Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-17
COMMUNICATIONS.
"Readjustment" in Virginia.


 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 When we hear too much of any subject 1t becomes Ia weariness of the flesh" regard less of the real merits, involved. Repudia- ton in Virginia is no exception. The Re publicans of the North, however, who gave their supp ort to the Malone movement can not we'll refuse to hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Governor Cameron in his recent message to the Legislature and the present financial scheme now under the con- sideration of that body, have put the debt question practically before the public. The last issue of the Nation says truly that the colored voters in Virginia get their political morality largely from northern sources. It is also true that their first striking lesson re
 ceived from this quarSar has tended to con- firm them in the convection that debtors who cannot be made to pay need not pay un- less they please" The Republicans of the situation in Virginia. There are many issues involved. But it is the State debt question which has come again to the front
 Putting aside the reports which come through the press, putting aside facts and figures which can be made to give false re- turns, let us go back to the very beginning of the Readiusters' movement in Virginia. Then, as now, the debt question was the avowed issue. The regular Democratic par ty stood fair and square for the payment of every dollar of principal and interest which the bonds of the State represented. The Readiusters on the other hand stumped the State in favor of 'forcible" settlement, re- gardless of bonds or (''bloated"j bondhold- CTS. (The writer speaks of what he has heard from one end of Virginia to the other in the public assemblies.) The people (debtors) were pronounced to be the lawful judges as to what were proper terms of set clement. And think of this with 125, ,0O0 voters before you who cannot (accordiug to the official returns of the superintendent of public instruction) read the ballots they cast. Nine-tenths of the voters on the last Came ron ticket, it is not reckless to say, never saw State bond. One-half of that num- Der could not read the wording, leaving out the comprehension of it's meaning. Such statements as these throw light upon the Democratic claim that Cameron was elected by the negro vote of the State. The coiored people were not criminal in this matter, un- less ignorance is crime, well as the father of it. It is not easy to realize that any ave- rage office-seeker with glib tongue could persuade the colored people that they had nothing to do with the payment of debts made while they were slaves I have walked side by side on the public highways, and heard the negro men talk in this connection. There was but one voice. He would say,
 Boss helped to- build dis road when was a slaVe, ana HOW uey says must neip pay for it. Dey won't get muffin from dis nig- ger. Yer hear me talk 7"
 To show in a word that the regular Demo- cratic party lost in defense of the payment of the debt, in supporting the credit of the State for the benefit of northern and English bondholders, we need only to remember the majority of the first Readjuster victory in 1879, and then its second small. majority Ia
 coalition of Republican and Readjuster votes) l in 1881. Now sandwich in between these two the overwhelming defeat of the Read iusters in the national issue of 1880. It has been on the local debt question where they
 have gained and it YVES in this scramble that | the Republican administration mixed. The
 negro vote vas cast solid according to the | Washington orders; and we now have the
 results to face. Not repadiatioH. Oh, no. 1 Only little matter of the elimination" of | some thirteen millions of the bonded debt
 And the Resdjuster leaders are in quandary.
 They must pander to the administration (and
 keep respectable front) They must please the people who put them in office. The reg
 ular Democrats conclude that now is the timS
 for them to wash their hands of the public debt. VIReIEIA New Haven, Jan. l3, 1882.