Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1881 — THE PROGRESS OF REPUDIATION. [ARTICLE]

THE PROGRESS OF REPUDIATION.

The Repudintors have carried the day in Virginia. Their triumph is due to the open support of the Federal administration and to the large amount of money raised in Northern oities to oonquer the prejudices of uncertain voters. The Postoffice and the Treasury Departments, with the entire strength of the Internal Revenue Bureau, were used by Mahone in this campaign as if they were his personal dependencies. The negro vote was oast nearly solid for the Repudiation ticket, and joined with it were thousands of whites, glad of an opportunity to trample under foot a sacred debt, not a dollar of which can be charged to carpet-bag rule or to military government. What are the facts of this case ? The debt was contracted before the civil Avar, and it is represented by railroads, canals, turnpikes, institutions for the insane, dumb and d9af, and by universities and colleges founded or endowed. Every department of the State Government recognized it as completely valid and obigatory. After charging one-third of the original debt to West Virginia, as her just portion on separation, Mr. Mahone, in a written speech, delivered in Richmond Feb. 25,1879, said :

“ I would use my best endeavors to secure a vote of the people sanctioning a settlement at 3 per cent, for forty-five years, on the basis of $32,977,090.62. I would do so because I believe it to be right.’ Recently, in an address before the Union League in this city, Mr. Mahone declared: “If we carry the Legislature, as we hope to do, we shall adjust the debt on that basis ($20,000,000). On the other hand, our enemies assume a* debt of $33,000,000 —offering to pay $13,000,000 which tney do not owe. ” The Democrats adjusted this debt with the creditors, under what was known as the McCulloch bill, in a way that imposed no heavy burdens on the State, and yet saved its credit from dishonor. The Repudiators were not satisfied with that settlement. They rallied their forces in 1879, and carried the State. One of the first acts of the Legislature was to pass the Riddleberger bill, providing as follows : 1. Repudiation of $13,000,000 of the principal. 2. Taxation of the bonds, principal and interest.

3. Repeal i the provision making the interest coupv ns receivable for taxes. Gov. Holliday, Democrat, vetoed this scheme. The question before the people at the last election was practically, therefore, whether repudiation should be sustained or should be rejected. Upon that distinct issue the Republican party of the nation and the Federal administration took Malione’s side, and the result is before the country. The new Legislature will meet on the 6th of December, and it may be confidently assumed that the Riddleberger bill will be again passed, and this time it will be signed by the new Governor, a repudiator. . With a single exception, all the Judges of the Supreme Court will be chosen by this Legislature, so that it will bo packed in the interest of Mahone and of repudiation. The Republican party is now committed to repudiation. The Federal admin* istration, by the steady support and countenance given to the repudiators, have just elected for the Governor of Virginia a man who long ago mode a full profession of his faith in these words:

“As to the full and final payment or liquidation of the present enormous national debt, he that knows the American people and their utter deficiency in the high qualities of truth and integrity knows that snch an expectation is bat an idiot’s dream. “For ourselves, we shall rejoice when the crash comes. It is a debt contracted in the prosecution of an infamous and unnecessary war. ” The Attorney General of Virginia also proclaimed publicly, after the passage of the Riddleberger bill, that he was in favor of “ the rigorous application of the principles of readjustment to the national debt.” Is the Republican party prepared for the next step in this career? —New York Sun.