The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-01-04
The State Credit.

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We do not presume upon any supposed ~
tluence we may have with the Legislature III
saying few words upon the spirit'in which
we trust the members viii proceed to ms
cussion and action upon the question "
maintaining the State credit.
Promising that every citizen is Interested !.
in sustaining the good name and honor o.
the state,--that to bring disredlt upon nei
veil, affect the welfare Of the citizen IN us
hpsiness and In the value of his properly
and seriously retard the general prosperity
by repelling immigration and capltai iiohi
orr borders-we say that there Is no supleeV,
which 90 mulch demands the calm WISDOM
and earnest dellberation OF the ies1siator>''
| Thcrc should I've no passion in the discussion
but that Of passionate devotion to the welfare
Of the State.
No man has a right as representative OF
the State (and every man is as well repre-
sentative OF the State as Of the county from
which he hails) to permit party or personal
reseptments to govern his Judgment Flo-
lence does everything badly, and that gentle
man will rise highest in the scale OF dignity
M statesman who succeeds best in dismls-
sing from his mind every feeling at all cal
c,lated to interfere with the calm and denb'
crate judgment with which this all-absorblng
question should be treated. Every man VINO
allows himself to be scduccd into passion
impairs alike his influence and the commence
in his judgment.
We repeat that the subject is one OF the
deepest interest to the people. We here 40
not know what calamity it is to people TO
have their State discredited in the money
world and pronounced repudiator. Line
disastrous effects of such 4 fate are perIneat-
ing and persistent. We may know some
thing of the nature of this calamity from tie
cxperience of others. See how it was in Hill
nois:
FROM the Chicago Tribune.
THE RESULTS OF REPUTATION.
Illinois tried reputation for number OF
wears. Her bonds had been sold originally
at very heavy discount, and denagosuesS
then, US dcmagogues are doing now, raised
the cry that the State was not morally Dotlno
to nav any more of its debt than it received
for it's bonds. This quibbling ended in re
pudmtion. Illinois stopped payment OF III
terest and principal Of its debt. Illinois be-
came an outc,st from financial markets. In
dustry stopped. No person would lend
dollar to the State nor to any enterprise IN
the State. The motive power on the only
railroad in the State degenerated to a
span of mules, and finally to single
mule. The tax had been oppressive,
but reputation was ten times worse.
No man in Illinois could buy goods en-
cent for cash; and a man out West
with hundred dollars in his pocket never
tarried in the State where reputation had
become the policy. For ten years Illinois
endured living death, and the people
unanimously prayed to be relieved from the
intolerable burden. They demanded to be
taxed, and taxed heavily, to redeem their
State. They, by an almost unanimous vote,
placed in the Constitution, beyond the reach
of Legislative appeal, clause providing fol
an annual tax, which was to be perpetual
until the long -repudiatcd debt and interest
were fully paid. They sent into the highways
and byways to find the creditors. They
counted up the interest which had accumlI-
lated during the reputation, amounting to
millions. This they funded and added to
the Understanding debt. That debt the
State has to n great extent paid of, and the
fame and credit Of Illinois are once more at
par in the markets of the world"