Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-07-30


attempt to adjust the internal affairs OF
State institution, than 1t would permit
the officers of that institution to vote on
or veto the selection of its own city Off
GERS. Those who expect the present coun-
Gil. fresh from the people. to commence
its labors by perverting the trust put into
their hands. little know the men who COM
pose it. The plain matter at issue, if any
atall may be said to be az issue, Is whether
the officers of the Lunatic Asylum should
be held strictly responsible for the exer-
else of their power and given full control
of the matters the Commonwealth has
placed in their charge, or whether they
shall exercise that power subject to out
side pressure; whether that pressure be the
awful power of the Chairman of the State
Democratic Central Committee, or the
sight of the excellent police force of town
led to the slaughter.
AS to the personal matters involved in
this new political activity and the re-
ported threat that if Mr.. Dinneen be ap-
pointed to any position in either State in
stitution here, the Council will be
asked to make a reprisal in one form or
another, we have nothing to say except
that the Council will take no such action.
If it did, it would be the first time in Vir
ginia that competent mechanic, who had
lived nearly all his life respected resident
of city; who had filed every position he
was entrusted with, with fidelity, integri-
ty and usefulness; who, in the thirty years
he had lived there, had raised a family,
some of whose members have made their
mark in the ministry and at the bar, and
against whose character no man could say
aught,-was boycotted by the authorities
of that city, bounded out of every place he
might earn his bread, and finally driven
! from his home to earn that bread else
where. Mr.. Dinneen is poor man, but it
we do not mistake our people, he has a
more powerful friend in their sense of JUS
tice and right than any friend that wealth
or aristocratic surroundings would be able
give him. We shall refuse TO believe that
such Injustice to a man who has done
nothing, and against him nothing is al
legged.
The injection of politics into the.discus-
sion seems to be wholly the work Of the
Trgiq,ian. The Board of Directors even
If it had the revising power matter is
composed of gentlemen of. both parties,
Democrats and Republicans, and both
gentlemen interested in it's action, Messrs.
O'Donnell and Dinneen, are and always
have been Democrats. The voting the
independent ticket does not figure. in this
matter at all, for there has never been a
time since his removal by the Republi-
cans from the Asylum in 1882, that Mr..
Dinneen could not have had the place if
the present Directors of the Asylum could
have gotten him.
There can be nothing more striking to
the reader of the Republican papers in
Virginia than the lack Of sympathy and
interest they have in the success Of the
Riddleberger bills-in Democratic hands.
The unctious humor with which they an
nounce that another coupon-holder has
.'beat" the Commonwealth and put her in
for costs in suit, is good evidence of it.
How shallow have been all their protesta-
tations In behalf of the settlement of the
debt,and how treacherous have been their
professions of friendship for the people and
the Commonwealth! But it will all amount
to nothing; the old State will ride over
both the Republican party and their
friends the coupon-holders. The Rich
| mond Dispatch commenting on the
, Uulaney case, in which the State paid
$4,000 for lawyers to represent her, after
saying that for $4,000. 1.-THE same amount
The bondholders pay their lawyer. Mr..
Royal the State can employ lawyers to
assist the Attorney General makes this
estimate:
The Commonwealth paid $412, judgment
and costs, in the Dulaney case or less than
5000 of costs. There are only 356 persons
who pay over 5000 year of taxes. Here,
then, are the figures, supposing that all of the
1856 bring suits
judgments and costs in 1856 cases. $l4s e72
Lawyers, by the year, H,OO0
Total, s158 672
By standing upon her rights, the Common
wealth would thus save not only million of
dollars year which would be crowded into
the Treasury in the shape of coupons if she
were to agree to receive coupons for taxes,
but she would also save the many millions of
principal of the debt as ascertained in 1871
and 1879.
The Republican party is loyal to moth
ing save the spoils of offices, and would
not hesitate to fix on the State of Virginia
the Twenty Millions of additional debt
through the reception of the coupons, if
by that it thought it could obtain control
of the government. But our Republican
contemporaries need not fear. If the peo-
pie of Virginia only stand firm, the Rid
dleberger bill will enforce itself. The
bondholders know it and their counsel,
Mr.. Royal, knows it. Without our people
are unfaithful to their own laws and fix
this additional debt upon themselves. the
creditor is poDerless to fla it on them.
1t will be a good day for The Southern
States when the present Constitution of