Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1879-10-15

1871, as SIaleu ny tnc OeCOHu A"N''N'i
Senate Doc. 1877 and '7S, No. 25, page
p as follows:
Did Registered and Coupon debt .t3a, ,SOi, TOTO
lanes River and Kanawha Bonds . -,
guaranteed by State. ............ l9', ,ioo'0'
Did James River coupon stock assum- =.
ed by State. e..............'..'''...'' '''VVO.OO
Total principal Of old Debt. $50, ,59s 1910
Besides this, there were bonds created
by act of March ID, 1866, for war inter
est. This ,cas done by the Pierpoint
Government and cannot properly be re-
yarded as part of the State debt. Take
one-thlrd of this debt (of this whole old
State) off for West Virginia, and we
have as the principal of the public debt
proper of the present State of Virginia.
prior to the operation OF the Funding
Bill. the sum of 500, 300, ,224.74. Dlr-
ing the war, Virginia paid every dollar
Of interest on the whole State debt which
her creditors did apply for and would
receive in such money as she was then
able to collect from her people. That
discharged much Of the technical and all
of the moral Obligation for war interest.
From January lst, 1866, TO the passage
of the Funding Bill in 1871, this State
deprived as she had been OF Constitu-
Oonal Government, power and respon-
slbjlity) paid interest amounting IN tile
AGGREGATE to $2,5S2, 924 Gl. Surely that
discharged the whole moral obligation
for interest during the period OF recon-
1t amounted to about . per
centum per anuum on her portion oil the
debt. even IN that time OF Illumination
and distress. During the four years oil
war. we had paid for interest nearly
three millions of dollars, an aggregate
nearly equal to the amount OF tour per
cest. per annum on two-thirds OF the
old State debt. even in that period OF
trial and disaster. With these recorded
facts. can any one question the asser-
tion that Virginia had performed her
whole obligation to her creditors during
the war and reconstruction periods Ii
so. when our present government COM
menced its existence 500, ,399, ,224.1 "A was
the full amount of debt which could be
demanded Justly against the newly or
ganized State. -Four per cent. Is no"
conceded to be the extreme rate OF IN
terest which the creditor ought to ask.
The great losses of the State, and all
the ruinous events in her then recent
history. would Justify her in claiming
deduction of at least oue-third OF the
capital of her part of the old debt. BuI
maintaining the ,apital Of her part OF the
debit at what it was when the war broke
out. surely the State Of Virginia would
pertorm her full duty when she agreed
to pay four per cent. on two-thlrds ol
the original rate of interest. This is
peculiarly jusuGablc when we recollect
that good four per cent. bond IS now
and | believe was IN 1871, worth more
than par in the money markets OF The
United States. [ take up the Baltl-
more Gazette of yesterday, and find IN
its stock report that the United States
four per cents were sold at lO2' or two
per cent. above par. In the same re-
mort | find that the Brokers' Bill Vir"
ginia four per cents sell for less than oO
cents in the dollar OF their par value
Four per centum on 500, 800, 224.74 will
give 1916, ,96S.9S as the annual interest
which the State OF Virginia ought to
have been requested to pay by her cred'
itors at the date OF the Funding BILL
Bonds running for 40 or so years at this
rate of interest for an aggregate pr'ncl-
nal debt of 900, ,399, 224.74 would have
been n settlement of the State debt ex-
tremely liberal to the creditor. At that
date the newly organized State Of Vir'
oinia ouoht not to haye been held Tor
more. Her great losses OF property
the demolition OF her government, which
had contracted and continued to pay the
debt-the new civil condition OF one
large portion of her citizens-the chang
ed political power aud relations OF all
her citizens-the noval relation OF the
inaugurated government TO its reorSan-
lied society-all these circumstances
afforded great claim for some abate-
ment of the debt claimed against the
demolished government of Virginia.
With a large portion of her taxable
values destroyed, her diyidend-paylng
stocks lost, she we'll might claim de-
duction Of at least one-third oil Its
amount from the portion OF the old
State debt demanded from her. To
preserve the full capital Of her portion
of the debt aud abate only one-thlrd OF
the rate of interest would certainly have
been a generous proposal from her new
government. Yet the funding law OF
1871. as far as it was executed before
its repeal, had already given to the
creditors, in payment of part only oi
their demands, per centum bonds Tor
900. S.738.O6. This was just sl2O.
486. .G8 less than the whole amount she
truly owed all her creditors combined.
for the amount presented for funding
s1O.l39, ,365.O4, estimated as the QUE
third due by West Virginia, was sub
tracted. But an amount almost equiv
alent (slO, lO4, ,427.6O on account OF the
war and reconstruction interest, which,
as have already explained, had been
sufficiently discharged. was added to the
sum accepted tor funding. Thus the
amount actually funded in new tax re-
ceiyable 6 per cent. coupon bonds, un
der the act of March, 1871, was nearly