Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-05-11
THE WALKER TICKET A PEACE
OFFERING BETWEEN WHITE
AND BLACK.

tits glorious triumph for the people
of Virginia, to see them coming togeth-
er SO unanimously to the support of the
Walker ticket in the present contest.
The triumph is over their own long es-
tablished prejudices and we have all
along looked upon that as the greatest
triumph men could achieve, and in the
case of our people it assures us of the
success of their cause. Less than year
ago. many of orr people could not think
of abandoning the prejudices the war
had entailed upon us; the opposition to
the Republican party was of the bitter
est kind, while the subject Of opposition
to negro suffrage was the proclaimed
motto of powerful party in our midst.
The principle involved in this opposi-
ton was very nearly, if not quite, the
identical principle on which the war
was waged, and we had failed to assert
our side of the question while we had
arms in our hands; then what could we
do without them, but damage ourselves.
But prejudice was to be overcome, for
it was prejudice alone that caused US to
adhere to this vain struggle against the
inevitable" There's the triumph.
That prejudice has been dismissed by
the native whites of our State, and they
are all falling into line to "accept the
situation" as they did under the gallant
Lee, at Appomattox.
Now let us see what comes next.
The issues of the war with it's prejudices
have been cleared away from the deck,
and we can begin to look at matters now
with a much clearer vision. We find
Gilbert G. Walker, prominent Repub-
lican, who has always been in favor of
negro suffrage ever since the close of the
war, at the head of the respectable Re-
publican Ticket of the State. We find
the native population and the reliable
people generally arraying themselves
under his banner, to enter into the con-
test against Mr.. Wells, an individual,
| who, we believe, first made his appear
ance in our State as an Office seeker,
and has done nothing since but seek and
secure Office. He had nothing when he
came here, and however much he may
have now, it only shows he has accumu-
lated only by Office. Now, everybody
knows that the ofice-holder is not a
producer, and is nothing but a moth on
the body polite; and if he has made
fortune by holding Office three or four
years in our State, as they say he has,
it only goes to prove that he has been
gouging more successfully than many
of the moths hereabouts-or at least.
more than he ought to gouge an impov-
erished people. Well, his gouging comes
out of the people, white and black. of
our State, and it is to their interest to
stop this leak as speedily as possible.
We want man in his place to act
honest and fair, and by, taking Mr..
Walker, we are taking a gentleman
who has been among us long enough
to prove his honesty to the satisfaction
of the people. Besides, by selecting
him, we get man which both colors
ought to be willing to accept as an evil
dence of their having buried their pre-
JUDGES of the past and determination to
look to the future. AS we have said
before, he occupies the position on
President Grants platform and the
platform as offered us by Congress, of a
mediator between the native white and