The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-27

rights of all should now be permanent
readjusted and placed upon the best ul
mately improved footing to be fairly a
tanned. No other obligation can be said
be superior to that which pledges the hon,
of the state to public creditors, except Il
obligation to preserve the life of the con
IF monwealth. Nothing short of the imp
rous necessity of self-preservation, notl
ing less than such pressure of creditors Q
> might imperil the government and depry
! y US of the means for unfolding society an
order, could give countenance to actio
calculated to impair the value of coupon
: or obstruct their presentation in paymen
i of taxes.
9 A far better and wholly different polio,
! claims our support in order to effectuate it
! let us first clearly comprehend our situa
ton and resources.
The assessed value of the real and per
sonal property actually subjected to taxa
: ton in the state in 1860, was 1886, 099,
! 382.77; while the official reports show
that property of the value of $163, 556,
10000, was exempted from taxation undel
the laws then in force, thus making the
actual aggregate resources of the state il
1860 equal to $74S, 655, 482.77. 1t ap
pears from the same official sources thai
the aggregate value of real and personal
property within the territory embraced
in the present limits of Virginia, was in
1860, $632 ,204, 191 So. The aggregate o.
assessed values of taxable property ofevery
kind in Virginia in 1878, was, and it now
is, 1886, 6S6, 1929 and no more. Great
and alarming as this decline in taxable
values has been, the production of the
state and the acreage of cultivated land arc
diminished in at least equal proportion.
An illustration of our losses in pro-
duction is to be found in the tobacco crop,
which, grown almost exclusively within
the present limits of Virginia. amounted
in 1860, according to the census
of that year, to 1913, 968,3l2 pounds,
and which by the census of
1870 had in that year fallen to 37.086, 1854
pounds. Such losses in every kind of
agricultural production are further shown,
and in some measure accounted for, in the
fact that OF the population, constituting
most valuable producing class before the
war, more than a half million now produce
little if anything but bare living Cor
themselves. In addition to all these evils,
vast private indebtedness, incurred prior
to the general destruction of public and
private property by war, au Indebtedness
which greatly exceeds the whole public
debt of the state, no inconSiderable part of
which is due outside the commonwealth,
all of which has been and is being pressed
for payment, dlstresses our people and
strains their uttermost resources and
energies.
The present revenues of the state are
large when compared with her resources.
The state revenue for the last fiscal year,
excluding costs of collection, amounted to
81, 42l ,945.4l while for the same year
the additional sum of $2,217, 538. 40, be-
sides costs of collection, was drawn from
the people in the shape of county, town
ship, road and local school taxes, making
the net aggregate of "a, $3.50, 483 80 paid
yearly in public taxes, while the aggregate
of taxable values stands at 1886, 6S6 ,433 %.
This amount of taxation is exclusive
of the very considerable taxes paid to cor
porations, while a sum far larger than the
amount of all other taxes combined is an
nually drawn from the state by federal
taxation. If full interest should now be
paid upon the debt assumed by the fund
ing act, the amount of state and local taxes
Excluding cost of collection, also federal
and corporation taxes) would neces-
sarilv be increased to the net sum of
So, 1854 .425.77; for the revenues of the last
fiscal year were less than enough to sup
port the government and pay such full in
terest by the sum of 81 1924 ,94l.S7.
Our real situation is not understood
abroad and has been greatly misrepresented. |
Public creditors, without knowledge of our |
peculiar mbarrassments, have not rend-
cred us the appreciation which better in
formation would have commanded. IF a
fair investigation cause surprise, it will not
be on account of what the state has failed
to do, but what she has, in the face of un.
precedented difficulties, accomplished.
Besides enduring tremendous losses in
men, labor and capital besides being
borne down with an enormous private in.
debtedness; besides sustaining onerous
federal taxation and meeting the new and
great charge Of caring for and educating
the suddenly-emancipated colored people
and administering justice among them be-
sides bearing the untimely and harassing
burthens ola badly complicated government
forced upon US by an obnoxious state con-
stitution; without help from any quarter,
and without having added dollar to the
principal of her debt by temporary
loan or otherwise, Virginia has paid out
since the close of the war more than five
millions of dollars upon the principal and
interest of her ante-bellum debt. 1t must
be remembered that it is wasted and mu-
tilated state, shorn of one-third of her ter
ritory and more than half of her taxable |
values, struggling against the force of un-
paralleled distress aud depression, that has |
rendered this firm proof of her determine
ton to maintain her plighted faith. 1t |
may be safely affirmed that no other state
and no considerable municipality carries
an amount of debt so excessively dispro-
portioned to its resources, or has under the |
greatest disadvantages accomplished so
much as Virginia. Notwithstanding any
errors of the past, resulting from haste,
transient excitement, or public distress, a
full investigation is bound to satisfy the
world of Virgnia's willingness and pur-
pose to perform all her obligations to the
utmost extent Of her ability.
The foregoing disclosures, as we'll of the
situation as of our own errors of the past.
is made because necessary to be consid-
cred in deyising measures for extricating
the state from embarrassments in which
these errors have involved it. The prob.
lem you are called upon to solve is, how
to restore the credit of the state without
imposing upon our own people hurthens
impossible to be borne. Any separate
aetinu of ourc muct IF naaaceity h n va c,,rord