READJUSTERS, or REFUNDERS, the name of a political party in Virginia, which passed several bills providing for the scaling and partial rejection of the public debt of the State. Virginia, at the close of the Civil War, was greatly improverished, burdened with a large indebtedness, and shorn of part of its territory, which had been erected into the State of West Virginia. The reconstruction govern ment added considerably to the debt, and a keen controversy arose over the question of meeting the obligations. An act passed in the legisla tive session of 1870-71 to refund the debt was repealed, but the repeal was declared uncon stitutional by the courts. In 1878 the legislature passed a measure known as the McCulloch bill, which provided for new bonds, to be exchanged at par for outstanding bonds, and to bear in terest at 3 per cent for 10 years, 4 per cent for the following 20 years, and 5 per cent for 10 years, when the principal would fall due. This act did not satisfy those opposed to payment of the debt in full, who became known as and included in their ranks both Democrats and Republicans. Under the leader
ship of H. H. Riddleberger they succeeded in getting control of the legislature, and passed a bill scaling the debt from $31,102,571 to $19, 665,196. This bill was vetoed by the governor. In 1:.:1 the Readjusters obtained complete con trol of the State, and laws were enacted in ac cordance with their policy, the same course being pursued in 1884, 1886 and 1887. The United States Supreme Court delivered nine opinions declaring the readjustment measures, so far as they prohibited the receipt of State bond coupons for taxes, as provided by the Mc Culloch law, to be in conflict with the provision of the Federal Constitution, upholding the obli gation of contracts. The State could not be coerced into payment, and matters remained unsettled until a compromise was agreed upon between the State and holders of the bonds.