The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-09-20
tFrom the Rockingham Register
''To Conservative Voters"
.yh.!l

confess have been gratified and flatter-
| ed by the desire expressed by many OF my
county people, as well as conservative
Voters, - that l announce myself candi-
| date for a seat In the next House of Delega-
| ties. 1 hail this call as the advent of de-
cline IN mere party strife, (Which has brought
| our State to financial RUM and the harbin-
| ger of better and closer socia! intercourse
amongst our citizens.
conservative Voters" do President Hay
es no more than justice, when they say,
that ''his policy of Cancellation, Eindaess and
fairness, has done much to obliterate party
lines and distinction. When such nen as
Lewis E. Harvie of Amelia county ignore
party, for the good of the old Common
wealth, it is the foreshadowing of "a better
time coming" He has consented to be a
no party candidate for the Legislature. I
am asked to give my views upon the State
debt question. can only touch upon the
financial condition, and suggest few modes
OF relief. In the first place we must get rid
of the funding bill, which lis . fraud, and
was carried through the Legislature by brib-
cry and corruption. We must ask the Courts
to review their decision, and we can prove
that money was used to get the bill passed.
If the Courts refuse to do this, then the Leg
islature can enact q tax bill fixing the rate
dollars, to be discharged by the payment on
the 1st day of December-or some other fix
ed time-of thirty cents, payable in curren
cy. Still another way to get rid Of the cOu-
pons, is to change the Constitution, and
then let the legislature fix the tax.-..Where
there is will there is a way"
The present rate of taxation has reduced
the price Of land to one half Its original val
ue and tax sufficient to pay the interest on
the bonds, and create sinking fund, would
ruin every farmer in. the State. Paying the
interest IS not paying the debt.
The first step towards prosperity Is set
Element OF this knotty question. Thousands
of acres of good land are lying idle in Vir-
ginia because the owners have no capital to
inclose and improve. Hundreds of our most
industrious and energetic young men have
gone to seek homes in a more prosperous
country, and hundreds more are striving to
get means of leaving tax-ridden Virginia.
Whenever you hear any one assert that
Virginia can and must pay the whole debt,
you may rest assured that he is not bond
holder, or that he does not meet his pecun-
larry obligations, public or prioate.
A very large part OF the property upon
which the ability of the State to pay was
based, has been taken from US by the United
States, and Virginia has been despoiled of
one third of her territory. This is not the
Virginia that created the debt, therefore I
say there is no justice in impovershing q
large majority of our citizens to pay aprivi-
legged class.
You are threatened with the Federal
Courts if you do not provide the means to
pay the last dollar. This sounds little like
Federalism. Don't be scared, the United
States government has enough to do to pro-
vide the means to pay its own debt, and
there is no danger Of a United States mar
shall selling the property of the citizens to
pay the OndholderS. | want some of those
who make the threat Of compelling payment
by the general government to tell us how it
is to be done. Will the United States mar
shall sell the land of the citizens OF Virginia?
guess not.
The men who contracted this debt are
dead, and they left no estates.
The only repudiationists in Virginia are
those who have already repudiated more
than one half the bonds and contend that
the holder of the funded debt must have six
per cent, and the peelers nothing. Is this
their boosted honor? If we owe the funded
debt, we owe the unfunded part, and there
is no escape from this conclusion. These
guardians of the honor OF Virginia, are only
honest when the law makes them. The ad-
justers are honest and are willing to pay all
they are able, say three per cent on the whole
funded and unfunded debt. The bonds are
generally held by men who paid from ten to
forty cents in the dollar for them, and now
demand one hundred cents in payment.
The issue has to be met, and the sooner
the better. The debt is increasing at the
rate of about one hundred thousand dollars
a month, and it requires no prophet to fore
tell the result of the do-nothing policy. 1t is
not just to the taxpayer or the bond-h0lder
that settlement be longer delayed.
The first step towards prosperity is set
Element. The cry of silence ! in order to
keep the party together has ceased to be po-
tent. The people have seen that party spirit
has brought them to the verge OF ruin, and
they are tired Of being taxed to keep up OPP
position to an imaginary enemy.-There is
no Republican party in Virginia, and thanks
to President Hayes, there never will be
again. There are only two parties in Vir-
ginia now, the Funders and the anti-FuRd-
ers.
There are only two classes who's produce
anything and consequently only two who
pay taxes, the farmer and the mechanic.
If you tax the lawyer he taxes his client,
the docter taxes his patient, the merchant
taxes his customers. 1t all comes out OF the
ground and the manual labor in the end.
| have made this letter much too Tonga
close Dy reminding you Clat you MuSt Oe
vigilant. You have to contend against the
energy and the money Of the bond holders.
By the use of money AIN. with the help OF a
carpet bag governor, the funding bill was
passed.
Thanking my fellow citizens for their
good opinions, respectfully decline to be a
| candidate for your suffrages.
JOHN F. LEWIS.
Lynnwood, August "a, 1877.
One death and three new cases of yellow
| fever were rennrted at Earna ndina ElArdia