Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-01-02
THE DEBT QUESTION.

TO The editor Of The alexandria Gazette:
II your paper of the 2S!h, in reply to
previous communication of mine upon the
debt question, you state, ''since the demo.
cratic party of Virginia acquesced in the
settlement of the Virginia debt according to
The terms of the Riddleberger bill, the l. S.
Supreme Court and the several courts Of
Virginia have decided that bill to be uucon-
stitutional, in that it impairs the obligation
of contract, &c." Permit me to say that
not SINCE" but before the democratic party
of Virginia acquiesced in that measure, the
Supreme Court Of the Z. S., and the high
est courts Of the State sanctioned the valid
tv OF the law designed to give effect to the
adjustment thus enacted. 1t was then and
only then, that the party took this stand.
And now the question is, shall it be as vacil
ating as the courts have been upon this
question. l believe that without the pledge
made TO the people to accept and maintain
this settlement, enough votes never would
have been drawn from the Readjuste ranks
for us to have carried the State, and those
men who trusted the party to do what
il socmnIy promised it would do, have q
moral right TO Insist upon the fuifillment
OF those promises. You further say that
thousands Voted the democratic ticket
who never acquiesced in the Riddleberger
settlement" &C., | would say in reply,
whether they did or not, they had no right
to expect the party to do less than it
pledged itself to do. and cannot blame 9th
ers who thought differently, if they demand
that Just what was promised shall be exc
cuted.
If this settlement as proposed, and the
Riddleberger bill is 10 be set aside, and pay
ment in full be made, let it be the act Of the
u. S. courts. but don't, | pray, call upon
the party that has given the pledges that
the democratic party has, 10 faithfully exc
cute all of its provisions, &c, to repudiate
and swallow all ofits fair promises. They can
only be free from them when they have
made every effort to make the settlement
n success.
~" in your paper of same date asks:
does Inquirer believe that party pledge
should he maintained when opposed to the
Constitution Of the United States as inter.
preted 10y the highest courts of the land, or
as matter Of morals, does he think that
the State of Virginia as now represented by
the democratic party should refuse to pay
that which the same court has repeatedly
and recently decreed that it owes?" In re-
ply to the first inquiry | have to say that as
the party pledge was made, and with all the
lights before it that it now enjoys, it should
be maintained AS regards the matter of
noras' after many Of the decisions of the
Supreme Court within the past twenty years
or so, it is about the last place on earth /
should 60 10 imbbe anything of a moral
nature. No State courts Il care not by
what party constituted have ever shown
more ''bas" than has this same Supreme
Court of the United States in the past
twenty years, and upon every question of a
political character that has been before it,
when it was to the interest of the Malone
party in Virginia to sustain the debt ques-
ton, it was by that court sustained. Now
that the democratic party have it in hand,
and confusion to it would ensue should it
fail, they excuse themselves. Excuse me
from looking to that quarter for the settle
ment of any principle of morality.
I have never asserted that the party
should have taken the position upon this
question that it did at Lynchburg and re-
affirmed few months back, land that after
the decisions were rendered in many of
these cases referred to, but having taken it,
is is plain to my mind that its obligation is
greater to keep sacred its own promises
and pledges, which it we'll understands,
than it is to assist in carrying out the man
dates of courts that don't seem to know
their own minds from one term to another;
and some of whose decision are considered
80 outrageous and fagrantly unconstitu.
tional as to call forth legislative investiga-
ton. INQUIRER.
Clarke county, January l.
thv cyupat ha Dds in pnipa ap1 froot