VIRGINIA. 



709 



G. Weazey. During the work of the revision, 

 Mr. Willard died, yet at a time when the great- 

 er part of it had been perfected, and the rest 

 so far advanced that Mr. Weazey, assisted chief- 

 ly by Ashton R. Willard, son of the deceased 

 Commissioner, and well acquainted with the 

 whole scope of the revision, and with the views 

 entertained about it by his father, to whom he 

 had been a constant assistant, has in due time 

 completed the work, and reported on it as the 

 act prescribes. 



VIRGINIA. The Legislature of this State 

 closed its session of 1879-'80 by final adjourn- 

 ment on March 9th, having passed during its 

 continuance a large number of acts and joint 

 resolution*, mostly of private or local interest. 



The most important bill of general interest 

 passed by the Legislature at this session, but 

 prevented from becoming a law by the Gov- 

 ernor's veto, was the Senate bill 176, entitled 

 " An act to reestablish the public credit of the 

 State," purporting to repudiate above $13,000,- 



000 of the hitherto acknowledged principal 

 of the State debt ; to cut off one half of the 

 promised interest upon the residue, and to 

 make nearly all of the residue itself depend on 

 the State, city, and county taxation. This bill 

 passed the Senate on February llth, by a vote 

 of yeas 23, nays 17. The House of Represent- 

 atives passed it on February 26th, with an 

 amendment, as reported from its Committee 

 on Finance two days before, striking the thir- 

 teenth section out of the original bill and in- 

 serting a new one instead, which amendment 

 was agreed to by the Senate at the night ses- 

 sion of March 1st, upon the motion and re- 

 marks made for that purpose by the author of 

 the bill ; the vote on agreeing to the House 

 amendment having stood yeas 24, nays 11. 



The Governor, to whom this bill was sub- 

 mitted for his approval, returned it to the Sen- 

 ate, accompanied with a communication setting 

 forth his objections in detail, and concluding as 

 follows : 



I can not put my signature in approval to this bill. 



1 respectfully return it to your honorable body in which 

 it originated, because I believe it to be in violation of 

 the Constitution of the State, in violation of the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, in violation of the spirit 

 which has ever moved and inspired the traditions ot 

 the Commonwealth and made her name so honored 

 among men. 



The veto was sustained by the Senate on 

 March 8th, as the number of votes for passing 

 the bill over it fell short of the required two 

 thirds being yeas 19, nays 16. That portion 

 of Governor Holliday's message to the Legisla- 

 ture respecting the said bill in which he offi- 

 cially states the cause and origin of the debt, 

 the benefits accrued, and still accruing, to the 

 State and her people from its having been con- 

 tracted, and the solemn declarations whereby 

 she has repeatedly recognized it and promised 

 to pay principal and interest was as follows : 



For many years our Commonwealth enjoyed the 

 rich bounties of her climate and soil, satisfied that her 

 people should live in inherited comfort and refinement, 



and that her sons should be the leaders of political 

 thought upon the continent. The time came when 

 activities operating upon other section^ >(' the country 

 impelled her to arouse herself lc>t with her mvut re- 

 sources she should be left behind in the march of ma- 

 terial development. She inaugurated a system of. in- 

 ternal improvements, and, for the purpose of effecting 

 them, went into the market and borrowed large sums 

 of money, of which she expended more than $34,000,- 

 000 in their construction within her present b<><. 

 For these sums of money so borrowed she executed 

 her bonds, and as the basis of credit as far back as 

 1838, pledged "the faith of the State to provide sulH- 

 cient funds, and for that purpose to levy adequate 

 taxes." This was the origin of the debt, the consid- 

 eration of which survives to this day in our midst, in- 

 creasing manifold the values of the property ; indeed, 

 without which, great portions of Virginia would be a 

 waste. It will not be denied that its origin was most 

 laudable and wise, and worthy of the faith the Com- 

 monwealth had pledged. She had no trouble in get- 

 ting the money, for the part she had always played in 

 peace and in war gave her a name the very synonym 

 of honor. 



She fulfilled her promises, and promptly paid the 

 interest as it fell due till the war came, and" with it its 

 attendant devastations and woes. While it lasted, she 

 was cut off from numbers of her creditors who were 

 scattered in this country and Europe, and the interest 

 failed to be met. But no sooner was peace proclaimed 

 than a General Assembly, composed of her best citi- 

 zens men of the old regime unanimously reaffirmed 

 the obligation. This was repeated in one form or an- 

 other not less than four times. For several years she 

 was under military rule, but when permitted to vote 

 she adopted by an immense majority, ^10,585 for, to 

 9,136 against about 23 to 1 u Constitution, which 

 fully admitted the sanctity of the debt, and in many 

 clauses provided for its payment. The earliest Gen- 

 eral Assembly under that Constitution made provi- 

 sion for it, and passed a funding bill which likewise 

 recognized it in its entirety. This bill, as to one of its 

 features, was repealed at the next session, but without 

 disputing in any way the amount of the debt. So 

 events moved on, with frequent repetition of these 

 views, till the fall of 1877 a General Assembly was 

 elected solely upon this issue. They went diligently 

 to work, and during the first session settled over again, 

 after long, able, and heated discussion, those mooted 

 questions the war and reconstruction, interest, and the 

 quantum of the debt and at its second session passed, 

 by a large majority, a bill which was based upon the 

 consent of the creditors, and was regarded by the out- 

 side world as honorable and fair. 



No bill of force ever became a law : and the act of 

 the last Legislature brought the debt within the pres- 

 ent rate of taxation. In the annual message sent a 

 few weeks ago to your honorable body I show how the 

 law was working admirably, and but for the impedi- 

 ments thrown in its way would have been a complete 

 succesSj and with the present revenues would in a 

 short time have discharged the annual expenses of 

 government, and of the public free schools, the in- 

 terest on the State debt funded in the new bonds, and 

 left a large surplus in the Treasury. 



The funding, of course, has ceased in presence of 

 this opposition, and a majority of this General Assem- 

 bly propose to abrogate its provisions. 



The Republican party of Virginia, repre- 

 sented by some 140 delegates, met in State 

 Convention at Staunton on April 22d, to select 

 delegates to the National Republican Conven- 

 tion to be held at Chicago on June 3d, and 

 also to nominate candidates for Presidential 

 electors. The nomination of an electoral ticket 

 at this time was opposed by a large proportion 

 of the delegates in attendance, who would have 

 it remitted to a future Convention called for 



