Wheeling Register

Now They Fix Up West Virginia's Debt
The Boston American Traveller, like
Dawes and Hoar, tries to find good rea-
sons for its advocacy of an alliance be-
tween the Mahoneites and the Republi-
cans of Virginia. It repeats in order to
this end a falsehood which we have
more than once exposed—exposed in
vain, however; for no northern Repub-
lican journal (except perhaps The Nation)
appears to be capable of even believing,
much less of telling the truth about the
Southern people. Here is what the
American Traveller says:
"But it is not true that the Virginia
Readjusters are in favor of repudiating
the debt of Virginia. Their position in
regard to that debt is this: The State
called West Virginia was cut out of the
State of Virginia proper by the sword,
a sort of Caesarean operation, an act of
war, and which has done the Republi-
cans much injury: and the Readjusters
very justly say that she should assume
and pay her proportion of the old State
debt.
How, then, can the Read-
justers fairly be called repudiaters,
when all they require is that West Vir-
ginia shall pay what she owes, and not
leave Virginia to pay what she does not
owe"
The above is so bald a falsehood that
no intelligent man is excusable for re-
peating it. The facts are as follows:
In 1871 the debt of Virginia, includ-
ing West Virginia, was in a lawful man-
ner ascertained to be, in round num-
bers, forty-five millions of dollars. Vir-
ginia set aside one-third of this debt to
West Virginia, and undertook to pay
two-thirds herself. She issued her bonds
for her share. Now, in 1881, the Readjusters propose to repudiate one-third
of the bonds, and reduce Virginia's
share to less than twenty millions,
and this in contempt of the decision of
the highest court in Virginia that the
whole debt is lawfully owing by this
State. All of Virginia's post-bellum
Governors have recognized this debt of
thirty millions as one for which Virginia
is morally and legally bound. So has
Legislature after Legislature. So have
the courts, including the Supreme Court
of the United States. Yet it is more
than one-third of this last debt that the
Readjusters propose to "eliminate."
It is almost ludicrous to talk of as-
signing these last twelve millions to
West Virginia, when we look at the
figures. Behold: Virginia assigned
fifteen millions to her daughter ten
years ago. The interest upon that sum
for ten years ($900,000 a year) has in-
creased West Virginia's debt to $24,000,-
000. Now add twelve millions more (as
the Traveller says), and West Virginia's
present debt is $36,000,000. Consider-
ing that that State has only about $150,-
000,000 of taxable values, thirty-six mil-
lions would seem to be rather too large
a debt to be easily borne.—Richmond
Dispatch.