Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-01-14
An Omen Letter to the General Assembly.

G6cldeO tnaE coupons on Ctato poHuo al 70 iOooAs-
able in payment of State taxes, al good citizens
are bound to Weld obedience to the judgment
Of this tribunal of last resort Resistance would
be revolutionary, and entail on the Common
wealth untold evils. On you. as the representa-
tives of the people, devolves the responsibility
of meeting the emergency In my Judgment,
the only effectual mode of preserving the honor
and credit of the State is by making adequate
provision to meet her liabilities.
I have seen, with much concern, DISPOSE
ton manifested by some to evade the fulfllment
of the contract of the State by indirect means
This is grave error. The people of Virginia,
though poor, are honest, and will sustain their
representatives in an honest effort to maintain
her high credit for integrity.
Some have proposed to throw difficulties in
the way OF using coupons for the payment OF
taxes. 1t seems to me this is a short-sghted
policy. 30 far as making provision against
speculations by collectors in coupons is concern
ed, it is all right and proper; but any attempt
TO tetter the negotiability of coupons must do
evil.
The great complaint among our people now
is of the scarcity of money. Every fall large
portion of the money. in circulation is taken out
of its legitimate channels in payment of taxes.
or is locked up in the treasury until withdrawn
by appropriations. Now if the coupons are al
lowed to circulate freely they would, in effect,
add to the circulating medium nearly one mil
lion of dollars. 1t is true they would in no just
sense be money, but they would have some of
the properties, and perform many of the func.
tons of money. They would be receivable in
payment of taxes, and would thus diminish to
the amount of near million Of dollars the an
| nual drain On the circulating medium of money
to pay taxes. Every one must perceive at a
glance what immense relief such an addition to
the currency would afford. / verify believe that
with the aid of this sort Of currency the people
could pay seventy-hve cents on the one hundred
dollars more readily than they now pay fifty
cents.
But it may be said coupons will be at a dis
count. Surprising this to be true what differ
ence does it make to the State? If she meets
her obligations that is all she need care for
My only fear is, that they will not be at dis
count. If they are, then it will be all the better
for the people, because they can buy them at
discount, and thus the more ready pay their
taxes. 1t seems to me you ought TO have an
eye to the tax payer; and | know of 10 way in
which you can do it so efectually as by faoilita-
ting instead offetering the negotiabiity of cou-
pons.
Some seem TO apprehend that all taxes will
be paid in coupons, and that no money will be
LETT IN the treasury to meet the current expenses
of the Government. This is an unfounded ap-
prehension. If there be fifteen millions of con-
solidated bonds, the coupons will be only $780,
600. Ii the amount be twenty millions the
coupons would be 81 100000. [n either case
the amount OF coupons would be less than half
the amount OF the aggregate taxes. And 1.-THE
taxes be increased to Is cents on 500. the cou-
pons would not be one-third Of the whole a.
mount Of taxes.
It seems to me, therefore, that you should
do all in your power TO enable the people to pay
their taxes without distress, by furnishing them
a cheap currency, 10 which the taxes may be
paid.
In conclusion. would call your attention to
another good quality which these coupons would
have as currency. They would renaaan IN the
State. They would not, like greenbacks, go
abroad. They would remain here. They would
pass from hand to hand, like money, in pay
nept Of debts. Everybody would wish to get
some Of them, TO be used In payment Of taxes.
This quality would give them currency, and ii
you leave them to circulate from hand to hand,
like money you would relieve the people quite
as much as if you were to throw an additional
million OF national currency into circulation IN
Virginia. A TAXPAYER
A SAD SPECTACLE.-The transfer Of ten So
called Ku Klux prisoners from South Carolina,
through the streets of New York, day Or two
since, reminds us that as the old year was clos
| ing We had mournful spectacle Of men torn
| from their sunny Southern homes and hurried
| through the biting winds of Northern winter,
protected only By scant clothing from the pierre
| ing cold, to the horrors Of Northern peniten-
| tary. Among these men are some who solemn
| IL protest their innocence of all crime, Iuclnd-
| ing minister Of the Gospel, who Is condemn
| ed to a more heavy sentence than any OF his
companions, by hippanty- delivered Judgment.
We can know nothing Of the guilt or innocence
Of these hapess prisoners, though no doubt the
Southern States have il their population insu-
coordinate and violent elements as we'll as the
Northern States. though not in as large num-
bers. But scarcely anywhere, except in Russia,
| where criminals are transported TO Siberia, are
men thus removed for punishment to regions
where the climate itself may be expected TO add
new tortures, and perhaps death, to the penal
| ty OF i'm Imprisonment.
Jas. Uiedenherry was snow-baed to death
by boys in New York, On new years day.
4 letter from Dallas, Texas, to the Houston
| Age, says that twelve Indian" cattle thieves
were lately caught in ore Of the western coun-
ties and hung to the limb Of 2 tree, because
there was no limb Of the Lazy to plead fer
them. Before hanging them their faces we're
out as Indians they being unprotected orphans
from Kansas mostly
Within the past ten gears, according to the
| London Spectator, ten persons have died In
| England, leaving property sworn to be worth
over five millions Of dollars; fifty three leaving
| an estate valued at ever two millions five hun
| dred thousand dollars, and one hundred and
sixty-one whose entire assets amounted to more
than one million.
a Bright Future.
Speaking of the completion Of the G. &. 0.
E. R., the Louisville Courier-Journal, alludes
to the future Of Virginia, in the following hap
PLY truthful style: ''The wasted farms and
broken down plantations Of Virginia will put
forth new life and beauty as the great tide Of
energy and trade rolls through her boundaries.
The old names will be treasured in history, aud
her ancient customs and royal ways will live
only in song and story; but the new life will be
robust and active, and none the less beneficial
| to the world than the old. Her stately gentle
men of the by-gone time have passed into the
l.. \. I ! q