Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-04-13
What the Term Really Means in
Virginia.
The Revenues of a State Cannot be
MOrtgaved Beyond the Peoples
Control.
MahOneism for Tennesseeans 10
Read.

virginia constituted q tDlru part Vi
the state, and without the cost and
corruption attending the same bust
ness here in Tennessee. During the
late war the United States forcibly
dismembered Virginia by creating out
of and within its territorial limits the
state Of West Virginia, in violation
and in direct reputation of the CON
stitutional provision prohibiting the
erection of another state within the
limits of any state without its con-
sent. The readjusters Insist, then,
that it is but right and just that West
Virginia should assume one-third Of
this debt, its proportionate share, in
accordance with its territorial area
Topped off from old Virginia, in the
creation Of which Its people partici-
pated, and Of which they reaped their
proportionste share Of benefits. Is
there anything unjust in this, or any
repudiation2 On this point there is
no difference between the readjusters
and the funders, and the Mccullough
bill" recognizes its justice by leaving
out the one.third for West Virginia to
assume. The readjusters also insist
that the war interest should not have
been and should not be funded as
principal or paid at all, because Vir-
GINA was then offering and ready to
pay the interest in her own treasury
notes issued during that period, and
in additional support Of this position
they refer to numerous decisions Of
the United States supreme court that
the statutes of limitation were sus-
pended by war, and that interest could
not be collected for that period on
notes, bills, bonds and other business
contracts. The rcadjusters also
insist that a state has the
right to live; that her reven-
ues cannot be m%ortgaged away from
the peoples control, and hat it is I'M
democratic to surrender to any man
or body Of men, much less to a cormo-
rant set of Shylocks, its sovereign
power of taxation. The ~readjusters
believe and insist, moreover, that the
debt could have been refunded to bet
ter advantage for the state at a lower
rate of interest than that fixed by the
Mccullough" or brokers bill,
prepared and drafted in New York
for the legislature Of a sovereign state,
by that disirterested patriot Hugh
Mccullough, who suddenly grew rich
in the position of secretary of the
treasury Of the United States.
This is the position Of Malone and
the r~eadjusters on the debt question
in Virginia, to which the readjuster
party owes its existence. Yet Lamar,
from Mississippi, about which state !
have somewhere read something ofre-
p~udlation; Hampton, from South
Carolina, which scaled its state debt
at a very low figure; Brown and Hill,
from Georgia, which properly threw
out at one fling over $l6,0OO,0O0 of.
corrupt state debt; Ransom, from
North Carolina, whose state scaled its
debt at ten or fifteen cents on the dol
lar, even without consulting the
bondholders," so much talked Of
lately here in Tennessee, and many
others like them, denounce as a re-
pudiator Malone, who 10 willing to
recognize Virginia's two-thirds part
ofthe whole debt of old Virginia, at a
reasonable rate of interest within the
power Of his impoverished people to
pay, less only the war interest funded
under the brokers bill, and without
the undemocratie and unrepub-
lican Infamous tax receivable
coupon feature surrendering the
Sovereignty Of his state and
%mortgaging its revenues to a corrupt
set OF Wall street sharks. Lamar and
the rest had best put up their shutters
before throwing stones at Malone.
who is to day a better democrat upon
principle than any Of them, the peel
of the best Of them in courage and
honesty, and better than most Of them
in his private morals. 1t may be said
Of him that his wife will never reach
Washington to find him 50 occupied
that she will return home by the next
train.
l have but stated simple and incon-
trovertiblc facts. If they prove those
charging Malone with Reputation
Ignorant Of matters about which tbey
! pretend knowledge, or as wmillfully and
! maliciously incorporating and ma.
r ligning a true and honest man, then il
5 is their misfortune or crime. as The
case may be.
o This article is already long enough
: With you permission l will soor
c follow it with another, answer
d ing the equally false charg
against Malone Of treason to the so
called democratic party. about who's
only democracy now left It is in tn