Year: 1878

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competent to take care of themselves,
and propose to retain and maintain
what little of States rights is left them.


1t is well known that am in favor
of a fair, equitable and just settle
ment or readjustment of the Public
debt of Virginia, and especially do L
want speedy elimination of the nine
millions of war and reconstruction IN
terest, which, in 1866, was taken from
the people and given to the Bond
holder-a sum of money that we did
not owe then, do not owe now, and
never intend to pay and for that
measure Capt. Newberry, one OF my
competitors, voted, and when the
charge was made against him his
memory did not serve him, and never
would until the record was produced.
That measure, fellow-citizens, IS the
prime cause of all our financial trou-
bles in Virginia, and yet Capt. New
berry has the temerity to ask you to
send him to Congress. have always
opposed the Funding Bill, and never
will consent to pay the Public debt as
defined and ascertained by it. The
question was asked if | favored the
Barbour Bill, which was answered in
the affirmative. The principle OF the
Barbour Bill was nothing new to me,
for when | was in the House of Dele
gates, I874-5, then voted for
measure to require 10 cents OF the
taxes to be collected in money for the
support of the schools. | am an ad-
vocate of popular education, and look
upon the diversion Of the school fund
from its legitimate and constitutional
channel as a wrong and great public
calamity. One now seen and felt by
the whole country.


Now, my fellow-citizens, l have
thus briefly defined my position upon
all the questions in issue. l submit
it for your calm and careful conside-
ration, and believing that you will
Judge me from an honest standpoint,
l fear not the result. Many of you
know me personally as citizen and
soldier. | entered the Confederate
army as an Orderly Sergeant and re
tired from it at the close of the war
Colonel of the oath Va. Regiment,
and then identified myself with the
great Conservative party Of Virginia
at its formation, and with it have act
ed ever since ; the party that took the
shaCkles from SO many of our fellow
citizens and gave them political liber-
ty the party that met the hordeS of
political vultureS who came in the
wake of the federal army to feed and
fatten on the dead carcass of Virginia,
and drove them from place and pow
er. 1t is to this party, SO Sacrahcing
in spirit, so irresistible in action, so
splendid in its achievements, SO glori-
Gus in its history and SO magnanimous
in the hour of its victories, that | be-
long and, although my competitors
may denounce it, and say that it has
lead the country into bankruptcy and
ruined it, and that it stinks in their
nostrils, am proud to be an humble
member of that party which has
achieved so much for its country, and
has SO many good witnesses-honor-
able and true men-who helped to
make for it its history and give to it
its character. Men, who, | believe,
will resent the unjust imputationS made
against it. Fellow Conservatives, you
have stood in the past as solid as a
stone wall time after time have efforts
been made to break your ranks and
destroy your organization and impair
your power and influence, but every
effort has signally failed. The cause
is yours, the battle is yours, and the
victory shall be yours, if you are
only true to yourselves.


Very respectfully, your fellow=citi-
zen,


]. B, RICHMOND,
! October IS, 1873.