Year: 1871




TO the Republican Members Of the Leg
istdture


GENTLEMEN-It is always bad policy to
do wrong. Men, parties and governments
can do nothing more unwise than wrong.
1t is a thing that sticks and curses. 1t is
like the blood of Nessus upon the shirt of
| Hercules it eats into the flesh and de-
stroys it overcomcs the mightiest strength;
1t conquers the conqueror it gaDgrenes the
most stalwart sinews; it lays low the
stoutest vitality.


Not to pay your honest debts What re-
Election aftlicts a proud man more keenly
than the thought that he cannot do so +?
What stamps the man more emphatically
as a scoundrel than the belief that he can
and will not pay? A great Commonwealth
is the exemplar of the morals of its people.
The State which deliberately dshonors her
good name, deliberately proclaims to the
world that her people have parted with their
morale.


| 1t may be q convenient thing to vote
yourself free OF honest debt. 1t may please
the popular mood for the day. But there
is such a thing as the sober second thought
OF the people. There is that sentiment in
+ the human breast which casuists call re-
morse. Some fine morning the people of
Virginia, who are honest, will wake up and
| find themselves disgraced; and that their
disgrace is of the meanest sort. They will
observe the world pointing their finger at
them, as q people who don't pay their
debts. Accounts will come to them of the
distress which has been inflicted by their
repudiation. A lady, for instance, born to
wealth and comfort, with children to sup
port, and husband dead while fighting
the battles of the Commonwealth under
Lee or jackson, has only few State bonds
left of large afiluence these have been
repudiated; and she has gone to the poor
house. Some striking incident of the sort
will get into the papers, and will go
makes all the world akin and all the
world will be saying that the State Of
Virginia is shamefully disgraced,
Then, what will the people of Virginia
do? They will rise up and curse the men
who brought this shame upon them. They
will demand that deep black lines of eter-
nal infamy be drawn on the journals of the
| Legislature, around the names that record
ed their disgrace.


Wrong is thing that sticks and curses.
1t may not hurt at first but it bides its
| time. 1t undermines the proudest repu-
tatons in the end. Itpursues like a keen
scented hound. No strength can shake it
off.


| No cunning can baflle,
| No art can elude it, t.
! Sooner or later it overtakes its victim,
and destroys him. oaa
What fools are they who think that the
people nfsnch State as Virginia viii tame
| ly submit to disgrace; and to the mean
disgrace Of swindling her creditors A few
years back what did they not sacrifice of
life and blood and worldly wealth to an
idea! And does any one suppose that they
will not now sacrifice the amount of any
tax that may be necessary, to the idea
Of good fame and name among the States
of this Union? Men play demagogue in
very dangerous way, when they expect to
recommend themselves to popular favor by
branding the name Of swindler upon the
forehead of Virginia. " thank thee, Jew,
for teaching me that word"


She will say to these men, "Villains,
take. back your mark, apply it to your
selves, it shall belong to you and yours
| forever"


appeal to the Republicans of the Legis-
| lature TO nave nothing to do with TINS horrld
business of reputation. Ours is Ma
tional party, and Virginia is State of this
Union. The nation will not permit any
State, by choosing to be infamous herself,
to bring infamy upon the common Union.
| As Vmginians, we must have nothing to do
with this dark work. AS Americans, we
must hold it in indignant execratlon.


The men who counsel it as policy, are
fools. The best policy is always the right.
The worst policy is always the aorong. But
whether it be good policy or bad, let us
stand to the riqH. If we were not right,
we could not stand all the abuse that is
hcaped upon us in the State. Whatever
strength we have is due to our adherence
unto the right, through good and evil re-
port.


The Republican party of this nation
cannot afford to countenance reputation.
Its responsibilities are too great to permit
a liberation Of Reputation in any branch of
its organization in any State. The Repub-
lican in Virginia who goes for reputation,
that instant ceases to be a Republican, and
becomes an outcast from the national par
| ty. Let no man try the experiment. beg
him as friend not to try it. Such is the


earnest advice to every Republican of


A VIRGINIA MAN.