Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-03-24
WEDNESDAY......MARCH "a, 1886.
Our State Debt.

AN l1QIkHdut VI Rho So
gone to the expense Of circulating pho.
tographs of an overdue Virginia cou'
non. 1t is a facsimile of course, beng
4 photograph. The object of the crank
seems TO have been to reproduce the
words: Receivable at and after Ma
turity for all Taxes, Debts, and De-
mands due to the State" 1t is thir-
ty-dollar coupon, and those gentlemen
who have never seen a counterfeit cou'
non can be accommodated with the
sight Of one by calling at this Office
since some indignant Britisher has sent
us a specimen of the counterfeit
Commons. He has also sent us
a copy of the PaNMau Gazette
containing an article which shows
clearly that JOHN BULL has not yet
learned the complex nature of our COM
bined Federal and State system OF gov
ernments. The PaNMaH Gazette in
nocently supposes that Virginia has
been reduced to the last extremity in
her efforts to get rid Of the "cutworms
Of the Treasury" and that hereafter
the bondholders will have nothing to do
but clip off their coupons and sead them
across the ocean to America to have
them received here in payment OF the
State tax, just as if they were as good as
gold and silver. Our London contem-
porary enlightens its readers as follows :;
1.-THE game is virtually up for the
regulators, for there is no sign OF any
fresh legal loophole out OF which they
can creep. The State must apparently
either accept the coupons as cash, or re-
bel against the Federal Constitution,
now that the Supreme Court has de-
clared on all points the inviolability Of
the contract. Still, the advertisement
of the dishonor by Virginia of its own
coupons is a telling one, and may hasten
the surrender which seems inevitable"
"Rebel against the Federal Constitu-
ton " is good. 1t isproof positive that
the Gazette is in the dark. "The ad-
yertisement Of the dishonor " of Vir-
ginia to which that paper refers is the
counterfeit coupon. But this counter
felt coupon may prove to be the I'M
doing of the foolish creditor or bond
holder who caused it to be made.
What shall be said Of the men who
contend that Virginia has no right to
require the coupons to be proved gen.
uine, in the face Of the fact that those
coupons are openly counterieited IN
London? And the counterfeit is just
as good as the genuine coupon SC
far as any person not an expert car
testify. Why, the State might b'
flooded with these counterfeits, and no
even the collecting officers could detec
their real character. We doubt whether
the basement officers themselves coult
show wherein counterfeit coupon dill
fers from a genuine for let 1t not b
forgotten that the genuine coupons ar
as destitute of genuine signatures a
are the counterfeit coupons. All ar
on the same footing so far as the sigma
lures are concerned. The name
"GEoRGE RYE" on the genuine cou
pom is just as certainly counterfeit a
is the name of GEORGE RYE" on tn
bogus coupon.
We are inclined to think that tn
London crank has done the State o
Virginia a good service in this matter
Certainly he has done what ought for
ever to close the mouths Of the person
who are so confident that a counterfeit
Virginia coupon has never been seen.