The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-06-14
The Funding Bill.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has decided
that the act under which about SIG, 900, 900
bonds were issued in 1869 in aid of railroads
was unconstitutional, and that the bonds
were illegal.
This, doubtless, will be called by some,
reputation. Whatever it may be called, it
is right. Where fraud enters into contract
it vitiates it, and makes it null and void.
For a similar reason, the Virginia Funding
Bill should have been pronounced inopera-
tive. 1t is true the question of fraud was
not presented to the Court at the time the
Funding Bill was considered. But it should
have been. 1t is believed by many and
known by some that the Funding Bill was
passed through the means of bribery and
corruption. The fact that the matter was
nominally investigated by subsequent lcgis-
lature, and passed by, does not relieve the
bill OF its fraudulent faint. 1t is know n that
the Committee did not use the power con-
ferred upon it to probe the matter. jenkins
confessed that, as lobbyist, he had re-
ceived 3d. 900, but declined to detail how he
had used lt-pleading the privileges of an
attorney. 1t was in the power of the Com
mittee to compel him to do so. Jenkins
defiance, however, triumphed, for the SIM
pie reason that he knew neither party would
insist upon going to extremes. Democrats
and Republicans stood upon the ragged
edge; jenkins boldly defied, and the Com
mittee shrahk from its duty.
Others were known to have been active in
the lobby, and free with money. But the
investigation amounted to nothing. There
was no one familiar with cotemporaneous
circumstances and events that was not con-
WINGED that the Funding Bill was corrupt
job, and Its passage secured by bribery and
corruption but these facts were never judi
cially ascertained, because the necessary
agencies were never employed to ascertain
them. The question of fraud was not before
the Court. There were too many, it was
believed, interested in not having it there.
Bond spectators and their paid attorneys
swarmed through Richmond, crowded the
lobbies, and button .holed and hob-nobbed
with members of the legislature. The bonds
Of the State had been bought up for one
third of their face value by these spectators.
The passage OF the bill run up the price fifty
per cent. Fortunes were po,.ketcd, and the
people left with the bag to hold, and are
now tantalized with the assurance that the
Funding Bill, thus passed, like the laws of
the Medes and Persians, is irreversibe and
inexorable.
When these facts are known to the peo-
pie, is it any wonder that they writhe under
the wrong inflicted upon them?
The bill funded the interest, amounting to
some $15, 000, 900, and now the State is held
not only for the original principal bearing
six per cent. interest, but interest upon the
interest. Instead Of $50, 900, 900, as original
principal bearing six per cent. interest, it is
$45, 600, 900 at six per cent. that Virginia is
legally bound for. The bond Spectator re-
allied double on his investment. The means
used to give him this advantage were cor
rupt, and we'll known to be so by those ac-
quainted with the influences that were
brought to bear in passing the Funding Bill.
The people had nothing to do with it. They
were deluded with the assurance that it was
all right-that they had gotten quit Of the
s15, 100000 assigned to West Virginia. and
that SO cents tax on the 800 Of real and
personal property would provide for the
part the legislature had assumed for them to
pay. We know how it stands now. It is
Tor the people to say how long it shall stand
in that way.