Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-10-03
SUNDAY........o..OCTOBER 3, 1856
An Important subiect.

III TIE tHOTts OF Aho iO'S'S" """N
holders 20 food the Virginia Treasury
with worthless coupons shall succeed,
the men who will have aided them in
this raid upon the Commonwealth and
without vho, assistance all their efforts
would nave been IN vain, will have a
lorg reckoning With the outraged peo-
pie Of this prosecuted state.
There are s. 100000 Of maturei
coupons Of Virginia bonds now ou!-
standing. The coupons maturing An
nually amount to About a million OF
dollars. So that by this time next year
there will DO about $4,000 900 OF ma
tured coupons knocking at the doors OF
the Treasury, unless, indeed, the lsbors
Of the State officers shall prove fruitless,
and before that time the Commonwealth
be made bankrupt by her own sons.
Nobody outside Of the State can fleece
her. If done at all, it will be done by
Vnginians.
This is really the most important sub
iect claiming the attention OF the Viz
ginia public at the present time. 1t Is
one that comes home to the hesrths
and homes Of the people. A bankrupt
Commonwealth and sn impoverished
people will come together. 1.-THE State
officials have constructed only mud
bsnk that is TO he swept away by cor
rupt courts, fAi,hless public servants,
ard the bondholders' agents, then the
evils we have referred to are bound to
come, and that speedily, upon this once
proud "Old Dominion"
These remarks have been suggested
to US by the following paragraph IN the
Alex.pdria Gazette Of Thursday:
"And now Mr. Royals property has been
levied upon Tor State taxes, though he had
previously offered TO pay them win cOu-
mons Of course he viii sue for damages
the state officers at Hlchmond VINO Order
these levies I'D tOpay he damages nobody
except then selves ana theG bohus hbu
would care but ~ sll the other people ~
the state are taxed 10 DAY them, II ~ quite
a different Ibing. The tender Of coupe
by decisions ~ tue | nl,ed states courts Is
equivalent "a Il pA'Inen OF taxes Inc ue-
cisiOrs OF such courts override those OF inc
state courts NhV. the, In the nEue OF
common sense, should the state he subject
10 The cOniiI uAl mulci iug That u the he;es
tary consequence ~ such ievies rs the one
refrrIed ,oP The United States courts nave
been con paTRtiVely mild heretofore lh ih@ir
awards oi punitive damages IN such suits ~
Mr. EoNall viii nOS bring; nut "a Huch
suits ale becoming mOnotonous. aud are
cICwdlrg The docEets. 20 Ne detfimeu; or
other BUSH ear. ~ viii not be at all sur
prisiugM they stop the stiffness a. once. AS
iLev should do 10y AZ award large enough
tobrlng the state officers 10 Their senses
II the State officers at Richmond
who order these leries we're acting for
themselves they would Of course do
exactly as they are doing. For surely
no man would hesitate to expend ten
thousand or hundred thousand dollars
in order to save two OF three millions.
If the State officers were to follow the
advice OF the Gazette, there would be
not a dollar OF money paid into the
State Treasury for years, provided the
Taxpayers could get coupons whero-
with to pay their taxes. To open the
Treasury to coupons would be to invite
the payment Of taxes in coupons, and
the invitation would surely be accepted.
Either this, or else the Legislature
would be compelled to assemble IN ex-
ira session and frame new law in
tended to protect the Commonwealth
from the coupon.speculstors.
What good purpose our Alexandra
contemporary or any other person OF
paper can hope to accomplish by throw
ing obstacles in the way Of the State
officers, and try ing to persuade them tC
turn over the Commonwealth to th'
tender mercies OF the men who are
seeking to drain her Of her hic's blood
we cannot conjecture. Their conduct
is rendered all the moro unAccountablC
by the additional fact that if their
policy were adopted by the Democratic
State authorities, the voters would in
dignansly dismiss these fAithless an
thorisies, and fill their places viii
MAhoneites. Again and again have tn
= people decided ~ the ballot,box tina
they will pAy no more Of the pnbli
= debt than is provided for by the RID
DLEBEKGER bill and yIin and agAi
has the Democratic party pledged itsel
10 stand by that bill.