The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-08-14
Petty Larceny.

feIty Larceny.
There has never been a more bare faced
act of petty larceny than that committed
by the State Central Committee of the
Conservative party in appropriating the
debt settlement bill as the peculiar and eN-
elusive property of that party. 1t was very
appropriate that the deed should have been
consummated in the silent hours of the
night of Thursday last, as the audacious
efrontery which nerved the commit
tee for the theft could not well have en-
countered the light of day and the gaze OF
the public. Neither the bill itself nor the
courage and State pride which paved the
way for its formulation, and made disposal
OF the embarrassing and veXed question
possible, is OF Democratic origin. Not only
did Mr.. McCulloch, Republican Cabinet
officer at one time, frame the bill, but the
Republicans of Virginia, animated by an
earnest desire to save the State from i'm
pending reputation, which was gradually
working itself out under the operation OF
Democratic partizan policy, made it posi-
Bile for the debt question to be considered
and legislated upon. At no time in the
history OF the State. since 1871, had the
Democratic party the courage to make
the debt issue before the people, and
not until the Republicans in 1877, for.
formally determined to withdraw from the
field, as an organization, and thrust the
debt question before the people, was it al
lowed to be disc used as possible cues
ton OF current and vital importance to the
commonwealth. In 1873 Judge Hughes, then
the Republican candidate for Governor.
labored to get an expression of the popular
will, with view to final disposition OF
the whole question and, in the ablest and
most statesmanlike argum ent ever present
ed from the hustings in Virginia, sought to
conflne the issue to that very point. He
was met by the. rantings and balderdasll
OF Gen. Kemper, the Democratic candidate,
about. the niger, 'scalawag and carpet-bag-
GER and Kemper, who was known to be
in favor of the very policy the opponents OF
denounced with so much righteous indigna-
ton by this committee, every one of whom
supported Kemper, was elected by $1,000
majority. In that canvass the Republicans
tried to force the issue of honest payment
of the debt upon the basis of the equities
recognized in the McCulloch bill, and were
met by the intiammatory appeals of every
ranting Democratic demagogue in the Com
monwealth about the ''nigger," and the
''carpet-bagger, and the election urged of
the first and most audacious Re-adiuster
known to the policies OF the State. Kem-
per, the Democrat, and Reimbursement,
upon this basis of reputation were
elected, and Hughes, the Republican, and
honest dealing with the debt, the State and
the creditors, was defeated.
The editorial columns of the VALLEY
VIRGINIAN will show that in the fall and
winter of 1876 we declared, speaking in the
name of the Republican party, that there
should be no more evasion of this debt
question-that it must be met, and the
people of the State brought face to face
with their true condition. In 1877, again
speaking for the party, we announced that
the Republicans, as an organization, would
not presenta ticket, but endeavor, by with
drawing from the canvass as a party, to
force a settlement of the debt question,
either by providing for the full payment of
interest, or such REIMBURSEMENT as comport-
ed with equity and justice, egarding the well
fare of the people and the good name of the
State as paramount to party, and the neces-
sites or policies of mere party. We knew
that the same Chinese-gong clamor about
the niger and the .carpet-bagger would
constitute the staple of Democratic appeals
in 1877 as it did in 1873, if the Republi-
cans formally entered the contest as an Or
ganization, and rather than see the debt
at the rate of 81 900 each year,
and final reputation forced upon the peo-
pie, the Republicans determined to remove
I'll pretext for evading the issue, and COM
pei settlement of the question by retiring
from the contest as party.
Not only did the Republi cans thus pave
The way for full and fair discussion of the
lebt problem and embarrassments, but
he method substantially adopted by the
legislature, and the equities therein recog-
lized, were first presented and discussed !
through these columns, and denounced as |
Reputation by every member of the State |
central Committee, who voted to adopt the
'lllas party measure, aud the gentleman !
Who it is said wrote the address," which |
will be found in another column. These |
Gentlemen were all in favor OF the funding
and swindle of 1871, and every |
ne who demanded a REIMBURSEMENT of that
hid OF bribery and corruption, was denounc-
as ''repudator." Yet when the policy
hey denouncedandt the equities they scorned
nd spat upon as highway robbery en-
er into public measure '..forced'' upon
ie creditors by the Re-adjusters of the
tate, tfiisimmaculate committee compla-
emily and cody appropriate it as their
roperty, and with the audacity Of high
ayman proclaim to everybody else, ''hands
f-touch it at your peril"
Nothing could more forcbly demonstrate
lie desperate straights of the manipulators
caucus politics in Virginia than the ac-
on of the State Central Committee in
Ching this debt bill and adopting it as a
arty MEASURE measure, the principle
I'D policy of which they had uniformly
opposed, and the advocates of which they
Id bitterly denounced as in favor of SIRE
ldiation' and the ''dishonor'' of the State.
hat the McCulloch bill is s'forcible re-
ljustment," no man who is capable of
guing from cause to effect can question,
I'd forcible REIMBURSEMENT these very COM
itteemen proclaimed to be ''highway ,
bbery." Every one knows that the cred
'rs would not have agreed to its terms,
1t for the Intervention Of the Syndicate, q,
it'll the assurance that it was either that or !,
,rse; and every one knows that there .
uld be no other ''re-adjustment' but I,
orcible, /" for men do not voluntarily re- :
quish values, and only do SO when they .
; convinced that shalf loaf is better =
IN no bread.' ;,
One word to the Re-adjusters of Augusta =
fxy hall l