The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-02-02
FRIDAY EVENING, FEB. 2, 1872.


N know thot pTluSlDTe pTtItNrs |
alton of the debts of the State may be offered,
hut they cannot bear honest scrutiny, we nave
been unjustly deprived 1t is said OF lafge por-
ton of our property ana cann9s f nT E' Tnnced
Ing the premises, the conclusion does not 1oiioW
The loss of property has never been hela 10 DC y
valid plea for the non-payment OF debts. IL Is
our misfortune but we have no right to visit IL
u,,on our creditors. We cannot Legally or equ
tably assume that they are responsioie ior our
loss and must be made to snfferits consequences,
we are indebted to widows and orphans, IN our
own State and in foreign countries what nave
they done that we may justly deprive 'heih Vi
their rights s-Reiigious Rerod
We know of no plausible prctexts that
have been offered by any journal in the
State for the reputation of its just debts.
Our opposition to the Funding Blll passed
q year ago, has been constantly inspired
bv n desire to preserve the honor OF the
State from any such stain as reputation
would inevitably bring upon it. All just
debts, however improyidently or uniortu-
natcly contracted, should be paid to the
utmost iarthing of principal and interest,
as soon as it i, in the power OF the people
to do it and we will go as far as our neigh
bors of the Religious Herald, III Having the
action of the State of such a character as
to bear the very utmost Of honest scruti-
N.Y." il need be.
il is not the first time in the history OF
Virginia that its people have been so im-
poyeIished by war as to find themselves
unable To meet even their just debts. III
I've mistake not, after the close OF the
Revolutionary war, she paid off her out
standing liabilities, as did many oil the
other States, at mere nominal per centage
upon their original amount. And yet, the
fair name and fame of the State did not
materially suffer thereby. She found her.
self in condition of absolute inability to
pay, and the mode of wiping out her in
debtedness, though not called by the ugly
name of "rcpudiation" at the time, was
substantially that in fact. Failing to pay
debt, at maturity or afterwards, is not re-
pudiation. 1t requires something more
than this to make the failure to pay thing
of odium. The people must refuse even
to acknowledge just claim upon them,
and derde the party who presents 1t, as
was the case in Mississippi where the term
''repudiation" obtained its more offensive
meaning. To refuse acknowledgment Of
an unjust claim, or one obtained by fraud
and circumyention, implies no tant-at'
taches no odium--to the party making sucf
refusal. It is scarcely necessary to de-
mand recognition of so simple PROPOSE
ton as this, 1t is admitted by the force 0
its own terms.
Now, il it be true that more than three
fourths of the indebtedness OF the State
now sought to be funded at tn
instance of the "Wall-Street pool
and its hackers, was incurred in VIC
lation of the fundamental law OF tn
State, and the parties receiving the obliga
tons knew it, las they were bound to,
the fact were so,) how much honest scru
tiny" does it require to satisfy the peopi
of this or any other State that the indebt
.edness should not be paid? We put tn
question thus broadly and circumstantiall
that our financial friends of the Religion
Herald may conscientiously answer 1t &c
themselves. Let them bear one thing
mind. that if the debt was demonstration
ally incurred, it was incumbent on tn
parties receiving the obligations to know j
''Iqaorantia legis ,,emiaem ercusat,' = is
older maxim than any to be found in II
common law, and it applies VII
double force where the circun
stances surrounding the transactlo
by which the debt was incurred, were I
a character to excite doubt or suspicion
It's fundamental rule in this State an
every other, and was SO at the time Il
debt was incurred, that private proper
cannot be taken for public use without jn
compensation and if it cannot be tn
taken for public use, a .to'fioH or WI
stronger reason, it cannot be taken Tor
pyicate one, or in the interest OF corpor
ton, 1t is manifest that the Legislature
the State cannot directly take the proper
of its tax-pay,ng citizens and give 1t to
railroad OF any other corporation; al
what it cannot do directly, it cannot do
indirection. In the State Of Michigan, 4
Supreme court has decided that liabiltl
thus created are unconstitutional and vol
and the late Governor of California sncces
fully vetoed bill authorizing such an
debtedness there, on the ground of its u
eonsttutionality, as well as fragrant inJu
tice to the taxpayers Of the State. This
not new question, therefore, mooted
us, nor is the refusal Of an impoverish
and tax-burdened people to provide for
payment Of Obligations thus unconstitut'c
ally created, in any sense of tho term,
act of reputation.
In England, where very consldera
amount Of these bonds are held, the ic
of reputation can hardly be more off
siye than it is here. Her present syst
of coasols originated in reputation.
Charles the Second repudiated some 81
100000 Of his indebtedness, but sub
quently recognized some 80, 800, 900, VIII
was the basis of the present English de