The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-09-29

more represent the arguments and convic-
tons of the State, on the debt iss lie, than
the Re-adjuster platform and ticket reflect
our views on the same question. But there
are other issues involved in the canvass.
which call for consideration. and upon
these the State has heretofore argued
against the position its party has taken,
while we propose to maintain our consis-
tency in the advocacy of a policy we have
maintained ever since the treachery of the
Conservative party to its plighted faith
made it necessary to antagonist it.
The capitation tax restriction upon the
ballot, the State has condemned as well as
has the VIRGINIAN. We propose to con-
tinue our opposition to this gross wrong
upon the people, while the State surrend ers
its independence at the command of its par
tv henchmen and subOrdinates its convic-
tions to the desperate necessities of the fac
ton with which it co-operates.
| If we mistake not, the State is on record
against the whipping post law and all of its
attendant wrongs and outrages upon hui
|
the party it supports will perpetuate this
Infamous statute. not as means of the just
punishment of criminals, but more for its
DISTINGUISHING effects than anything else.
| We favor the repeal of this law because we
believe it to be cruel, barbarous and inhu-
man, land demanded by every interest OF soci-
ETY. and government, while it is a source of
unmeasured Generalization and corruption
and means of prostituting the. ballot to
the basest of partizan ends.
So far as the position of the two Demo-
cratic factions on the debt question is con-
cerned we have no hesitation in saying that
that of the Re-adjusters is much more frank
and straightforward than that of the BOur-
| bons. They both disregard judicial sane
tions, and if these are to be ignored, and
the simple equity of the case considered,
the Re-adjusters are nearer right than the
Bourbons The Re-adjusters discard all
the Funding Bills from 1866 to 1879 and
all the contracts, and calculating simple
interest on two-thirds of the debt as it ex-
listed in 1865, and taking credit for the va
rions amounts paid and of the dates when
| paid. arrive at the conclusion that the amount
| for which Virginia is liable is, in round num-
bers. $40 900. Upon this they propose
to pay 3 per cent. interest. or in other
words, repudiate one-half of the legal in
| terest. The Bourbons, protesting to re-
| spect the legislative acts on the subject of
the debt and the contract character of the
obligations as determined by the courts,
embracing the capitalized interest of the
various Funding Bills from 1866 to 1879,
| deliberately announce that they will make
| no sufficient provision for paying them
They, in fact. insiduously intimate that
they, too. will demand of the creditors the
surrender of one-half of their interest
claim, which is just as much part of the
debt as any other portion of the obligation
and. too, there is just as much reputation
in the proposition as that of the Re-adjusters.
In morality there is no difference between
them. In equity. apart from the commit
falls of the people through the Legislature
to the several Funding Bills, the virtue is
with the Re-adjusters. --
We, however, approve the position of
neither upon this question, and do not pro-
pose to discuss or concern ourselves about
this phase of the canvass. The future must
take care of that, for there is no party or fac
ton now seeking the suffrages Of the people
that proposes to do so.
The State has raised another issue of
more than passing Importance, and one in
which the people are directly interested. 1t
is embraced in the paragraph from it's edi-
torial columns, to which we referred last
week, and which it substantially repeats in
its..issue of the 18th:
''Next, we must save the basement Of
fees, the Auditor. Second Auditor, Treas
urer, Secretary of the Commonwealth. Adj |
jutant General. Superintendent of Public |
Grounds and Buildings, Railroad Commits
sioner, Commissioner OF Agriculture, Su-
perintendent of Education, and all their
deputies and assistants, not to speak of the |
officers of the two houses. of the peniten- |
tiary. of the asylums and numerous other
functioparies."
These are the prizes which the State re-
CARDS as of the highest importance and for
the control of which it proposes to lend its
best energies. OF course there is nothing
mereenary OF sordid in this programme
Our contemporary can glibly assign to
us selfish motives and unworthy in
influences in opposing the faction it repre-
sents. BECAUSE we happen to hold . Federal
position-whieh is at the disposal of neither
Gen. Malone nor his whole Re-adjuster fac
tion-yet claims for itself the highest virtue
in its proposed scheme for power and place,
aR involved in the enumeration it has made, ,
'eryatiye-Democratic party two years ago