The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1912-10-22
John Hamilton and the Virginia Debt


her financial embarrassment many ways obscted her
prosperity As punitive for the Christening of Virginia
ing Virginia by penal encments that did apply equally every
lection of one for punishment from guilty
OF the same Gnse If punishment had been designed there
drawing the numerous land grants which had been generously
was allowed to emerge from the without
acre and Congress far from Withdrawing the lands by which
the succeeding the The autonomy Virginia
disturbed Upon Virginia alone fell penalty il due to any
Virginia owed large debt held great part by loyal citizens
already as heavy she could bear in her entirety and
o states might wei have relieved Virginia and have done JUS
nee TO her creditors by making some allowance for the division of
enemy so long as she waTred upon the Union confidently
treatment the National to foreign foe In
our War with Mexico it became our interest to acquire large part
armies and were in possession of her capital She helpless
% pom G o ec S PDe policies would not permit
given by any other nation in the World TIA" "0'o nave been
citizens h held American s Goyern%en went still further Many OF
had been one OF the that precpated hostts
eminent in addition to the money consideration 100000 which
we paid for territory agreed Mexico from all
ol our citizens and to pay them out of our Treasury This
which te D@a S es Msxo place Virginia the basis
Government sufficient allowance made to her to COM
pensae least for the her public pesupivey
answer to such sue suggestion that would be fair West Virginia
onde that in her pope are u not " b s pompt re-
The public Improvement for which the debt was large part
when the Civil War began their advantages being mainly confined
no the dewater and piedmont sections of the
for any part of the debt of the old State "s"""
In determining the relative obligations Government and
first mportan 81 gS virginia concerning the debt is of the
organized and admitted the Union own peo
PIE but in far larger degree for the benefit Of the people of
cions would not have been invented great interest
b baa n sppTem s of WS If had
TO the loyal cause the boder-state policy of Mr. Lincoln
link for the completion of the wishes of the people most
eCty involved would have had the slightest attention
war {e5 should be forgotten that the State Of vorg before
the National Government One of her earliest patriotism as
an independent state was the ceson to the Government of her
wch more than have been paid into the National Treas
sentiment has its place We stimulate the ardor of patriotism
embemac Of all material force ypifes glorious Nation
heroic dead may surely pardoned Americans shall feel
deep personal interest in the good and fortune of State
SO closely identified with the early of the Republic State
whose soil mingled the dust Of those whom ali States
the OF independence and the chief protector of the Ma
Virginia the Territory and nfeS ma S no f
be improper , to refer Little further to that subject On March
represented by an unstable and imperfect Union under Articles
of the Ohio River and between Great Lakes on
the north and the Mississippi on the vest This cesson made
United States, and time when crushed
the Revolutionary War purchasabe at the merest trle
Within after the adoption the Constitution the Score
Etary of the Treasury submitted Congress plan
all Of these lands which adopted by Congress under
the disposition OF the lands nagated began
the and
credit of the United States has stood the highest the world
In stating that Virginia made this ignore the
tact that about the time made by other
certain underlined claims held by them in the
think authorized the that the ownership
the territory lay Virginia She had title extending far back
the 1909 of he whole north
miles OF Old Point Comfort extending from
northwest but what still conclusive she had prior
ceson reduced to possession and then held the by armed
force under her pioneer general George Rogers
ceons made by New York Connecticut other
States of claims and made the purpose quiet
ing rather than creating title. may however
true to the reputation Of her founders for enterprise thrift