Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-12-01
HOW WE STAND.
An Important Letter from the Governor.


An Important Letter from the Governor.
he EXPLAINS IN AN OPEN LETTER TO HON.
JOHN W. DANIEL THE TRUE STATUS OF
vIRGINIA's FINANCIAL CONDITION, AND
TELLS EXACTLY wHATTHE STATE Is ABLE
TO DO.
The following letter prepared by the
Governor explains itself:
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA,
GOVERNORS OFFICE,
RICHMOND, Va, November %, 1885. }
Hon. John ". Daniel, Lynchburg, Va:
My Dear Sir,-In response to your ques-
tions IN reference to the proportion the
public revenues of the State bear to the
public expenses, have the honor to say
that from statements just carefully pre-
pared by the Auditors at my request, l am
convinced the annual revenues for some
years to come will not exceed 81, 700, 900,
and that if all the outstanding obligations
of the State should be funded in the bonds
of the Act approved February 18th, 1882,
known as the Riddleberger bill, except
those held by the institutions of learning,
the interest to be paid, added to the neces-
sary annual expenses, will about absorb
this income.
The figures now in the Offices of the Au-
ditors of Public Accounts to prove my as.
sertlon prove, too, that any other settle
ment involving the annual payment of in
terest greater than would be paid upon the
Riddleberger bonds will require the taxes
of the people to be increased, and that any
person advocating such settlement must
be prepared, therefore, to favor such in
crease Of taxation.
The inability of the State to make set
Element now, with greater amount of
principal and interest than the Riddleber-
ger act, whatever she might have done
once, arises from an increase in her annual
expenses, such as maintaining two addi-
uonal lunatic asylums, one for the white
and one for the colOred race land if this
debt matter is not speedily settles we may
probably have to erect two more to accom-
modate the crazy people on that subject);
the maintenance Of Normal and Collie
giate Institute for our colo-ed people, and
school for the education Of our female
teachers; the aid to the Confederate Home
for our poor and disabled soldiers, over
whose shoulders rest no mantle of Govern
mental protection; assistance to citizens of
the State who have lost a limb, or an eye,
OR have been seriously disabled by wounds
SO as to prevent them from performing
manual labor, and whose wounds grow
more burdensOme with the increase of years;
the increased expenses of our criminal
charges since the abolition of the whipping
pest. and the increased appropriations to
our public schools. These are some of the
necessary and additional obligations in
Cured, while in the same period the State
taxes have been reduced from fifty to forty
cents IN tina nna hundred dollars
have the honor to append an estimate
in detail of the annual expenses of the gov
eminent.
I am, very resptf'y, your obt. servt.,
FITzHUGH LEE
Then fo,ows detailed statement of the
expenses OF the State. showing them to ag
gregate the sum of LOST. 1894, and that
the annual interest on the Riddleberger
bonds, if thsy should be funded under that
Bill, would be 1854, 0O0-mxking the an
nual expenses 81. 705 "a. AS the estimated
revenue is only SO, 700, 900, it is wident that
the State C ,uld not, under the present rate
of taxation, pay more than would be re-
quired unler the Rddleberger Bill. The
Governor puts the cost of the General As
sembly at $50 900, though the cost of that
body since December /, 1881, has been
1927, 559 0j, averaging an annual cost of
$85, 511.el.
After giving the detailed statement of the
income AID expenses of the State as fur
/ nished by the G Dvernor, the Richmond
| State adds
| "With an income of about So, 700. 900, how
is it possible for the State to do more than
pay the interest on the Riddleberger settle
ment-in + ,und numbers $650,O00? Take
these figures; ponder them; keep them; and
whenever you need them in defence of your
State place them squarely before the eyes
of every coupon lawyer, every coupon tax
payer and every other man, who though he
opposes tn, Riddleberger settlement be-
cause it is forcibls readjustment is guilty
at the san'e time of forcibly readjusting
his own debts to the State.
The people of Virginia are sick Of the
quibblers and evaders who refuse to see
the States condition. They are weary of
both the ignorant and the informed who
persist in their warfare upon the Common
wealth llto reputation some of them, at
least, will refuse to be dragged, but, their
wrath fully aroused, they will bury these
enemies Of the State under ever-increasing
majorities AS for the petty spectators in
the States msfortunes, the traders in cou-
pons, their busy agents, their unhappy
dupes, and the corporal's guard of coupon
lawyerlets, they will be brushed away by
the people IS sickiy fly by the hand of a
strong mau."