The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-01-14
TUESDAY EVEN'G. JAN. IA, 1873
THE GOVERNORS MESSAGE.

'EhkE NVSEktNVRS HESS&SE.
We print to-day the Governors Message,
which was communicated to the Senate
yesterday in response to resolution Of
that body asking his Excellency's views as
to the best mode Of raising money to pay
the interest on the public debt, and at the
same time meet the current expenses of the
State government. The message is a
somewhat lengthy one, and goes extensive
ly into facts and figures to show that the
payment of our obligations may be
met, if certain strenuous efforts
are made, and certain sums real
lied from other available sources than
direct taxation. His Excellency is SAN
guine, and makes every possible figure
bend to his wishes in swelling the amount
of available income; and yet there is a
deficiency, CT seiH be deficiency, on the
first of January, 1874, of about half a mil
lion to be made up in addition to the tax
levy. To reduce the accrued and accruing
interest to these manageable proper
tious, it will become necessary, accord
ing to the Governors plan, to sell the
bonds of the Washington and Ohio and the
Richmond and Danyille railroad com panies,
and the stock held by the State in the
Richmond, fredericksburg and Potomac
railroad company. But his Excellency
fails to explain how we shall continue to
meet the accruing interest after January
l, 1874, except by additional taxation on
the people. We shall then have none of
these railroad bonds and stocks to fall
back upon in an emergency, but must breast
the swelling current of Indebtedness as
best we may. The Governor sees how the
taxation screws can be applied to such
"soulless corporations as shall come
into the State to develop her mining
and manufacturing interests, aud how
every dollar of the capital Of
such corporations can be taxed in advance
OF its coming here, as by the law of last
session it in fact is. But his Excellency
has no doubt read the fable Of the goose
that laid the golden egg, and can possibly
imagine such faulty Of mind in the owner
of the goose as would lead him to kill her
before her first egg was laid. The lcgisla-
ton of last session, added to that limited
at in the Governors Message, would as eff
fectually keep all mining and manufacture
ing capital from corning into the State as
would a Chinese wall thousand feet high,
and bristling with taxation devices and
other schemes Of brgandage for quitting
every individual goose that should fly over
it. Individual capitalists from other states
have already had taste Of this sort of
legislation, and have exclaimed, IF you
tax us in the green tree like this what the
will you do in the dry?"
A better question for US to put to the
bond-holders, especially those in England
and Germany is, whether, i'll fact, either
the State of West Virginia or East Virginia
is liable to pay the debts Of the old body
polite and corporate, formerly called
the State of Virginia? That old
body polite and corporate, which
created the debt and bound itself by bonds
to pay it, has ceased to exist-was not SIM
ply dismembered, but utterly wiped out
Of existence by the Federal government.
The old State, with its proud jurisdiction
and sovereignty, no longer exists. 1t was
seized by the national sovereignty, and
jure beli, annihilated as q state, and by
the further act Of that national sovereign
ty erected into two new states, as dis.
tinct and separate from the old body poll
tic as Ohio or Indiana, which were sey.
orally carved out of Virginia territory al
the time of their erection into independent
bodies polite or states.
Who then should pay the a,te-5ell,n
debts of the old body polite, or State o
Virginia? Certainly not Ohio or Indiana
though their obligation to pay them nigh
be as great, in strict equity, as that of eithel
West or East Virginia. The fact is,
principle of international law intervcnes
here, which fixes the liability, es
pecially to all foreign bond-holders
upon the aggressive sovereignty, or tina
which seized and wiped out the old body
polite, contracting and binding itself il
bonds to pay the original debt.
But we cannot pursue this subjec
further in this connection. We would
repudiate reputation only. The ante
bell,rm debts Of old Virginia d.
not belong to us to pay. We never con
tracted them, and never should have bee
called upon to pay them. BY the laws c
nations, the Federal government is alon
responsible to the foreign bond-holder, an
should hold itself equally bound to pay th
bonds in the hands of the American holder
The Governors head ought to have bee
clear enough to see all this two years age
and to have forced back the creditors upo
Congress for the liquidation Of their claims
instead Of manacling, or seeking to mana
Gle, the new body polite with The indebted
ness Of the old.
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Is it another stock gambling dodge, th
4lsoL Al.