Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1911-05-05

lHey uhNG btfu Natttt hiiph " sNNN ="
the Virginia debt. The politicians o
OF the stste have for ycars been delud
ing the people NJ the state by declsrinl
that West Virginia owed nothing anC
republican state machine tsrned dea
err 10 the opportunities ~ the repre-
s,nttiyes ofthe old state to meet viii
II m with the idea OF settlement anc
o ferng to let West Virginia, settl'
practically on her own tersas.
Now that the supreme Court Of tbt
! United States has rendered judge
ment against the state Of West Vir.
gil.ia for about 1000, 900, and the mat.
! ter Of interest 10 be adjusted, West
/ Vrgini has rudy a~aking; We are
de5t Of any where frow $7,000,00t
to SO 600 900 that must be meet with
out tnv evasion.
Congressman Hamilton the Fourth
District has introduced bill in Con-
gress providing TINT the United States
snail pay whatever Indebtedness West
Virginia may owe and the rest of our
Congressional delegation have signified
their Intentions Of standing by Mr..
Hamilton in his efforts to get the Con-
gress to favorably consider the IN after
On this matter there are wide diver
gence Of opeuion. We give below edi-
toralos from the Richmond News
Leader and also from the Wheeling
Register showing how the matter 10
viewed in both states.
The News Leader says:
1t sppesrs that Representative Ham
ilton, Of West Virginia, is more or less
serious in his proposal that the federal
government shall pay the debt Of West
Virginia to Virginia and has introduce
ed bill into congress for this object.
The chief purpose Of West Virginia
and of Mr.. Hamilton, we imagine, il
to secure delay, for how any really
WIN liNNNhS ISt5oii toult lhAt
the federal Cover lment Is In any wise
bound, morally, for this debt, is hey on
our mprehsnsion. 1t is amazing that
some Of our newspapers have intimated
doubt on the subject. West Virginia
can In no wise be put in the category
OF conquered provinces whose oblga-
tons are assumed by the conqueror.
Constructively, at least, ana under
some shadowy forms of law, this part
of Virginia was erected into a separate
and independent state aud put on pre-
clsely the same footing a. all other
states, possessed with the same powers
and subject to the same duties and the
same obligations; it took its place in
the federal union asaquasi sovereignty
and was therefore subject to all of the
burdens of such status.
AS well pretend, and it could ne pre-
tended with good deal more force and
sense, that the federal government was
morally obligated to assume the in-
debtedness Of the Southern states that
ii had conquered. These asserted their
independent sovereignty, and were
overwhelmed by a superior force and
forced into a union Eagainst their
Will, despoiled, broken, borne down by
debt and distress The federal
government treated them as conquered
provinces, and only under cruel con-
permitted them to resume a
nominal sovereignty and the appear
ance of their ancient rights.
The state of West Virginia, on the
contrary, or rather some of the people
of that section Of Virginia, voluntarily
them selves from the mother
state, asked permissio of the federal
government to erect the territory they
occupied into separate state, with all
the powers, rights, prerogatves and
obligations Incident to such a state.
70 pretend that conserving this, what
ever may have been the incidental adj
vantages accruing to the federal gov
eminent, that government assumed
the obligation of its Indebtedness is ab-
suFd. Neither is this matter of in.
difference to the state of Virginia, be-
cause the state of Virginia would be
compeli ID to contribute its prorata
share Of the debt which the new state
owed to the old state. This of itself
would aceentuate the absurdity of the
clam. These considerations could not
have escaped intelligent men and edu
Gated lawyers, and hence the effort to
Induce the federal government to paw
tins debt can only be regarded as
further effort to delay to slde-step and
to avoid theUust debt which West Vir-
gInia has been adjudgsd to owe the
mother state.
In view of the experience which Vir-
gina has had in her efforts to collect
some part of this obligation, recognized