Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-02-09
The Recent Dcci.ious.

To tie Editor Of the Dispatch:
A correspondent OF your Sunday
edition. under the head Of 4" The Crl-
SIS " and signing himself " Chatham
is badly demoralized by the recent re-
volutionary decisions Of the United
States supreme Court in the coupon
cases.
Chatham " makes this remarkable
statement: d" 1t is rather amusing, If it
was not too serious matter, to witness
the futile strategy of our Legislature.
1t seems to be manifest they are at
their wits ends" And then he goes
on to recommend the appointment Of
three wise men. outside of the Lcglsla-
ture, to devise the ways and means of
circumyenting the coupon.
First, if the three wise men referred
to by "Chatham have or can devise a
better plan to settle the yexed queS-
ton than this or past Legislatures have
adopted. why have they not promul-
gated it through the press or the Legs
lature? Why have they kept their can
die under a bushel, and allowed our
silly Legislatures for the last ten years
to grope their way in the dark: VIII
not these three learned and wise gen
tlemen come to the rescue of an I'M
potent Legislature and down-troiden
and suffering State without waiting the
formality of invitation by commission:
But " Chatham" evidently does not
comprehend the situation, as he seems
to think the State has exhausted her
stock of ingenious contrlyanceS.
The fight, as far as the State is con
cerned, has just began. Picket-hring
has been going on for several years, II
is true. but the pickets are still at the
front. and not even the sklrmiSh line
has yet been engaged. Wait till the
pickets and the skirmishers are drawn
in. and the impregnable line of the peo-
pie is thrown forward against the enc
mics. foreign and domestic, OF the State.
ard Chatham will witness an alb
rupt termination of this "cruel war y
in the complete triumph Of the right of
the State to control her own internal
affairs.
1t is true that SO far only ingenious
contriyances, with one exceptlon-the
Barbour bill, vetoed by Governor HoI-
laday-haye been resorted to, and these
measures have only checked Temporal
rily the rayages Of the coupon. AL
ready these contriyances, however, have
made the holding and hucksterlng Of
coupons a very expensive luxury. They
have kept the ablest heads that money
could hire in constant motion, like the
shuttlecock, between the courts Of
Bond IL Co. in Virginia and
the Supreme Court of the United
States at Washington, and yet they
have not reached the beginning of the
end. The State will live forever, in
spite of Bond and Hughes, the Supreme
Court Of the United States, the coupon
holders, and their hired aiderS and
abettors in Virginia and she is rich IN
all manner Of contrivances necessary to
maintain her constitutional rights and
the liberties of her people. Already
this Legislature has originated and
passed enough contriyances to protect
her revenues for the next two years,
when other contriyances, If not eVectHat
remedies, will be adopted.
Intellectual as "Chatham y would
have the people believe the I" contri-
yances" heretofore adopted to have
been, the coupon-holders are heartily
sick and tired of their futile effort to
strip the people of the State OF their
sovereign powers and reduce the State
to mere corporation.
The " contrivances " Of their original
counsel to get their money by means OF
unconstitutional and revolutionary de-
cisions of courts, have proved them
selves utterly worthless, and the vaults
of our Treasury are as securely barred
against them as they were ten years
ago, and even more so, for the people
have resolved unanimously that they
will maintain the right OF the State 70
control the subjects Of taxation at all
hazards and at any cost.
But, aside from the Ingenious con-
triysnces " advertsd to by " Chatham,
there are two ways Of killing coupon
neither Of which has been resorted to
The first method is to starve the cou'
pom 10 death, and the second Is to poison
| 1t.
The trouble Is and has been with oul