Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-09-06

morning from Mr.. Frank q. RutIin, Second
Auditor Of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
calls for very plain and straightforward com.
ment. Before descending to the details
with which it is crowded one remark is ne.
cessary as to its style and tone. A very
elastic kind of commercial morality is re-
quired in anyone who would undertake to
defend the attitude which the State of Vir-
glna has held for many years back toward
her public creditors. Even among Southern
States she has made herself inyidiously
prominent by her lax views Of national hon
esty. Not only has she repudiated engage
ments formally and legally entered into, but
with GOODNESS peculiar TO herself, she has
; repudlhted her own repudiations When
one set OF politicians had forced on the hold.
ers of her bonds what they facelously called
settlement" another set came along and
substituted for it something else more favor
able to themselves and their fellow citizens.
Virginia has from the first claimed to
be Judge in her own cause, and whoever
objected to tina; modest cluim-eye the
Supreme Court Of the United States has
had 10 bear the abuse OF patriotic Firginians.
IL has become q monomann in the State
that TO say word or to think thought in
favor of tho boGdholters is little short of
treason.
Mr.. Frank G. Ruilin's letter to lis reflects
with painful clearness the low moral tone
which Riddleherger acts and Ridlleberger
= agitation have produced in the Stale 1t
cynically recognises the fact that outside Of
her own border Virginia has no defender
and very few apologists. 1t processes to be
: very little troubled by that circumstance,
and takes refuge from it, not in the con-
seriousness of superior virtue but in the SOW
!, eregn will of the people. With the least
possible amount Of paraphraso or circumlo-
cution, Mr.. Ruffn maintains that the peope
Of Virginia have Il right to he dishonest if
they please. He goes further than that, and
, endeavors 10 prove that if they choose to be
dishonest their creditors cannot help them
selves In asserting this marvellous political
> doctrine he fiiugs about, without vestige Of
: scrup!e or hesItetloD the most offensive
. charges against such of his own country.
men ne may have udicially or otherwise, ex.
Il pressed opposite views. The Nirginian Leg
> stature of 1871, which passed the first fund
. ing bill, he characteristics as "a ring of stock
> jobbers and spectators" Unfortunately he
: cannot get over the fact that they were, like
himself, Nirglnans; but it is manifest con-
. ISOLATION TO him to remember that this tenn
: porary relapse into Justice was short lived.
Il The second funding act was, he alleges, "also
passed by fraud and false representations ="
Mr.. Rutiin next proceeds to maIign the
various courts which have been called on to
e enforce these acts, and his grossest accusa-
Il tons are reserved for the highest tribu-
nal OF his country, an institution which all
q good Americans wish the world TO believe
!. that they hold in the highest respect and
n honor. Speaking Of the decision of the Su-
preme Court Of the United States that the
two funding acts constitute ''irrepealable
T. contracts OF the State of Virginia." he has
= the audacity to declare that in the opinion
. OF the people 1t was illegal, and not only so,
but it was obtained by some sort Of colIu.
:, sion, direct or indirect, with one or two
h members on the majority side Of the court"
: American judges, from the highest to the
lowest,are presumed to be the property OF the
$ American people who elect them they may
II apparently he accused or abused at the pleas.
n ure Of their constituents. For aught we
I. know, Mr.. Ruffin may be exercising Quo Of
the constitutional rights of his country in
speaking of collision and corruption as fam
:. liar characteristics Of the American bench.
As foreigners we should like to think better
of it. On every ground it is much easier for
US to believe that the second auditor Of the
commonwealth Of Virginia may be making
. rash and groundless assertions, than that
{ judicial morality can have fallen so low in
the United States as he would have liz be-
Il lieve.
The Supreme Court at Washington is
II body OF which the outer world does know
G something it knows little if anything about
i Mr.. Frank &. Rutlin and the portraits he
D draws of Americans who differ from him
/ Will hardly tend to an increase OF confidence
IN the Americans who happen to agree with
G him. If there be everywhere so much cor
: ruption rs Mr.. Rutlin suggests, may there
l not be some danger that the sovereign
: people of Virginia" are not wholly free from
the weaknesses SO lavishly attributed 10
t their Judges and politicians?
MIR. Rutlin not only exhibits execrable
), taste IN his attack on ali who have endeav-
ored to maintain the uuhiic credit of his
State, but his ungrncious labor is entirely
thrown away in this part o. the world TO
i the foreign creditors of Virginia it is of lit
tie moment what be may think Of their va.
/ rlous legislatures or judicial courts. The
. question here is purely one of contract;
money has been borrowed on certain c0nti
lions which the State has not complied with;
he foreign creditor has nothing whatever
10 do with the domestic troubles and dissen-
sions of Virginia. EIr. Ru1u's opinion on
those points may ne right or it may be
wrong, but 1t has not the least concern for
DondnoiueiS outside Of Virginia. Ii he will
allow us to speak plainly it is somewhat of
an importinence on his part to thrust
3 it on them. They nave but one prac
cal reply to it, namely, this I'VE
do not elect your legislatures or your
G courts. We cannot mako or unmako your
, laws, but we have q clear and explicit con.
tract with your commonwealth which we
f expect you as honest Men to fulfil. Already
ii has been more than once modified in vour
favor and to our disadvantage. Wo ask
you now to do one thing or another-to be
either honest or dishonest either observe
, your engagements Or say plainly that YOU
will not. All your talk about the will of
the people and the corruption of your local
politics is gratuitously dishonoring to your
selves and of no good to u.s."
That is in brief the reply to Mr.. Rufin
which every Nirginisn bondholder will