Year: 1877

SPEECH OF EX-GOv. GILBERT c. WALK
ERA FULL DISCUSSION OF TIL


MERITS OF THE PRESENT CANVASS
WHAT REPUTATION MEANS-THl


DUTY OF EVERY CITIZEN TO TIL


STATE-A SPLENDID PLEA FOR HON
! ESTY.


Before an audience that filled the Hal


of the Young Mems Christian Associa


ton to suffocation, Ex-Governor Gilbert


q. Walker delivered an address on the


paramount issue in the present canvass
in Richmond on last Tuesday evening
We give the following compendium
of the speech taken from the Richmond
Enquirer. 1t has the ring of the pure
metal, and we hope that every voter in
the State may either read or hear it read
before he casts his ballot at the ensuing
election. We cannot see how even the
aspiring demagogue can read it without
being disgusted with all the fuss and
flummery that is now being used to
Influence thevoters of the State of Vir-
ginia to commit parricide on their dear
old mother Virginia. Co.


After an appropriate introduction,
Governor Walker said:


Already has the State of Virginia suf-
fered untold millions of loss i'm capital.
immigration, and enterprise by her
equlvocal position as to her indebted
ness. The continued agitation of the
subject, the uncertainty that surrounds
it, the wild vagaries, ignorance, and
Misrepresentation which have more or
less prevailed regarding it, have all
tended to unsettle public confidence
and seriously impede


THE PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT
Of the State. It is time that the aues-
tion was settled-withdrawn from the
areDa of politics and placed beyond the
pale OF controversy. But WHY should
there be any controversy about our pub
lie debt? Was not the debt honestly,
legally incurred, and did not the State
receive full value for every bond she is
sued? If these questions be answered
in the affirmative, as they surely must
be, then why should not this honest
debt, honestly contracted, be honestly
paid?


Passing to the consideration of the
obligation, the speaker said:


Cur obligation is to pay the debt to
whomsoever may hold it. and it's sa-
credness is in no wise affected or les
sened whether it be held by foreigners
or citizens, by bankers, farmers, rich
men, poor widows, or colleges. Why,
then. should it not be paid?


Is it urged that because of the divis-
ion of the State and the destruction of
property by the war our obligations
have been cancelled and our liability
There have been men, 1 am
sorry to say, bold enough to make even
this preposterous proposition.


THE FUNDAMENTAL ERROR


of this proposition, however, is that it
has not the slightest foundation in Ell
ther public law, equity, or morals
Even if as an original proposition it
were possessed of any merit the action
of every Legislature since the war has
utterly superseded and destroyed it. \


Conceding al! that has been urged
against that bill to be true--which it is
our just liability for the debt les
sened or shaken in the slightest degree?
Was it not clearly within the compe-
tence of the Legislature to enact that
bill into a law? And was not the law
A VOLUNTARY TENDER OF SETTLEMENT
by the State to her creditors? Unques-
so, and so affirmed by the
highest judicial tribunal of the State
a tribunal which for purity, integrity,
and profound ability and knowledge of
the law, is the peer of any court in the
nation.


1t has been charged that the act was
hastily and inconsiderately passed, and
by improper means; but the charge is
utterly baseless. In my second message
to the Legislature, under date of the Sth
of March, 1870, after giving detailed
statement of the assets and liabilities of
the State, among other things recon-.
mended re- organization of the State
debt upon the general plan subsequently
incorporated into the funding bill. 1t
was before the Legislature and the peo-
pie for more than year before it was
acted upon. In my annual message of
December following again


CALLED ATTENTION TO THE SUBJECT.
Some three months afterwards, accord
ing to my best recollection, by request
of the Chairman of the Finance Com
mittee of the Senate and House of Del
egates respectively, drafted bill
which was submitted to Joint meeting
of both committees. After some two or
three meetings the bill was amended
and adopted, and the chairman of each
committee was directed to report it to
his house and press it to its passage
After some amendments to the third
section by the Senate the bill passed the
Legislature by large majority. How
can it be said that measure which had
virtually been before the people and the
Legislature for thirteen months was in
considerably passed? If the bill were
corruptly passed it was done without
my knowledge. Had 1 been informed
that it had been passed


BY CORRUPT INFLUENCES,


or that it was in anywise tainted with
fraud, it is unnecessary for me to say
that would have stamped it with my
condemnation by an Executive veto.-
Why did not these gentlemen who
make the charge prove it when the op-
portunity was afforded them at the next
session of the Legislature, when COM
mittee was raised for that purpose, or
ganized to convict if they could estab-
lish the facts? It is a grave thing to
charge a Legislature with corruption,
and ought not to be made except upon
substantial proofs.


THE FUNDING BILL


constituted but one element of finan-
cial policy, the others being the applica-
ton of the assets of the State to the pay
ment of the public debt, the reduction
of State expenses to the lowest degree
consistent with efficient administration
together with an assessment of proper
ty as prescribed by the constitution.
have shown how the policy has beer
treated. And after this, in my judg
ment not exaggerated statement of it, il
there any wonder that our financia
condition has become truly doplorable.
I am firmly of the opinion that if th'
policy in its entirety had been faithful.
carried out ...
THE PRINCIPAL OF OUR DEBT


would have been reduced to 5000, ,O0'


or less, the interest upon which woult


have been regularly paid, and withou


any increase of the rate of taxation. II


fact, if the policy of drawing the supper


for our schools mainly from a capitatiol


tax, which I twice recommended to tn


Legislature, had also been adopted, tax


alton upon property might long ere thi