Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1881-08-25
The Virginia Issue.

ing kepuollcan support III virginia OF
the Malone ticket have great labor in
making their course consistent with
their profuse declarations of hostility
to debt reputation. The leading or
gan, the New York Times, scrambles
over the difficulty by declaring that
as neither party in Virginia proposes
to pay the whole of the State debt, it
feels itself at liberty to give its sym
pathies, independently of that ques-
tion, on the principle that it is as
much n sin to steal pin as a greater
thing; and so the Malone party,
which proposes to pay little bit OF
the State debt, is no more dishonest
than its opponents, who desire to pay
a bigger bit, but not the whole of it,
The position is more ingenious than
ingenious, since the Times fails TO
give its due weight to the fact that
the Virginia creditors have consented
to accept on full acquittance what
the Democratic party proposes to pay,
though it is not the full sum of their
bond. If the creditors do not COM
plain probably the Times need not.
The fact is that the Malone orators
and newspapers in Virginia rail at
the bondholders and the Democracy
as in coalition and the main part of
their capital is the antipathy they
thus seek to excite against their polit-
ical opponents as the bondholders'
friends. Under the circumstances,
which are very familiar to the Times,
it is of course very insincere and
wholly dishonest in claiming that
there is no difference, but in degree,
in the reputation designs of the par
ties in Virginia, and that one is not
more entitled than another to the
sympathy of debt-paying advocates.
The Philadelphia Pres, which has
been blowing hot and cold on the
Malone alliance for six months past,
being very hot before the administra.
ton got cold, and fast cooling with its
frigidity, was warmed up again under
the seeming political expediencies of
the situation and the encouragement
of the Times, into vehement advocacy
of the Malone "Readjusters;" and
reconciles the debt-paying conscience
to such a reputation alliance in pret-
ty much the style of its cotemporary,
but with a difference. The Press dis
covers that the Virginia Democrats,
though promising to pay more Of the
debt than the Malone people, do not
intend performance. While the "Re-
adjusters," who offer very little intend
to pay that little. Thus the Press
satisfies itself, or preteuds to, that the
Malone party is the real debt-paying
party, and as such joyfully embraces
it. 1t is somewhat singular that the
Virginia bondholders have not made
this notable discovery along with the
Press. One would think that they
would be for the party that proposed
to pay, and that they would rather
have little cash than any amount of
promises, and would be alert and quite
as sagacious as the Press in discerning
the party that gave them the best as
surance of their money. Ifit be true,
as the Press alleges, that it is the Ma
hone people who are the real bond.
holders friends, it is notable that the
Malone people do not themselves pro-
claim it in Virginia, but on the con.
trary seek to throw the odium and the
glory of that connection upon the
Democrats.
And here remarkable thing is to
be observed which is the total differ
ence in the ground taken by these Re
publicad coadjutors of Malone in the
North aud his partisans in Virginia.
There the contest between two parties
that have made nominations for the
State Offices is distinctly upon the
question of repudiatiOn, or, as the adj
vocates of that policy style it, "read-
justment" of the State debt. This is
the issue upon which the contest is
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