The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-07-10
.heQntelliYetrr
Tho Virginia Election.

l
Perhaps it is on the vi hole and in Its
results, because that party Is sure to
control and give status to tie State ad-
ministration and the majority of Con-
gressmen thus elected. Two Senators
of Democratic views will also be chosen
to the Senate. Yet the Virginia DEM
ocratic party did not and could not
have achieved this victory unaided.
There is an element OF RepubliCanism
In Virginia, large in numbers and emf
nently respectable in ability, who take
issue with the majority in the matter
of policy towards the ex-rebels,
and who found themselves driven by
the course of the Wells party to the esup-
port of Walker. They held the balance
of power at an early period OF the can
vass and could have inclined the victory
to the Wells party just as surely as they
did TO tho Walker party. A representa-.
tive of these men was put on the ticket
with Mr.. Walker as the candidate for
Lieutenant Governor, in the person of
John F. Lewis, whose brother, Charles
F., was Gov. Peirpont's Secretary OF
State. A resident OF Rockingham,
which in the old times never gave any
thing but Democratic majorities,
Mr.. Lewis had been lifelong Whig.
He was chosen to tho Convention
of 1861 as a Unionist, and voted
against secession till the last. Nor
has he ever been anything but a
staunch friend OF the Government
since. He Is an able and worthy man.
There is no danger to the Government
in the election of such men. Another
representative of this element Is Lewis
Mckenzie, chosen to Congress from the
Alexandria district. He was Wing
in the oIden time, firm Republican
in 1860 and ever since. Joseph Segar,
who has been elected to Congress for
the State at large. was another old Vir-
ginia Whig, having frequently served
! in the Legislature. His status during
the war was that OF an Union man,
though we never had any great
faith in the strength of his patrio-
tism. he was elected to the low~
er House of Congress, and again chosen
| to the Senate, under the restored gov
ernment OF Virginia while the seat of
government was at Alexandria, but
was not admitted. 1t Is not probable
Virginia will be allowed a Congress-
man at large, so Mr.. Segar is likely to
stay Mt home. or the other Congress-
men we cannot speak, except that two
or three of them are Radical or Wells
Republicans.
knowing comparatively little here Of
the elements that entered into the con-
test over there, we can only judge by
cases like these where we happen to
know something of the men engaged in
1t. We cannot regard Lewis or Nc
KenZie as very bad rebels or likely 10
lend their help to movement which
they regarded dangerous to the
Government. Another instance will
help illustrate the nature of the
contest. Many of our West Vir.
ginia readers will remember John
Haw1hurst, of Accotink, who rep
resented Fairfax here in the Legisla-
ture of the restored government
during the war. Hawxhurst is
Quaker, man OF good deal
OF force mentally and morally and
most devoted Unionist, having been
one OF the original Virginia Republi-
cans. He suffered heavy losses at the
hands OF the rebels, and has been quite
prominent in Republican politics over
there since the war. Ifanybody should
ask us 10 name Virgi inia Republican
who could surely be depended on as
orthodox and simon-pure, we should
suppose Hawxhurst to answer the de-
scription. Yet he was for the Walker
ticket as against Wells. 1t is evident
the wing of the Republicans which
split of from Wells was quite large !;
and they went off because they
could not longer support the poll
cy to which Wells and his party
were committed, viz: persistence in
the enforcement of political disabilities
against the ex-rebels. A victory over
this policy is whats has been gained.
This is the definition given to 1t by Mr..
Walker in his Richmond speech. Un-
fortunately It's achievment gives the
Democrats the State. II the Republic
cans ndu beeh "AooJ II Shoy AoA NA0
carded the iron clad policy as thing OF
the past and come out at the right
time on the broad platform upon which
Walker declares he stands, of Uni
versal suffrage and Universal Am-
nesty, there could have been no
successful opposition. They would
have swept Virginia of course. They
would have stood to-day where the
Walker party now stands, and the State
would have been In Republican hands.
It was the mistaken and unfortunate
determination of the Republican leaders
to persist in the repressive policy that
brought the opposition party into e1-
istence, that famed 1t into life, and that
gave it strength and built 1t up into
success. 1t drove enough dissenting
Republicans over to the opposition to
make that a majority. The lesson of it
all is thus drawn by the Pittsburgh
Dispatch, Republican journal:
| The triumph OF the conservative over the
radical Republicans in Virginia means only
| this that the proScTiptipe policy toward e1-
| rebels II no longer endorsed by the Senu-
fortn universal amnesty must go hand in
hand with universal suffrage. The Repub-
Iicans OF Tennessee, of Mississippi, otTexas,
heed the lesson OF the Virginia election.
Shall we not here in West Virginia
be able to take hint from it7 Or will
the Republican leaders here persist in
the stone-blind policy by which Wells
| Loot tho sunnort of the best men Of his