Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-08-23
THE PUBLIC DEBT.

THE PUBLIC DEBT.
Every man in Virginia knows wheretthe Re
adjusters stand on the debt question. We pro,
pose to pay nineteen millions Ut three per cent
Major Daniels platform nee DIS q great deal Of
examination, explanation, and construction
It has been only little while ago that thil
funder party did not talk SO much about De-
mocIacy-nothing but the debt.
REPUBLICAN OR not.
claim to be NO Democrat as to organization
The National Committee SO late as October
Of last year. under funder pressure. saw ut to
read US out of the party. don't claim to he a
guest in any ones house, the occupant of which
has shown me the door. Youtto Major DanieD
can take the name-it Is empty enough. We
have got the principles. Take the name If You
please, and prostitute It to the service Of the
McCulloch Bill. III Is Democracy to pass q bill
that Keeps the people OF Virginia for two gen.
erations from managing their own affairs,
am not Democrat.
THE DEBT AGAIN.
In lS77 studied this debt question thorough
~. and have made no change since. I be-
lieve that Virginia should pay what she owes.
but that she should not pay u cent Of what she
don't owe ] am here to say that fraud vitiates
every contract, and that the Supreme Court OF
tho United States has decided that . state. al
to contract stands In the same position AZ
an individual. II the McCulloch Bill was such
. benencent measure, you will please explain.
Major Daniel. why 1t Is that your party has
dropped 1t like q hot potato?
NEGRO SUFFRAGE AND DEMOCRACY.
In 1858 my declaration was made that would
never submit to negro suffrage. Has Major
Daniel forgotten that in 1859 was one OF the
leaders in the walker movement? And they
called me Republican then. l am . Demo-
crat. because believe In the sovereignty of
the people; I ann Republican. because l be-
lieve in Republican form of government He
tells you about my calling the .celored people
IN inferior race. say that the colored people
Of 1881 are very different from what they were
eighteen years ago.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
am not here to accuse Major Daniel Of be-
ing opposed to the public schools. He has said
that he II not, and that Is enough for me. But
have the right. and 1 propose to exercise it,
Of showing. II can. that all that the schools
have suffered should be laid to the charge of
the funder party, and that Major Daniel has
consistently voted with that party. We have
not fed the free schools on what you left Mr..
Massey, because you left him nothing. As
long a. the funders had the schools. they
dwindled and withered. In eighteen months
We have added two thousand new ones to the
list.
GEN. HAHoNE.., ii
General Malone Is responsible to the people
who sent him to the Senate. You were not on
~ opposed 70 his going there. but large por-
ton Of your people were in favor of sending
Wickham to the Senate in his place. Gen. Ma
hone went to Washington to represent the re-
adjusters of Virginia. He was confronted by
the democratic caucus Of thirty seven men
who were in cahoot with the Funders. It was
out Of that caucus that democratic Senators
came here a year ago to speak to you for fund
erism.-men like Vance and Brown and Hill,
the Representatives Of repudiation.
Col. Cameron then turned 10 Maj. Daniel and
asked: Suppose the per cent. interest cam
not be paid without raising the taxes what are
you going to do about itf
Daniel said he would tell him when the time
came.
Col. Cameron alluded to Mr.. James Barbour
as readjuster who had gone back on his par
ty. These are strange times. he said, when
John Daniel goes areand trying to lift the
funder platform up to his level, and Jim Bar
bour stays at home for fear of sinking it still
lower. Your platform Is not the one on which
John Daniel stood in 1879. 1 have heard you
speak three times in this canvass, and don't
know yet what your party propose to do in re-
gard to the debt.
CAPITATIoN TAX.
want to know whether you are in favor OF
a repeal of the constitutional provision Of a
prepayment of the capitation tax as prereQ-
uisite to voting7
MAI. DANIELS REPLY.
Col. Cameron's nrst hour having expired
Maj. Daniel said in reply: The gentleman
says that Mr.. Massey found q legacy Of moth
ing in the State Treasury. He found provis-
ion in the last will and testament Of the grand
old democracy, ON which the Readjustef party
has been living ever since This matter Of the
State debt has been litigated long enough for
it to come to q conclusion. Did you think
you had swept the democracy to kingdom
come in 1897 If SO. you found yourself mis-
taken in 1880. Why didn't you tell these peo-
pie what Malone said in Petersburg the night
before the election last Fall3 He said that
when the sun set the next day there would be
a Readjuster majority of 25OO0.-and loi when
the next day came. Billy Malone had set be-
fore the sun.- We are going to do 1t again.
York; So was the Bible you swear on. What
tents of bill and not to where it was printed.
We didn't tax the bonds.-and there was never
a better trade made for the laboring man than
In that arrangement.
There was . copperplate was going to for
get. But 1 havn't forgotten 1t. The Allen
Amendment authorized rs to borrow at the
rate of giving 100 cents in scrip for rs cents In
money. This money was to be used to pay cou-
pons with. and the three per cent. bond to be
given in exchange for the six per cent Don't
you see that though we would have lost twen-
ty-five cents on the Allen certificate we would
still have gained on the coupon? But your
own political friends-your whole party-voted
for the Fowler amendment, which was worse
than the Allen amendment. because It made
no limit to the amount to be taken in exchange
for the certificate.
Col. Cameron says that every body knows
whore he and his party stand. Why. they don't
stand at all-they are on the wing all the time.
Why, this nnancier in his green days figured
out the debt at fifty millions and called it an
Insignificant SUM. In 1877 he got it doyn fine.
as he tells you. I expect he did the figuring
for Malone at Mozart Hall. Certainly he sup
ported Malone in his thirty-two million prop
osition. Now it is nineteen millions. Why
don't he tell you that Massey, In his report to
the Legislature, has the principal of the debt
at twenty nine millions?
How do stand about the capitations tax?
voted with John e. Massey and John Paul to
put it into the Constitution. Ii Col. Cameron
in favor of abolishing It?
Cumeron-I am in favor Of abolishing II Is q
prerequisite to voting.
Daniel-Are you in favor Of abolishing the
tax?
Cumeron-I am not.
Col. Cameron has never answered my Ques-
ton as to whether he is Republican.or DEM
ecrat except with long paraphrase and he
never will answer. When he says that he Is
going to carry Africa into the war. and that
they are no longer an Inferior race and Africa
will insist on being carried into the war, say
more's the pity for you my African friends, be-
cause these men around me here have not for
gotten and never will forget what it is to be
Anglo-Saxons.
CAMERoN's REJOINDER.
did not think that we had swept democra-
cy from the earth in 1879. 1t was the mock
democracy of fuuderism which we had swept