The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-08-01
.. Ciyis" ON the Public Debt.

Sluld iahs
For sale by RANDOLPH & ENGLISH.
-
q Ciyis" ON the Public Debt.
- No. /.
Editors UispQtch Fully convinced that
the Commonwealth OF Virginia can meet all
the obligations OF her .plighted faith, and
become, as the necessary result, not only
Dilrer in morals, but also stronger in her
financial and industrial resources, beg
little space in your columns for few short
articles, to indicate how we may reach
consulnnration so dcvoutly to he wished.
What shall say will appear, / nm sure,
reasonable and practicable to those who re-
gard with horror the idea Of repudiating,
or attempting to repudiate, a debt which
was fairly contracted and by competent all-
thoritv, and which has given US as its pur-
chase improvements and institutions so val
uable and benetcent that no sane man would
be willing to give them up if thereby the obli-
cation could be annulled. | address myself
to those who are really anxious about this
matter oil our Indebtedness. so important
that nil other questions now occupying the
public mind pale into ~insignticance; not
TO that class who aYoW their unwillingneSs
to pay, nor to that larger class, more dam
gerous and equally obnoxious to censure,
who diSclaiming the idea OF reputation are
vet unwilling to make any sacrifices, to sub
nit to any retrenchment or public eXpenal-
turc, and are far more tleXterouS in finding
difficulties and presenting obstacles than in
discovering just, and honorable means and
measures Of relief. II we really wish to
pay we can do It: if we wish to find argu-
nlents against this course We cali set to our
selves no task SO easy. ~. Il .... .r...
The only argument for reputation, or
any e,lphemism for that term, that demands
attention, is that we are Il conquered pco-
pie; that the conqueror has destroyed the
consideration on which our credit was
based, and that he inherits our liabilities.
TO this it is sufficient to answer that. Viz
ginia, accepting the stuation,' sought re-
storation to the Union; that in her readmis.:
sion she regaiped all the power and privi-
Ieges and incurred all the obligations OF
sovereignty; that submitting to her losses
as the result-the punishment. il you
please-of abortiye war, in resaining her
old place in the Union she came back intact
i'm her freedom to commence her new career
at the point which she had reached at the
time Of her ill-starred secession; that in so
returning she stood the peer OF any other
State, committed to the same duties,
euually free 10 direct her internal econ
omy as might best accord with her in
terests and her honor. The argument,
to be effective, must show that. Virginia
was not only conquered, but held rs con-
uncred territory; or that in her rehabilta-
ton immutable conditions We're imposed
upon her which left her manacled, which
paralyzed her power, which rendered the
development OF her physical resources inn
possible, and so relieved her Of anteccdcnt
obligations. The Constitution under which
we were readmitted did, 1t true, coerce
our freedom In its adoption we were sub
jected to sort OF indirect compulslon; but
we have changed it, and can change IT at
pleasure, and ought to change it still more
in order to adjust it to the wants and con-
tlition Of our people, to their sentiments and
traditions, but specially to relieve capital
and labor alike OF the eXpenslyeneSs or It's
cumbrous and complicated machinery.
| There are two ways which, used con-
Jointly, present the only proper means OF
liuuidating financial obligations, whether
public or private: We must increase our
income to the maximum and reduce OK
penses to the minimum. The first process
has been pretty well exhausted. The taxa
ltion on property-State, municipal, and
| Federal-already to great extent has
crippled industry and reduced the taxable
values of the Commonwealth. Men, will
not work when they know that the
| fruits of their labor will be absorbed
by exorbitant taxation. Low taxes yield
more revenue than high, because industry
is encouraged and protected and the
general wealth thereby increased. Unne-
cessarily high taxation is downright COM
| munism. TO find new subjects Of taxation
and carry the rate to the EXTREMIST limit,
is the highest ambition Of Virginia states
manship. Enough, and more than enough,
in this direction has already been accom-
pIished. Indeed, tue supreme need to-day
OF our State government is not an increased,
but diminished revenue. Ii our Stale
debt shall happily have the effect OF forcing
us to proper 'retrenchment of our public
expenditures, it will prove an unmitigated
! blessing. Is rctrenchment possible? In
hesitatingly. I answer aftirmatively. Let
us see how easy a thing it is, il only; we are
willing to do 1t. ,., .', ..,..
The average expenses per annum OF our
State government, including appropria-
tions for education, from 1850 to 1860, were
S5SS, 900. The same expenses reached in
llS74 the enormous figure OF s., 1000
| nearly three times as much. II when we
were rich and powerful it required but lit
| tie more than half a million to: administer
our government, certainly now, when we
are extremely poor and have less territory
and less population, that sum ought to be
abundant. What would we think Of the
honesty Of man who should plead his poY-
erty as q bar to the payment OF his debts if
| it was known, that he expended upon his
| family three times as much, as when he
was rich and prosperous and his family
| larger? Just that thing. tho State of
| Virginia is doing to-day. II such conduct
is ineXcusable on the part OF an individual,
it is simply intolerable on the pant of a
State. An individual may steal, and iniurc
ioniy himself and family. but when the
State, which to the citizen is the great en-
bodiment Of inYiolable Justice, his exem-
plar in. morals, the inflexible ayenger of
crime. becomes itself a criminal, then it in
vites,. universal theft and robbery. The
very fountain OF justice is poisoned, all the
bulwarks OF society are broken dsWupand
chaos comes again i: candidly believe'that
the greatest blessing that could come to- the
people OF Virginia. blessing alike to thelr
morals and to their material thrlft-Wouio
be the reduction Of the expenses OF their
governments to $500, 900 or less. CrES.
EcoNT1NUED TOMORROW s:.
. SporsYry,ANIaCoUN TY.-The' Fredercks-