The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-01-21
evening State Sa,,rmaL
A Voice From HenricO.
JANUARY Is, 1873.

oANChNA icS iSfos
To the Editor orths State Journal:
May / be permitted through your liberal
journal to reply to an editorial article
in the Richmond Dispatch of January 2,
that was but lately brought to my notice
The article I refer to was headed, The
Perturbed Spirit of Rsdicalism," wherein,
after soundly assailing the taxpayers,
occurs these remarkable words: "The
state is my life to its protection owe the
privilege to hold what have. 1t secures
me in all my possessions, even my very
life." Now, sir, in the same sense,
| boldly assert the state to be an
unprincipled robber, and here is
the proof: Allured by state prom
ises and guarantees of protection to
person and property, invested my all
some few thousand dollars--in land and
negroes, and in a very few years after the
state invited me to play the soldier. Three
and half years played soldier, and when
returned my farm was badly cut up and
disfgured with breastworks; my wood all
cut down and carried oft /; the negroes all
gone and 1 here declare had not suffi-
Gent of what was then called money to
buy me respectable pair of shoes.
| now ask The Dispatch what was
the state to me but robber? What was
the state to the thousands of brave men
who lost their lives by her policy; to the
thousands of widows and orphans; the
manned and the cripple, made SO by their
loving mother, the state And when these
distressed aud disfgured children cried for
relief to the author of their misery, what
did they get? Insult! not in words but
in action, which sometimes speaks louder
than words. They were told, begone
rabble /! go home! go to work! Make
money to pay the bondholders, or we will
sell the bed whcreon you sleep and the
COW that gives sSistenance to your orphan
children.
Iwould now ask The Dispatch what was
the state to all these, but heartless, bloody
robber. And, sir, allow me to inform you
that not only myself but every dlsinter-
ested citizen with whom L converse, takes
this view of the bond question. The citi.
zens generally, with their lives, property
and honor, embarked in what | call the
ship of state. The bondholders, by their
own free choice, with portion of their sur
plus funds, embarked in the same ship,
and bya terrible hurricane the ship was
WIcChou iio, pioPoity tbnu HouOi oWd
lowed up in the same whirlpool. Therefore
justice demands that the entire loss of all
the citizens, and all the bondholders should
be summed up into one grand total, and if
the old ship, after being repaired, felt able
to pay five, ten or fifty per cent. upon
the whole loss that all in common sustained
l say let her do it. 'But cannot see the
equity of first numbering and robbing her
own citizens, and then not only robbing
them again, but compelling them and their
children after them to dig and delve an ex-
hausted soil and carry upon their backs the
putrid carcass of their ungrateful old grand
mamma.
In conclusion, Mr.. Dispatch, hear pre-
diction, though | claim to be no prophet.
Another decade will not roll by before the
taxpayers will havea legislature assembled
in the old capitol that will bury the bonds
and all discussion relating to them, a story
beneath their feet. And not even the
promised 'Daniel'' with his terrible trum-
pet can elevate them to notice again.
HENRICO,