The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-11-16
TOFFICIAL PAPER. ]
Wednesday. November is 1873;

The success of reputation in Virginia
through the aid of the administration and
| the republican party opens up at once the
question, what viii it lead to? The Gov
ernor elect of Virginia a few years ago
gave his opinion of the national debt and
the purpose for which it was incurred
the carrying on of the warm these signi-
ficant words:
as to the full and final payment or Efqui-
7ati0n Of the present enormous fatioz.dl debt,
he that k7eoacs tie ADaerica1a people and their
after deficiency IN the high qualities eff truth
and integrity, knoaos that such an expectation
as but an idiots dream.
''For ourselves zoe shall rejoice gcheu TIRE
crash comes. It is debt contracted in tie
prosecution Of an infamous and unnecessary
acar"
This man has, through the enthusiastic
aid of republican administration, been
elected Governor of his state on repudia-
tors platform. The fight he has just made
in Virginia is in support of the principles
he then advocated, the reputation of debts,
and when the republican party advocated
those principles in Virginia it made clear
the way for further advocacy of them in
a national platform. The logical out
come Of this course was clearly pointed
out when the campaign was first opened,
but the republican party showed by its
actions that it preferred party success to
party honor and was willing to prostitute all
public credit for the sake of partizin vic
tory. The New York San show up
necessary sequence of all this when it
says:
THE Republican party having declared
itself in favor of the reputation of the
State debt in Virginia, and having carried
the election upon that platform, it becomes
an interesting question how far the same
measure is to be applied in other States
Here in New York, for instance, the
State is considerably in debt To repudi-
ate the whole would diminish the weight
of taxation to be borne by every individ-
ual taxpayer VIII the Republican party,
fresh from their great triumph in Virginia,
now begin movement for reputation of
the debt in New York? If there is any
good reason for the policy they have adj
opted and fought for in that State, the
same reason is equally valid and equally
forcible in this.
Besides, if they are not quite satisfied
with their success upon the old issues, who
knows that they might not be successful
if they were to bring forward brand
new one like the great issuess of repudi |
alton?
But is there any reason why such a /
should be limited to any one |
state? The republican party control the |
national administration, and the president |
Of the United States has given an earnest I
and an effective support to the repudia-
lion movement in Virginia. Why, then,
should this potent principle not be applied
% the immense debt of the national gov
Why should not our two
thousand millions of dollars be wiped out
entirely, or cut down by the elimination of
lineten of its whole amount, by Wig
,rous application of the Riddleberger and
Malone scheme? President Arthur, being
n favor of the principle in Virginia, could
lot, of course, oppose its application
throughout the United States. Logic is
.reat thing in politics, and the logic of I
epudiation may be made to travel very far !:
ndaad