Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-09-06

s|s&e AStaptFhTpF+
STAUNTON. VA.
FRIDAY MORNING. SEPT. 6. 1873.
THE STATE AND NATIONAL RE-
ADJUSTMENT.
1t was not 50 much the inc0nsistencyaOf
the "Virginian" that we desired to call at
tention to some days ago, as our neighbor
seems to think. It was to the rapid and
natural spread of Virginia adjustment
teachings to the settlement of our nat ional
In our own congressional dis
trict so smooth has been the road from |
one to the other that the most prominent re-
Messrs. Massey and Paul have
declared in terms that the adj ustment of
the State debt of Virginia is only a part OF
the adjustment of the national debt. How
similar the reasons given by the Virginia
Adjuster and the national greenbacker we
shall see:
q. The Virginia Adjuster claims that
the people of the State are overburdened
by taxes and the claim of the creditor for
his money is extortion. The Greenbacker
claims that the people of the country are
oppressed by the present Federal tax which
draws all the money into the treasury and
that the bonds must be paid off in paper,
and that paper be kept in circulation
among the people. Both plead, without
proving, the necessities of the people.
b. The Adjusters claim that the Fund
ing bill was not the will of the people and
was passed in the interest Of the bondhol-
ders by corruption in the legislature in
1870. Tho Greenbackers claim that the
law passed by Congress in 1869 making the
bonds payable in coin was not the will Of
the people and was passed by the efforts
and at the instance of the bOndhOlders.
C. The Adjusters say that there is moth
ing binding in the contract of 1870 when
the people do not choose there shall be,
and the Greenbackers repeat this asser-
ton with regard to the payment of the ma
tional debt in coin.
d. Both meet on the common ground
that the people are not able to bear the
burdens which will, they claim, be imposed
by compliance with the contract.
Now no competent authority has de-
cided for either, the last proposition, which
is the only reasonable excuse for setting
aside either contract. The State Of Vir-
GINA has more developed resources to-day
than she has had for thirteen years. It has
more now than in 1874. when our neigh
Dor was insisting on the payment of the
debt and insisting with vigor as extracts
from its columns have shown, but the
stumbling block in the way was the timid-
ity Of vacillating politicians of the domi-
nant party which, the "Virginian" truly
says reiterated that the revenues derived
from the present State taxation were all
that could be raised and that it was against
public policy to attempt to impose more"
If any men ought to love the Conservative
party of Virginia the Adjusters ought to
be the men. No party we think would
have been more tenderly and mistakenly
short sighted than it. It would not raj Sc
the taxes to carry out the solemn pledg es
the State has made. 1t was personal poll
cy not public policy that was under con-
sideration. The politicians had found
hobby and they rode it until they got
large and demoralized following: it has not
been the first volition of the people Of this
State that has forwarded this movement.
The epidemic spread !; what appeal more
popular to a people when plausibly put
than proposition to lessen their burdens?
and at last the highest expression of Con-
servative opinion, a State convention, gave
voice to the tripartite idea that repudi-
alton was wrong, that the debt must be
paid and the taxes must not be raised to
pay it. The people almost unanimously
adopted the first and divided out on the
other two. Now our neighbor has changed
front from debt payer to an adjuster in
State matters to prevent matters going
from bad to worse. Suppose similar fate
threatens the payment of the National debt
in coin as it is solemnly contracted to be,
does the "Virginian" propose to give in to
the popular current and sanction wrong
because for any cause it has gotten the ma
jority. 1t tried according to it's own state.
ment to have the State debt paid accord
ing to contract, but when the dominant
party'' failed to settle it it gave its as
sistance to party that avowed its de-
termination not to comply with the obi
CATION. Does it propose to follow that
course with the national debt? There
is an unmistakeable clamor among the
people. an unmistakeable profusion of ap-
plause when the speakers tell their wild
greenback theories. Does our neighbor if
this party should get in the ascendency
propose to surrender the principle and
make the best Of 1T +? 1t has unmistakea-
bly, committed itself in other days to both
the right and ability of Virginia to pay
her debt as ascertained by the funding bill
and is now as clearly committed to an ex-
act compliance with our National obliga-
ton, Twill it 60 over the same ground with
regard to that and sanction any action of
the "people'' or the dominant party
without regard to the moral obligation Of
the matter or to the material benefits of
maintaining our credit 81
Our neighbor asks this question:
What resemblance is there in this picture
to that of the national finances? None
whatever. The national debt has been de-
creased nearly five hundred millions OF
dollars within the past ten years, and the
annual interest decreased at an average of
$31 900, 900, while the debt of Virginia has
increased at the rate of nearly million a
year for the past seven years, by default in |
interest. The national credit has been ad-
vanced and upheld, until it is above that
Great Britain. The credit Of Virginia has |
been reduced to zero, with reputation lost
and ruin threatening. 1t is to maintain the
credit of the one at it's present high stan
L. oG 10