as reasonable excuse for your MONACO
ton in this behalf at your last session. But
that excuse no longer avails. The time has
arrived when you must grapple with this
question. I do not urge an attempt for the
immediate resumption of the payment of in
tcrest upon our public debt We are not
yet prepared to do so, nor can it be reason
ably expected of US. What 90 most earn
estly urge is that you take immediate action
looking to the resumption Of the payment of
interest by the State at certain day, not in
the distant future. I would recommend that
provision be Immediately made for the fund.
ing Of the whole debt, principal and interest,
in new bonds of the character mentioned in
my message of the 9Th of March last, bear
ing date July l, 1870 The first scmi-an
nual interest will then fall due January 1,
1872; and, 10 my opinion, that is as early
period as it will be prudent to undertake the
payment of full interest regularly. I'm my
Judgment, it is far better to postpone the
commencement Of the payment of any inter-
est 10 time when we are satisfied that we
shall not only be able to commence, but con
tinue to pay it regularly and promptly as it
natures thereafter, than to pay part reg
ular.y or the whole irregularly. What We
all desire is the speedy restoration Of the
State credit. and this can emily be accom-
plished b. the prompt payment of the inter
est upon our debt when due; partial pay
ment will not accomplish it, aud when We
shall have once resumed payment, any ir-
Irregularities or uncertainties will most seri-
ously damage. if not destroy, our credit y
In March last | was Of tho opinion that we
might safely undertake to commence the
payment Of interest on the 1st of July, 1871,
but the heavy expenses incident to the re-
organization of the State government, aud
the lengthy first session of the Legislature,
the prevalence of a blighting drouth in one
section of the State the past season, and the
devastations of terrible floods in the James
and Shenandoah rivers, have so crippled our
treasury and our people that | am satisfied
a postponement to the LIST Of January, 1872,
is necessary and advisable.
The constitution limits your present ses-
sion to ninety days. and I trust that you
will be enabled to complete all necessary
Legislation within that period. With an i'm
poverished people on the one hand, and
anxious, needy, deserving creditors on the
oth,r, it more than ever becomes US to prac-
tice the most rigid economy in all depart
ments Ct the government Hereafter, our
annual legislative expenses ought not to
equal one-half Of the cost of your last SEES
sion. | hope also, under the reforms already
initiated and to be initiated, to see our
criminal charges and the expenses of our
penitentiary reduced more than one-half,-
In view of these and other reductions in our
annual expenses, and the increased and in
creasing subjects of taxation and ability on
tho part of the people to respond thereto, I
am satisfied that we can and ought to resume
the payment of interest as early as the LIST of
January, 1872 The honor and true iu-
terest of the people demand that we should
do this if possible. So long as our State
credit remains in condition of dishonor, it
is idle to hope for that prosperity and de-
velopment, that influx of capital and popula-
ton, so much needed and so ardently desir-
ed. trust that you will take this subject
into immediate consideration, and act in a
manner commensurate with its great import
ance and the vast interests involved.
The subject Of the organization of the
State militia is one that ought not to be
longer delayed. 1t is quite unnecessary for
me to repeat the arguments in favor of a
well-organiyed and efficient militia. The past
experience of every State in the Union amply
vindicates their correctness. There are Pc
culiar reasons which now more than ever
demonstrate the absolute necessity of an Or
ganized militia in this State. In case of riot
or organized resistance to the enforcement
of the laws. the Executive has no force at
his command with which to vindicate the au-
thority with which he is clothed by the con-
stitution. In the late municipal difficulties
in this city, the control Of a single company
of well-organized and equipped militia would
have enabled the Executive to quell, in its
inniniannu that disuraoafnl and most ,,n;,,s