The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-08-09
on,,,ous past and Present.

Tn General Mahone's pamphlet In reply
TO John Collinson's report to the consoil-
dated bondhoiders OF the Atlantic, Mlssls-
sippi and Ohio railroad, November 7, $780,
we find, on page Al, the following para-
graphs: f''. ,.. on
"Anv charge that have ever given en-
conrapement to the policy of state rel.iiula-
ton is utterly and unquaitiedly false
s.Tbere lives no man who can trllthlully
COW that. he ever heard me give utterance 10
n sinrle word which could be tortured INTO
the Population of Virginlas Just ooilga-
G These utterancrs, it will be observed by
tho reader. were made before General Ma
hone hnd declared himself candidate for
Governor. Then it was necessary TO pre-
serve unimpaired the honor and integrity
~ Virginia., for these bondholders would
have looked with no degree OF allowance
upon any action limiting at a Reputation OF
the lust debt OF Virginia. General Mahone
or any other man would have sunk into in
significance before these capitalists. whose
millions were invested in our State, il this
dishonorable' proposition, had been limited
at in their presence; and, knowing this,
General Malone promptly denied that he
had given 90 encouragement to the policy OF
State repudiation," and pronounced any
such charge against him as "unqualifiedly
false" =.
The scene now changes, and the audience
is not made up Of English bondholders,
from whom General Malone had borrowed
money, but it is composed of taxpayers,
who are asked to give him their sutfrages, to
vindicate his management OF the consoli-
dated bankruptcy, because he can show
them ga new way to pay old debts" and
thus relieve them from a portion OF their
present taxes and prevent the necessity for
increase in the future. How this is to he
done we let General Malone. who so in
disnantly denied in November, 1876, that
he had ever given encouragement to State
Reputation, answer for himself. In his
letter Of July, 1877, to the people OF Viz
ginia, he says, in reference to the payment
of the State debt, much OF it due in Eng
land, we should "Seek and insist upon,
URGE, and, il necessary, DEMAND a compro-
ulisc and reimbursement of the debt Of the
Commonwealth
Above we have two distinct views put
forth by the same individual in less than a
year. With one class it is necessary to treat
the idea of Reputation with scorn and con-
tempt; for The other it is latitudnous, and
may be regarded rs for or against the pay
ment of.tlIe State debt, unless we take the
true legal definition Of "demand (which
is given by one OF his immediate organs-tO
'|MAKE the creditors agree to reddnst-
ment!" .... ."r.< '.. ......
Here, then, i. IN inconsistency which
must be reconciled and the people naturally
desire to know if General Malone, candi-
date for their sllffrages, holds the same
opinions to-day that he expressed to the
bondholders last year, when he said:
"There lives no man who can truthfully
say that he ever heard me give utterance
to single word which could be tortured
into the reputation of Nirginia's Just obi
cations" ,,... 1884,
He made no classification OF exception
then. VIII he step before the people and tell
them now whether we are to meet these OBJ
legations squarely, or whether we are to
make our creditors agree to a readjust-
ment p Norfolk Ledger.