[excerpt] ... If you got my last message, it must satisfy you that Virginia is honest and will in due time ... perform all her promises. You do not know - you cannot be presumed to understand our circumstances - and you do us injustice. No man or set of men can be so capable of knowing how much taxation the people of Virginia can stand, ... as the people and government of Virginia. Such of the foreign creditors as cling to the exaggerated estimates, put upon the wealth of this state by my predecessor ... after they are exploded and dissolved in thin air, arrogantly assume to understand our resources better than we understand them ourselves ... If I could make you comprehend all the facts, you would profoundly honor Virginia for the way in which she is persisting in the right and doing the utmost she can, in spite of the unmerited and unretracted denunciations of the Council of foreign bondholders…I notice that ... you continue to censure Virginia for having stopped the process of funding in tax-receivable coupon bonds and having provided that all coupons thereafter issued should be non-tax-receivable ... if this action had not been taken ... almost nothing would be left for supporting the government. In that case the State and its debt would dissolve in common ruin…But you will say such a catastrophe should be averted by increasing the general taxation. Ah! then you assume to know, better than we do, how much taxation our people can bear. Such an increase of taxation as would immediately pay full interest and at the same time support the government, would bring certain disaster to the creditors as well as our own people. The effect would be to produce wide-spread revolt against the debt ... - Virginia knows - and you have no right to impeach the wisdom or the integrity of her decision ...