The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-09-23

| tO-tlilN. JCt-bIHtiC lildht
grand promises; practically, it serves every
nation as it served US in the decade between
1S47 and 1857, and as it is now serving Eng
land, who under its influence must soon cease
! to even hope to be, as she was for a century
the workshop of the world and the mistress
! of the sea.
| fragrant Misrepresentation.
| No one will charge Hon. Thos. F. Bayard
with wilful Misrepresentation of facts, but il
he is reported correctly, his speech recently at
Columbia South Carolina, was a succession Of
blunders, growing out of total ignorance as to
what he was talking about. From republi-
cation of an extract of that speech, in the
Richmond Dispatch of the 10Th, we quote the
following paragraph, referring to the public
debt question Of Virginia:
Frankly do not think their affairs were SO
wisely managed as they might have been
They temporized with affairs they ought not to
have temporized with, and | believed that that
State lost more money by temporizing with
the public credit than the whole principal and
interest of its public debt would amount to,
and being a friend of Virginia and loving the
people, do deplore the unwisdom of their
course in this Who has been to blame for it !?
Do you mean to tell me that General Malone,
who has been the most prominent among her
citizens who advocated this course is to blame
for it? Who is General Malone? What is he
compared with the Federal Administration, at
the head of whose finances we find John Sher-
man? 1t was the action of the Administration
at Washington that is to blame for the state of
affairs in Virginia, for there is not one man
endowed with Federal power in that State,
high OF low, that did not lend the aid of his
power, official and personal, to fasten the
fangs of the repudiationists upon the vitas of
that old Commonwealth. Cheers. Talk
about this Republican party being the friend
of honest government, and we see Virginia,
that old State-the State of Jackson and
ashington-branded with the attempt to es-
cape from her honest obligations. | turn to
the city of Washington, and there see John
Sherman, immaculate protector of the public
credit, and Rutherford B. Hayes, the fraudu-
lent President. [Cheers.] | see them lending
their aid to elect Malone to the Senate and
then claiming that they are the party Of pub
lie faith.
Mr.. Bayard stated positively that both Sec
rotary Sherman and President Hayes lent their
aid to elect sMahone to the Senate" This is
a bold declaration and as false as it is bold
The Dispatch should not have published it
without qualifying it, for it is a well known
fact in Virginia that the administration SYM
pathized not with Gen. Malone, but with the
most prominent opponent for the U. S. Senate
OF that gentleman W. c. Wickham- an
out-speken and uncompromising debt-payer,
and now at the head of the Republican cleo
toral ticket Of Virginia. 1t is known, so far as
it was consistent-with their position, that the
cabinet members and the President were anx-
ious for the election of Gen. Wickham, and
not Gen. Malone, and that no countenance
has ever been given by the administration to
any scheme of "repudiation" in Virginia.
The fact is, one faction Of the Conservative
party is as deep in the mire as the other is in
the mud on that subject. Neither cares any
thing about it, except as a hobby to attain
power in the State. The flinders, as they are
called, declare for State honor and honest
dealing with the creditors and with equal vehe-
mence declare they will not avail of the only
means to deal honestly with them-increase the
taxes, SO as to raise the revenue to meet the
obligations. They virtually say they owe the
ment.
The readjusters are more direct and candid
They contend that the State does not owe
what has been demanded in the several bills
passed on the subject, but they will make pro-
vision to pay what they admit they owe. The
flinders say they owe so much, but that they
cannot pay more than the revenues derived
from the present rate of taxation will Justify
The readjusters say they do not owe more than
the present revenues will pay, and propose to
direct them to that purpose.
1t will require wiser man than Mr.. Bayard
to draw the line where Reputation comes in
with one more than the other-one acknoWl-
edges the debt, but repudiates payment, and
the other repudiates what it says it does not
owe, and declares for the payment of what it
does owe.
The administration has OF all occasions, so
far as the debt question is concerned, sympa-
thized with the faction acknowledging the
debt, and protesting disposition to pay but
denying ability to do SO. And Mr.. Bayard, in
asserting otherwise, has shown inexcusable
ignorance of the matter he pretended to dis
cuss, and has done injustice to the Secretary
of the Treasury and the President.
Had he devoted his attention to the financial
history Of South Carolina, he could have found
much more in moral obliquity to have con-
demned under democratic administration, than
in Virginia. and by extending his vision to
North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana, he
would have found additional food for refec-
ton and cause to excite his virtuous wrath