The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-03-21
The Duty of the People.

Now that the Funding bill apologists and
defenders have surrendered the substance
of that enactment in the new Funding bill
passed by the Legislature just adjourned, III
striking out the coupon feature, IL would
be well enough for them TO think over the
ISLANDERS they have sp;ead broadcast against
the people of Virginia. They have arrayed
figures to show that the debt of Virginia
was created to build railroads, charitable
asylums, monuments to patriotism, etc.,
and published to the world that it was the
purpose Of the readjusters to "repudiate"
that debt, while still enjoying and benefit
ting by the results of its expenditure. We
want them to point to the first proposition,
or the first intimarlon of a proposition from
the readjusters to ''repudiate" a single dol
lar of that debt. No one has suggested or
thought of suggesting an assault upon the
principal of the obligation as assumed in
1871. In view of the nature-the extreme
harshness and injustice Of the settlement OF
lS71-a settlement conceived and consum-
mated without the knowledge or consent Of
the people-requiring compound interest,
wien the State was not able to pay the simple
interest-it has been proposed and insisted
upon to readjust the interesr-not the prin-
cipal-so as to make it equal to 6 per cent.
upon the original debt, with non-interest
bearing certificate for the accrued interest.
That is sll the 'srepudiation'' that has ever
been thought of. 1t is the same kind of ''le-
pudiation" that has been carried out by
some Of the grandest people Of the earth.
England has done it, and the United States
is doing it. II the English holders of Vir-
ginia securities could realize to-day dollar
for dollar upon their bonds, they could not
re-invest it at home to better advantage, in
national securities, than the readjusters pro-
pose to pay them. Nor could the American
holders of Virginia securities do better. In
England; the standard rate of interest is
per cent. In the United States, the gov
ernment is fixing it at $3.50 and per cent.
Where is the crime in Virginia, in her pow
erty and prostration, proposing the same,
or something similar? And it is for this
that the people have been stigmatized at
home and abroad as ''repudlatiOnsts ~ As
we have often written, all they desired was
to ssre2udiate'' the Infamous Funding bill,
and the no less infamous demagogues who
have beer clamoring about Estate Eonor'
and Estate tradltions,'' while the people
have been groaning under the burthens the
corrupt and disgraceful administration OF
State affairs has forced upon them. There
| is not Stale from the Potomac to the Gulf
! which has been more outrageously despoiled
than Virginia. In every channel where cor
ruption could permeate it has festered and
polluted. Yet the people have been deluded
and deceived as to what was going on by
the cry of s'honor! ~ traditions - and the
integrity Of the ''great Conservative party :"
They have awakened to a sense of the
wrongs they have suffered-the terrible pen
atty they have paid as the vassals of machine
politics-and cannot again be made to lick
the hand that has smtten them. A bank
rupt treasury, protested credit, and their
| hard earnings, paid for the support of gov
eminent, squandered in almost every con-
ceivable method the devices Of designing
men could uggest-industry Frustrated and
values deprecated, and all as the price of
| their slayish submission to the political mar
plots, who care nothing for them, except as
| they serve for the selfish purposes of those
who have deceived them. Already the cry
of the ''great Conservative party'' has gone
out, and that it ''must be preserved For
| what? 10 repeat the wrongs and outrages
which are now consuming the very yitals of
the State aud sapping the substance of the
people? s..
We warn the people against this studied
purpose to deceive. We have championed
their cause under many adverse circum
stances, and are willing to stand by them to
the last in their struggle against the cor
rqpt rings and selfish schemes of partizans !,
to the ead that they may be emancipated
from the rule of the plotting demagogues.
| They however must be viglant. Fhey have
great work yet to perform, which will re-
quire CONCERT, will and activity. They
must teach these men who have slandered
and maligned them that they have sense
of right and will maintain their seit-respect,
and that they will not again allow them
selves to be dragooned into the petty
schemes of those who aim at nothing but
selfish ends. The old State must be righted
up. The people must assert their right to
| control their own destiny. The rings and
the ring leaders must be taught that their
day has passed, and the great interest of the
Commonwealth must be considered as par
amount to parties and partizans. They
made grand struggle last fall, but the re-
suit was not all that it should have been.
The epithets hurled at them of ''repudia-
| tionists" and straiters to their State,' had
1 its effect LIP some cases, but this cannot be
| again. Fhe position Of the feadjusters and
their arguments have been vipdieated by
the final action of the Legislature.
The Funding bill has been repudiated in
the plan OF readjusting the interest pro-
posed. But that is not the last of it.
| The creditors may not accept it. It may,
indeed, be tortured into q device to gain
time. to quiet the fears of the people, and
to steal march unawares. This debt
question must be settled finally and forever,
and as the people propose. The struggle
must be kept up-the issue held up in bold
relief. and no abatement of zeal tolerated
| until the end ID consummated.