The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-02-09
CosistttussonalAnaen Proposed
The Joint Committee on Constitutional


The Joint Committee on Constitutions
OF abolishine the office of county ,snperin.
/ fttendent Of public free schools and to de.
YnlYe bis duties upon the school board,
,composed OF the school trustees. They
have tlso agreed to report irl favor OF strik-
ing out so much;of the I'd section. OF nrtfele
3 as provides that all elections Stall be by
ballot; and they have agreed to report an
amendment providing that the school-taX
collected In every eounty, city, and town
shall be applied in and for the use Of the
county In which it Is collected Dispatch.
tits hardly necessary to go intoa discus
sion CT the above amendments at this time.
We are strongly in favor OF the second one
proposed, but unalterably opposed to the
last one. We hope and believe the Legisla-
ture will not be so foolish Us to submit the
last one to the people. II such an amend.
Inert should be adopted, we don't hesitate
to say that we would be in favor of abolish
ing the public schools altogether, and we
believe that nine tenths OF the property
holders Of Tidewater Virginia would
concur with us. To tax the property
holders of the Tidewater counties suffi-
ciently to support their own schools
would almost amount to contiscation. 1t
must be remembered tha! large ma
iority OF our population are non-property
holders or negroes, who pay little or no
taxes. In some counties the proportion is
nearly three to one. To tax the property OF
the white people in these counties to edu-
cate the children of these non-taX-paying
negroes would be an act Of great injustice.
The burden would be more than the people
could possibly bear. Even now, with the
6In Cf,fns ,o
schools are not kept going much more than
half the time, and are little better than a
nuisance. What, then, would be the effect
Of withdrawing that help from us?
Tho people Of Tldewater are in nowise
responsible for this condition Of things, and
were no more capable Of preventing it than,
the people OF other sections of the State;
and it would be ungenerous, not to say un-
Just. in the more favored regions to en-
deayor to throw the misfortunes Of war
upon US. We know that no such PROPOSE
tion as this could have emanated from a
representative from Tidewater. We hear
great deal of talk about the "bloated
bendholders and "the unreasonable
creditors" &c., but it strikes US that it
is the prosperous debtors who are making
all the fuss. The sections that received
the most and were most benefited by
reason OF the public debt are clamoring
now for "readinstment," or reputation,
while the Tidewater section, which has
never received anything in the way Of pub
lie improvements, and which was opposed
to the creation of the debt at the time, is
now in favor of honestly meeting it.
Although more prosperous, and exempt
from the weight that oppresses us and
which retards our prosperity, our more
favored brothers are not only trying to
avoid the payment of debt created chiefly
for their beneft-the. fruits Of which they
are now enioying-but they are trying to
fix upon us the calamities Of the war. We
advise them to be sure that it does not re-
coil upon their own heads Vest Point
Stdr