The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-10-20

Year's productions be so applied 1t would
| pay everg dollar OF our whole debt. princi-
| pal and interest. And yet, in the face
OF all these facts, known to all the world.
your forcibte adjusters arc for cosrclng and
compellia our Just creditors by hostile
legislation to stand and tLeLiUer; to surren-
der their present bonds and take others Tor
qreaty less amount; and their only plea Is
our extreme poverty. No, we won't raise
$3.50. 900 out Of whiskey or from our pro-
perty, suv these gentlemen. Rather than
let the Moffett law stand, or rather than con-
tribute ten cents more in taxes, some drUW
dodqer is to arise amongst them who will de-
wise scheme OF legislation to ctrcumUent
a solemn act OF Assembly and tue deliberate
Judgment of our Supreme Court OF APP
peals-some scheme to force the creditors to
take less than what he thinks Just and fair
and honorable-less than what the world
will say is Just and fair and honorable.
Who are the creditors OF Virginia! Who
are these monsters Of iniquity? Who are
the 6lodted bondholderS who have the dear
old State BY the throat, and are sucking and
exhausting her very last drop OF blood?
Who are these persons who are derlded ana
spit upon and cursed as vampires! Would
| YOU believe ii, these are the persons who
let us have their gold years ago, and for
whom we have done nothing, or next to
nothing, for the last fifteen years. 1t Is true
that we answer to their earnest appeals. In
1856 we passed an act OF Assembly giving
them few more bonds; and it is true that
the people, in answer to their grlevouS
complaint, did, in July. 1863, say the debt
was all right, and would be attended to. 1t
| hat; in, "a (,pnpr1l Assembly
did make contract with many OF them,
conditioned upon their giving up one
third of their debt and the postponement Of
its payment for thirty-four years, that they
should have six per cent. thereafter on
this debt from which they have not real
lied 5 per cent, and are forced to sell their
interest to our taxpayers or get nothing.
Oh, but many OF our creditors have had to
sell their bonds. Yet, our neglect or re-
fusal to give them fair and just dues have
compelled many OF them to sell. Is that any
excuse in law or morals for us to deny the
payment Of orr bonds? We have had the
full value OF these bonds, and used it for
our wants and our purposes; and under
what law, human or divine, can we, with
any show Of justice, or honesty. or honor
deny the debt? Our debt was created by
some one hundred different acts OF Assem-
bly, OF your representatives, with y0nr con-
sent, authority. and appreciation. In the
language OF the Hon. William a. An
derson, in his recent admirable adj
dress at Lexington to the citizen OF
Rockbridge: "This debt was originally
created for the purpose OF building rail-
roads, canals. turnpikes and other works OF
internal improvements. The State had re-
ceived a full equivalent for every bond she
had issued. The fact was that 800 in gold
had been required to be paid into the State
Treasury for every 800 OF bonds given,
upon the confidence that she would never
prove false to her promises; upon the most
solemn and oit-repcatcd assurance given by
her Legislature and her Executives, in
every conceivable form OF words which
should render such an assurance binding,
that the last dollar OF the money loaned and
the interest thereon would be faithfully and
promptly paid; trusting in Virginia honor,
this money had been lent her. With the
money SO borrowed, the railroads, the
canals, the turnpkes OF the State had been
built; all these we still possess and enjoy.
What would Virginia be to-day without
the railroads, canals, and turnpikcs, which
had been built with the money represented
BY these bonds? Blot out and destroy these
great Improvements and her noble institu-
tons OF learning and charity, and she would
roll back civilization century, and reduce
the State to condition OF extreme pov-
erty. il not OF barbarism."
What has been the treatment o. these
creditors: Up to the breaking out OF the
war they received their interest regularly;
it never entered the brain of any reSpecta-
: BILE man to deny the awiulness, the justice,
and the propricty OF this debt. But when
the war broke out all OF our payments
ceased, and from that day to this we have
doled out to them the hardest justice on the
smallest scale. These are the long-sutfering
and hardly dclt-with creditors, who now
God save the mark-are to be forced, are to
be cocrced, il they be not willing to de-
liver up their bonds, to have the amount
scaled and cut down. How much? Who
shall say: Only the debtor? He and he
alone is to say how much is to come Off,
Unless the forcibie dTuSters mean to cut
deep and despoil the creditor largely the
game is not worth the candle; and il they
do mean to do this in spite Of and in the
face of an honest public judgment, we shall
be condemned throughout chriStendom rs
regulators. Can we afford to do this
thing? Will it not recoil on us and upon
vast numbers OF our citizens who are en-
tensiycly engaged in business on borrowed
capital gotten out OF the State!
Can any such transaction be justified I'M
der any circumstances and by any plea?
What hunt down the man whose money
you have gotten on sacred promises, which
YOU have used, and the fruits Of which you
and your children will ever enjoy? Hunt
him down and force him to take greatly
less than he aud the public thinks Just, and
your contract calls for.
You, proressed Christians, would this be
in accordance with any Christian doctrine?
You, fathers OF bright young lads at home,
will you usher them into life with any such
example OF breach OF faith as this?
No, no, my friends. This new doctrine
of f0rcible adjustment is too near akin to
Reputation ever to grow on our soil. Re-
pudiation-as is said by one OF our ablest
journals in an adjoining State" Repudia-
ton is a tangible, deliberate, wilful fraud,
and the time has gone by when the public
can afford to call it by any other name"
Imagine our dead Lee, or Jackson, or
Maury, or the other high type OF the noble
Virginiau; imagine our living Early, Hol-
liday, Stuart, Letcher, Kemper, Daniel,
Tucker, Smith, Talaferro, Goode, Hunton,
| the Lees, or Marye, or Moncure, or Chris
tian, or Penn, or Meredith, or Payne, or
the hosts Of the grand Virginia gentlemen
+ whom | could enumcrate; imagine them
: hunting down the Virginia creditor to force
| hin, to scale and cut down his fair and
Just demand against his wishes and his
will. Will you do what these men would
, have blushed to do? Why, all the world
would cry shame upon us for such forced
/ settlement as this. There is not a journal
I | tI,,t