Year: 1875




To the Editors Of the Dispatch:


Will you permit the use Of your columns
to correct q few mistakes into which your
able journal has fallen concerning the con.
fercnces of the anti-funders," so far as l
am concerned:


Your enterprising reporters have given to
the public what they have supposed to be
the proceedings of those gatherings. These
reports have been Of course very imperfect,
and in some respects entirely Incorrect.
Your reporter, among other things, has
represented me rs u leading spirit So
far from deserving that honor, l was
absent at the Circuit Court of my
county when the first two meetings were
held. know Of no political honor which /
would consider more honorable than to be
. leading spirit" in movement which is,
| believe, to deliver my adopted State from
| the hurdeusome and iniguitouS provisions


of the "funding BILL" But am happy to
say that this movement is in the hands of
older, wiser, and better men than /, at
| whose feet | shall ever be proud to sit and
learn lessons of wisdom, When their de-
| liberations become fully known, as | have no
doubt they soon will be, it will he found
| that, so far from plotting treason, the mea-
sures inaugurated 10y them will command
| the approval of the great body of our citi-
ZanS.


Considerable fault has been found by the
friends of the "funding bill " that the meet
ings of the conference were held in private,
while | believe that it would have been bet
ter to have held these meetings in public, be-
cause think the movement has ten times the
strength with the people that 1t has in the
General Assembly yet cannot see why the
"anti-funders" have not the same right to
confer in private US the Conservatives" or
"RepnblicanS," or the " bondh0lders' have
to caucus privately over matters of interest
to them.


Your reporter, in his report of the afore'
said meetings, styles me Republican, to
which have no more objection than had
when your paper published me fourteen
months since as a Conservative. The fact
is, that while | always have been, and still
am, in sympathy with what are known as
Republican principles, yet, recognizing the
fact that the sSSre now Of chiefeSt interest to
the people of Virginia is the equitable re-
adjustment of the State debt; and further,
the fact that the Republican party of Virginia


is as deep in the tunding-bill mud
as is the Conservative party in the
funding-bll mire, l have preferred to
cut loose from partisan affiliations on
this issue, and was elected upon this Issue
as an Independent, pledged to wage war OF
determination against what l conceive to be,
the oiant intqity of the present decade. l
shall therefore cooperate with Conservatives
or Radicals, Democrats or Republicans, black
or white. OF every race, color, and previous
condition, to weaken and destroy the pre-
sent unjust arrangement of the so-called State
debt; and while / firmly believe the most
honorable and successful method would be
by striking directly at the root of the giant
evil by means of an amendment to the
Constitution of the State, yet shall CO.
Operate with any measure less radical 10 It's
operations which shall seem likely to effect
the desired end. will only add that | be-
licye it to be equally to the interest of the
people and the 5ondholders that there should
be an equitable readjustment of the State
debt. But if the question resolves itself
down to an issue between the "fuding bill"
settlement and repudiation, declare unhesi-
tatingly for reputation. In other words, L
prefer it as lesser evil than the ruin OF our
public schools, the destruction of all our
material interests, and the stopping Of the
wheels of Government


Respectfully, &c, GEORGE G. ROUND.


MIR. ROUND cannot reinforce his scheme by
calling in the aid Of the public schools. His
reputation scheme would do the State
more damage than dozen funding laws
such as the one now in force, and wouldalso
ruin the pnblic schools.


The men who are willing to be taxed to
pay the public debt are the men who are will
ng to be taxed to support the public schools;
whilst the men who clamor about paying q
AK of five dollars on thousand dollars worth
If property are not those who can be relied
lpon to support the public schools. Trust
hem not. "They're fooling you."


A Haytian negro has been condemned to
leath for capnibalism. When arrested ne
lad the head Of q human victim in hls basket.