The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-01-15
Tho Nation ON Riddleberger.

The NAtlCn OH
would not surprise us 10 learn that NE
Walton Is uncommonly well posted IN re-
card 10 the value OF stocks, bonds, %c''
and 70 their history and peculiar features
The Nation and the New YORK hoe'''~
Post are one and the same thing 20 isr as
many 81 the articles are concerned, seeing
tina, these appear as editorials in both ana
the ltter's money-market report Is u'ii!
telegraphcd all over the Union. we nave
said heretofore that all this talk about W.
ginia's "cquitablc share " OF her own
debt. which, ~ In the case OF the hea'hen
Chinee. Is INDUCED in "with intent 10
deceive will not, as in the nature OF
,h,ncs Il cannot, mislcad nor mystify the
holders OF Virginia's consol and peeier
bonds. These gentlemen will Know on'y
foo well that the percentage attempted 10
bc eliminated from their bonds VIII
never be paid, inasmuch as Governor
JACKSON and the Legislature OF that State
have notified all the world that west VIZ
GINA "owes no debt, has no bonds lot SAFE,
and asks no credit" However, We do MUS
flee both to West Virginia and TO the credit
ors OF Virginia thus TO leave ITO be inferred
that the sums to be eliminated from the
outstanding bonds OF Virginia constitute
any portion OF the twenty-four millions OF
debt which West Virginia owes under the
assignment made 10 her by virginia III
1871 OF one third of the debt OF the TWO
States NJ Il then existed. As we showed
the other day, the bonds OF Cissses n, b.
and C.. Of which the Roadiusters propose
10 repudiate respectively 43, 80, and 81 per
cent. were all issued after setting aside one
third Of the debt to West Virginia, and all
issued since the readmission Of Virginia to
representation in Congress. virginia
"eouitablc share" of them is, therefore,
lust one hundred per cent. OF them.
The light Of truth is breaking in upon
the northern mind il we may Judge from
the outgiyings of that high financial au-
thority The Evening Post and its yoke
fellow The Mutton. II you doubt, read
the following rather sharp comments upon
the RIppL REERGER bill TO destroy the value
OF the coupons. They will serve to show
that the Funders of Virginia will yet be
vindicated even in the benighted North.
The heading of The Ndtion'S article is
"Virginian Reputation" We quote;
Zone of the Riddleborger bills now be-
fore the Virginia Legislature is Of itself
sufficient TO place in its true light before
the world the Malone scheme OF repudia-
tion. The coupons of the state bonds
issued i'm 1871 and 1879 were made receiva-
bic in payment Of the public taxes.
An attempt 10 take away such receiva-
billfv was foIled by the decisions both
of the State and Federal supreme Courts.
The state is. in short, bound to receive
them by every law, human and divine.
To get rid oi this obligation Riddle
berger has devised 4 scheme which
IL i hardly too strong TO call 'conf-
dence operati0n.' He has cOncOcted and in
serted in the preamble OF his bill story
that numerous spurious bonds ana cOu-
pons are i'm circulation that, therefore,
when any coupons are offered in payment
OF taxes. il is necessary 10 ascertain their
9enuineness. He then proposes TO enact
that the faX-collectOr shall accept no cou-
mons in payment of taxes; that he shall
accent any coupons only for the purpose OF
examination; and that the tax shall In the
mean time be collected in money on pain
of distraint. The genuineness OF the cou-
mons is then TO be aScerained by
q regular iury-trial in the county
court, with its usual expense and delay:
N ascertained, they are to be received
in payment of the taxes, and the money
originally paid refunded, but without any
allowance for costs or veXatiOn. The mea-
sure is of course based on the expectation
that in most cases the Taxpayer VIII not
take the trouble or will not have the means
10 begin a suit, and will thus seem to ac-
quiesce in the prctence Of the preamble,
and in the fraudulent process Tor whch II
prepares. 1t is safe to say that a state IN
which such schemes are gravely enter
tanned by leading politicians in its Legisla-
ture ought TO raise the salaries OF its crlmi-
nal Judges, in order to compensate them
for the embarrassment they must feel III
trying its confidence men,"