The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-02-09
aa;osarna lslatoEs and tae;
last act win be the Growing one or your legis'
Iattre career. a Mon 4 BoEDHoLDEH.

.a55s fass legislator, and the;
Inst act win be the Growing one OF your iegis
Iative career. a Nor 4 BoSDHoLDEK.
Shall Proud Old ytrginia also Yield 70
DisssgnOr?
VA friend who lat the close Of the war
turned the Investment OF his capital, which
was considerable, to South Carolina, at ast
confesses to us that in respect to the same,
after years of hope, he has come TO despair.
His profits have been inconsiderable; three
.foIrttfs of his capital Is an utter loss. No
body will take his South Carolina properties
and pay him one1lnrter OF tllesu he paid
for them, though ut the time they were, COM
pared with other investments in the same
neighborhood, deemed judicious and well
chosen. He bought plantations and MAIN
tanned them with all possible thrift; he also
bought lands i'll the business portion OF
city. on which he erected structures Tor CON-
mereial purposes. Either kind OF inyes''
mcnt Is alike uIproductlye. AND now, after
hoping against hope, he ahandons IN despair
the rich and favored State Of South Carolina,
and retires from her borders perforce, con-
tent to carry away aquarter part OF the large
and ample means with which six years ago
he hopefully became resident OF the State.
r. Why is this result? He informs us that
the CHEF blow to his hopes was struck by
the practical reputation Of its public debt
by North Carolina. The arrangement OF the
finances Of South Carolina and the proposition
to pay fifty per cent. on the debt OF that State
speedily followed. Until these events he had
reason to hope that in the end his investments
would become fuirly remuneratiye. But now
n I'll fx,o -, l.,
lima or North Carolina. at least, nobody
will carry capital thither; and az to indus
trious laboring men, they do not seem to be
attracted thithcr so readily as to the western
States. The reason, he says, and it seems to
ing1nen will not go to these States, Is that it
is announced rs the reason why the interest
on the public debt cannot be paid is that the
peoplc are too poor to meet the necessary
tax. This being asserted by authority and
believed, people hesitate to cast their fortunes
with communities too poor to pay interest
on their debts. tits argued, and with rea-
son, that since taxes fall on capital andlabor.
capital aud labor newly brought into State
must, In the case under view, confront extra
ordinary burdens, since the present popula-
ton are too poor to meet, or unwilling to
meet, those now upon them. In such field
capital and labor see no prospect of remJne-
ration if they go thithcr, it is not with any
reasonable view Of drawing profits and COM
peusation thence, but rather with the certain
prospect of imparting Of their substance to
sustain population confessedly impoyerish-
cd. 40 .
Virginia, richer and more fortunate thar
the Carohnas, is only on the brink of the
abyss of acknowledged and hopeless poverty.
It is still lett to her to turn away from it, or
to descend the desperate decliyity. Richer
than the Carolinas, she has mines worked
and manufactures in full progress III hel
midst, in addition to al agriculture which
alone is sufficiently remuneratiye and pros
porous to support the dignity OF
her State and feed and clothe its popu
lation. She has in her treasury sur
plus sufficient, added to the incoming
taxes, to pay for year and a half i'll advance
the interest OH her public debt, which
amounts to some $40, 600, and the annual
interest to less than two and half millions.
Besides, Virginia, more than the Carollnas.
has attracted foreign capital and labor. Some
of the richest men in the United States have
taken up her central line OF east and west
railway, now called the Chesapeake and
Ohio, and are building it with wonderful en-
ergy and with great outlay of capital to the
Ohio river, where, connecting with tile gen
eral system of inland transportation, 1t Will
become through the whole breadth OF the
State one of the great arteries OF the COM
merce of the world.
And vet, in the face Of all these elements OF
hope, Virginia is debating about repudlatlns
her debt. Reputation is harsh word, but
it is Just what the State is now contemplating,
When Mississippi went upon this career, al
the outset her Legislature adopted resolu-
ton to the effect that the State did not mean
to repuGliate single dollar of the just claims
against her. She began Reputation by say
inc that she would under no circumstances
repudiate. How it ended all the world
knows. Into the mouth OF Virginia plausl-
BILE men are now putting words by which 1t
is hoped to convince the world that the
State, while refusing her creditors their dues,
is not repudating her obligations. But all
this is false and delusiVe, and decelveS no
body, especially not the present creditor OF
tile State or the capitalist who has money to
lend. To pay half of debt and deny pay
ment of the rest is reputation. For State,
a great Commonwealth, rich as Virginia /,
to suspend payment of her interest is repu-
diation--an offence sufficient to leave an IN
ellaceabe blot upon her escutcheon.
We hear it suggested that ring OF specu-
lators in New York and Richmond and III
other northern capitals have made it their
business to break the credit of southern
States, meaning to buy in bonds at depre-
ciated prices, and thus to make profits by hll-
ing contracts of sale made ut higher prices.
These persons will be likely to be active il
person or by agents at the State capitals, pro,
noting measures of Reputation. They Will
be likely to be greatly and astutely active.
They will conceal rs far us possible Their
movements and aims. The financial honol
of State, once in their embrace, Is lrretrleV-
ably dirtied and disgraced. If Virginia could
behold what she is coming to, if she listens
and cenfides to them, she would start BACK
in horror. No State would ever 60 INTO re-
pudiation did she, before taking the fatal step,
foresee the fatal conscqucnces.-Neu YORK.
Stakeholder. .~.,. .n ,...... .....-..
TIE STATE DEBT.--The Wheeling lntesf'-
qencer Republican) attacks our oil friend
Sam. Woods in the following fierce lam
guage: t~' ".
Sam. Woods, OF Barbour, has proposed in
the Convention fat Reputation Of West
Virginia's obligation to pay part Of the Fir-
GINA debt. He proposes to drop IN the new
Constitution the clause of the present Consti-
tuition requiring us to pay our equitable
share Of it, because he believes "there is no
t.t7 Il -, s,,ett ,n Cfotn