National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-03-24
The Mistakes of a Friend.


THE REPUBLICAN of March Is contained
the following paragraph:
The Rcadjusters of Virginia propose, in brief, to
pay two-thirds of the State Debt claiming that the
other third belongs to West Virginia TO pay. The
Bourbons do not intend TO pay anything-they
never do, but are trying to deceive the bOndhold-
ers. Now, which is the best?
This was all there was of the article.
There was not another word or figure in it.
To this clearly correct and simple state
ment the Richmond Dispatch replied as
follows:
The Washington REPUBLICAN tries TO deceive the
Northern people by making the following state
ment:
"The Readiusters Of Virginia propose, in brief,
to pay twothirds of the State debt, claiming that
TING other third belongs to West Virginia 70 pay"
That statement is untrue.-Disp0tch.
This the Richmond Hhig reproduces,
and comments upon as follows:
If THE REPUBLICAN ever read the HEiy it would
know how to state the matter more truly and eff
fectiyey for the Readjusters, and the only way in
which we can account for its injurious blundeTng,
not only as to the debt, but as TO the strength of
parties in Virginia is that it aeper reads the Whig,
and has never so much as done General Malone
the honor Of reading his luminous ana conclusive
statement of the situation in Virginia, given in
the famous interview first published by the Phila-
deiphia Press.
And ROW, taking tie statement Of THE REPUBII
CAN standing alone quoted by the Dispatch it is
substantially if not absolutely true But it Is only
one sentence from an article which wcfrankly own
InisstateS the matter-cnr,r-asi tuc5 that the
present claim of $50 100000 is acknowledged due
by Virginia and West Virginia, but that the Read
sters only desire to turn over one-third of it to
West Virginia as her share of the obligation.
If the FHig had read The REPUBIIcAN's
"article" in The REPUBLICAN itself it
could not have confounded it with other
and irrelevant matter which it did not
contain, but which must have been added
to it by some Funder organ in Virginia.
General Malone, in his famous inter-
view, said in reply to the question:
what is our debt 2"
Going back to 1861 we find that the debt Of Vir-
ginia at that date was s1 1SS 00O and taking that
basis the ReadiUsters, without abat .ng ii one
dollar have assumed that twO-thirds OF that sum
is the Just measure ofthe proportion of the original
principal fcT which this Commonwealth is legally,
Justly. and cquitably Liable; and in thus appor-
tioning the debt as it stood when West Virginia
was part of this State they have acted because
West Virginia has declined, in effect to cooperate
with this State in determining their respective
proper portions of the joint obligations, because
even the funding bill and the McCulloch bill so
adjusted the relative liabilities of the two States
because one-third Of the territory comprised in
this State at the creation of the debt went to the
formation of West Virginia, and because it is an
established doctrine in public debts with excep-
tons arising only from the nature or necessity of
particular cases. from positive stipulations that
they follow the land, and that the just measure of
the rate of interest upon them are the products of
the land
As to why the Riddleberger bill pro-
vides for something less than two-thirds
of the above-named sum General Malone
explains as follows, in foot-note to the
pamphlet copy of his interview:
There hare been redemptions to this original
principal by the sinking fund, which account for
the apparent discrepancy between this sum and
the Riddleberger principal as two thirds fit.
The General in his interview states
that the two-thirds of the whole debt is
properly fixed in the Riddleberger bill at
S1g,665,176.
There never has appeared in The
REPUBLICAN any statement at variance
with the above, Or with General Mahone's
interview. And yet the Hhig, in the
article above quoted from, says:
It is true that THE REPUBLICAN, republished that
Interview; but its columns evcrsince have been as
innocent of all the information developed in that
interview as if it had never taken place.
We have not, Of course, given very
much space TO discussing the Virginia
debt question; but We have time and
again briefly and correctly stated the at
titude of the Readjusters as given by Cen
cral Malone. There has been no "inju-
rious laundering" in these columns on the
subject. Indeed, the Hkig has done us
the honor to copy from our columns,
without criticism, about all we have s9id
on the subject. As TO any blundering on
the strength of parties in Virginia" we
have, it is true, usually given the Novem-
Der vote as that of the Readiusters, but it
was only TO show the minimum vote OBJ
tanned under every kind of discourage
ment We believe, with the Hhig, that
there are more than 10000 white Read
justers in the State in State contest,
and hope to see the number increased.
Our friend, the TTHig, will see from the
foregoing that it has done TIE REPUBLI-
CAN injustice.
If Jack Bunsby were here we could get
an opinion as is an opinion on an extra
session.