The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-12-29
Rifl.llplll lis{ah
;;s, ,l,,, i .DEGEMBER 90, 1877,
s,nnr.oan 3 Fspuiiatsun.

The wonderful resources OF the country
within the boundary OF the United S al..
are ever exciting the admiration OF traveller cue
and citizen. We gave YESTERDAY, as g mat
ter Of news. q statement that Iowa naa .
surface OF arabic land worth VI, gu, Ooo.VVo !:
enough to pay the national debt. Our eA-
. creme western State, California, which Mr.
WEpsrRa In 1850 declared 70 be incapable
NJ nro<sncinp &c one fourth or perhaps
tenth ,,afys OF the agricultural products OF
Illinois. produced In 1875 $4,000, 600 In
vasne Of wheat, while Illinois produced
only sel, 100, 300 worth. With all our pre-
sent known wealth and resources, does not
this com parison Of two States show us that
the undeveIoped wealth is beyond the esti-
mates Of the most sanguine? Mr.. WEB
srER, looking at California, beholdinng
Its mountains. and regarding it only
rs o god-producing State. deprecated its
agricultural value. But bis prediction Is
not thirty years old before it is falslned,
while, besides her agricultural superiority
over Illinois, California has yielded to the
United States since her acquisition in 1S4S
SI,064,6ss. 502 Of gold. How contemplate
IN comparison is the production OF Illinois,.
And yet Illinois is magnifcently rich and
abundantly happy State.
But all the territory OF the, United States
is blessed by Providence with abundant re-
sources, and the wonder is how it is posi-
BILE that the idea that any part OF such a
country could dream OF repudiating public
charlottesville dream Of uDwillingness
to pay back money borrowed for making
public improvements; indeed, for the pub
lie good. This idea was not born OF neces-
sity, and beyond question it could not have
been the offspring of honesty. Never,
never, never! 1t came Of extravaganza
and profigacv.
It is amazing that in such q land it should
have occurred to any one that it was neces-
sary for want OF means that there should be
apnblic Delinquency to meet the Just claims
for money loaned for the public wants. 1t is
ashame and reproach to the whole land that
such delinquency should occur in any part
OF it. In all the world there is no other
land so blessed Of Heaven.
It should be considered as scandal upon
the whole nation that any State IN the
Union should stand before the world as
bankrupt. To us it is notifying in q most
painful degree, because in contrasting the
northern and southern States no northern
States have ever repudiated their obliga-
tions, whilst the repudiating southern
States are not few. We in the South have
objected to the northern States for many OF
their peculiarities that were opposed to the
generous impulses which we admired and
which we thought belonged to manliness
and honor; but one thing we cannot say is
that they have proved recreant to pa6ttc
obligations. What in reply can they say to
us? This is the grief OF every high-mlnd-
ed southern gentleman.
And yet what right has any man IN Vlr-
ginia to say that Virginia cannot pay None
whatever. She can pay. Has she any more
right than any other State in this richest
country on the globe to say that she cannot
pay her debts Not particle. She may not
be as rich as some States, but she is rich
enough to pay, and it is untrue to say that
she is not. It is suggestion OF pure dema-
gogism; it is the dissemination Of a prin-
ciple that seeks to exonerate State from
an obligation that all moral laws, all honor,
require her TO pay.
When we consider the Puritan States and
their public faith, and look upon the loose
sense Of public obligation in the land OF
chivalry, we feel sadness we cannot eX-
press, and we deplore what we consider the
dementation-the ballucination-which has
come upon that which we have idolized
through all our past life.
We trust that Virginia, whom we have
revered as the noblest OF States, will be
rescued from the degradation that would
come from infdelity 10 her solemn pledges.
We feel that she will be; but it will require
the truest devotion Of her true sons that
ever was displayed. Can they not sustain
her and keep her from falling in the politico-
moral scale beneath the dignity Of the New
ENGLAND States?