READJUSTERS, or REFUNDERS. The name applied to a political party in Virginia• from 1878 to 1885, which favored the `readjustment' or sealing down of the State debt. At the close of the Civil War the public debt of Virginia amounted to about $41,000,000, which was in creased by the extravAg,anee and corruption of the reconstruction governments. On account of the general impoverishment of the time, the in terest account could not lie met, although the rate of taxation had been enormously increased. An act of 1870-71 to refund the debt was re pealed in the following year, but the repealing act was not sustained by the courts. Still the arrears of interest increased, and by 1878 the State was pretty well divided between 'debt pay ers' and `readjusters.' During that year the Legislature passed the 'McCulloch Bill' which provided for the issue of new bonds to be ex changed for outstanding bonds dollar for dollar, and to bear interest at 3 per cent. for ten years, 4 per cent. for twenty years, and 5 per cent. for tell years, making an average of 4 per cent. for forty years. The `readjusters' organized them selves into a political party, and succeeded in gaining a majority of the seats in both Houses of the Legislature. Their leader was H. H. Rid dleberger, who won notoriety by his bill declar ing that the State ought not to pay any part of the interest upon the public debt which had accrued during the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction. The bill proposed to scale down the public debt from $31,102,571 to $19,605,190, and to devote to its payment only that portion of the State revenues for which no other use could be found. The bill passed both Houses of
the Legislature, but was vetoed by the Governor. In the State election of 1881 the readjusters, with the help of the Republicans, defeated the Conservative Democratic Party, which approved the _McCulloch bill, The readjusters now passed three important measures. The first two, popu larly known as 'Coupon Killers,' were designed to prevent the payment of State taxes by means of coupons from bonds issued in pursuance of the :McCulloch act and the act of 1571. The third measure was substantially the Riddleberger bill reenacted. The majority of the bondholders re fused to accept the settlement and tested the constitutionality of the 'Coupon Killer' acts in the courts. In nine decisions, generally known as the 'Virginian Coupon Cases,' the United States Supreme Court declared in substance that the later act forbidding the receipt in payment of taxes of those coupons which were received under the act of 1871 was an impairment of the obli gation of contracts in contlict with the Constitu tion of the United States and therefore void. in the legislative session of 1884, before the final decision was made, several acts were passed for the purpose of rendering the coupons worthless, and in the sessions of 1886 and 1887 still further attempts of this kind were made. Recently a final settlement in the nature of a compromise between the State and the bondholders has been effected, and the long-continued controversy over the debt question seems to have come to an end. Consult Scott, The Repudiation of State Debt (Boston, 1893).