Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-09-21
A FAST EBBLNG ID

The petering out of the Adjusters move
ment in this county carries with it n
lesson that will be invaluable to u poll
titions hereafter, and that is that no move
in public affairs that has not for its foun-
dalton the highest principle of honor and
justice, a get any permanent hold on the
hearts of the people. Those gentlemen who
some months ago were talking of the sweep
ing like a prairie fire and all that sort of
glowing imagery, and are now sitting des-
olate without either a candidate or a par
ty, should take this teaching to heart. That
aproposition for forcible adjustment, which
is simply a proposition to rob the public
creditor, and a most shameless one at that,
should have had even the most indirect
countenance from any part Of the people of
Augusta, is due alone to the fact that the
matter has been little understood. How
little, we may appreciate when we know
that many intelligent people are under the
impression, and assert, that the Funding
Bill compounded the interest, when the
record shows that all the past due interest
was aggregated and bonds issued Tor it,
not a dollar oft was even compounded, and
Of the aggregate bonds were issued for on
ly two-thirds, the other third being assigned
to West Virginia.
The Funding Bill agreed with the credi-
tors of Virginia to take bonds for two
thirds of their claims payable in "a years
and look to West Virginia for the other
third payable whenever West Virginia
might pay it. 1t was n of the most ad-
~vantageous- settlements an honest debt
or ever made. And the debtor was honest
and intended to pay, for the legislature
that passed the Funding Bill, recognizing
the fact that Virginia was poor, made a
an honest poor mans arrangement for pay
ing his debts by passing another act au-
thorizing the Board of Public Works to
sell the States interest in her internal i'm
provements and to sell certain public real
estate owned by the State. That is what
an honest poor man desiring to pay what
he owes commonly does, and that is what
that legislature did. The State owned
$500, 900 in the Richmond, Fredericksburg
q Potomac R. r., $500, 900 in the Rich
mond & Danville r. R., $4,000, 600 in the
Chesapeake Il Ohio r. R., $4,000, 900 in the
Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio R. R., and a
large quantity of most valuable real estate
in Richmond which would have brought
100000 All this property together would,
at the rates OF railroad shares then ruling,
have brought at least Sc, 900, 900. The State
would have been paid by the purchasers in
Virginia bonds which would have reduced
the debt so that to-day the whole of it
would not have exceeded $50, 0O0, 900.
But what did the succeeding legislature, the
Anti-Funding legislature, do to carry out
this wise, economical and equitable plan ?
AS is well known it "repealed'' the Funding
Bill-that is it stopped the funding after it
had reached twenty millions, leaving nine
millions out in the cold, and then repealed
the act disposinqofH e States useless property.
In n year afterwards the Chesapeake &
Ohio Company failed with it's s2,2OO,O 900,
and in two years more the Atlantic, Miss
issippi q Ohio went with it's $4,000, 900.
making the States interest in both a dead
loss. That was the wise legislation of the
Anti-Funders, and the State hasn't real
lied anything from those two, or her in
terest in other works. This is so me of the
work of a movement that now asks the
control Of the legislature It is a party
that tookapossession of the government af-
ter their ''repeal" triumph of II, and on
the LIST Of January, 1872, found in the treas
TRY 1880, 900, cash with nearly as much
more due from the collecting officers of the
State, and yet refused to pay $500, 1000 of
interest due by the State. Had they sold
the assets of the State, instead of repeal
ing the bill to do it, there would not to-
day have been one dollar deficit in the
State treasury, and without raising the
tax upon property n cent. They have
run the State down, until to-day there is
not a dollar in the treasury, and there are
millions of dollars of appropriations, voted
by those anti-funders, yet hanging over us,
the money. Aided by weak Funders they
have d~issipated the State revenues in
creating offices, and useless appropriations,
and wasted the States time in local legis-
iation. This is the party that now asks
the people of Virginia for full control of
their legislature. These are matters of re-
cord, not the loose statements of candi-
dates for. public favor, and the figures are
taken from the able speech of Hon. W. A.
ANDERSON, Of Rockbridge, who was a par
ticipant in the legislation which passed the
Funding Bill, and who is not nowa candi-
date for any public position.
Nearly the whole ground upon which the
late Adjusters fought their fight was a de-
nunciation of the Funding Bill, and even
some good debt-payers are laboring under
misapprehension about it. One gentlemen,
and d man given to grave consideration of
all matters affecting the welfare of the
State, says his chief objection is that it
parts with the sovereignty of the State in
giving her creditors the power to secure
their debt. Why, this parting with SOW
ereignty is an everyday occurrence in bust
ness! The United States does it. She
issued $780, 900 900 of treasury notes, ''re-
ceicable IN payment Of all dues and ta1es, ex-
cept debts on imports" The State of Vir-
ginia did it before the war, issuing treasury
notes receivable for all taxes and dues. 1t
is the commonest of mercantile transac-
tions. The ''soyereignty'' is parted with
when the debt is contracted, not when the
creditor is given an honest way to secure
himself. 1t is an old established principle.
In 1857 the Virginia legislature made
claims against the State, which had been
allowed by the county courts, receivable
by sheriffs in payment of taxes; in 1856 the
Virginia legislature made State treasury
notes receivable for taxes, and in 1867 the
Virginia legislature made certificates of
interest receivable for taxes. The principle
of n1Ecat is DC old % ciuiIizatlan and allor