Neither have I any sympathy for the people of the South who, having invested all their money in human flesh, found themselves at the close of the Rebellion paupers in more senses than one--being bankrupt in purse and unused to make an honest living by honest labor--too proud to work and too poor to loaf.
In a question of this kind, no one disputes the power of Virginia to contract debts to propagate opinions, erroneous or other, but it is a question whether the people of one generation have the right to tax--that is, enslave--the people of generations yet unborn.

The creation of public debts is pernicious in practice, productive of more harm than good.

What right have I to create debts for my grandson or granddaughter?
I have no right even to presume that I will have a grandson, certainly none that he will be able to meet his own debts in addition to those I entail upon him.

The character of the people called upon to settle the debt of Virginia, contracted in 1860, before or immediately after, differed radically from the character of the people who were called upon to tax themselves to cancel that debt.

Not only had the character of the people undergone a radical change; the whole social and industrial mechanism of the state had undergone a wonderful, almost an unrecognizable, metamorphosis.