The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-06-11
OPENING CAMPAIGN SPEECH.

The opening speech of the campaign was
made by Col. Ro. W. Hughes, at Abing-
don, on the Goth ult. We did not receive a
copy of it until yesterday, or it would have
been more promptly noticed by us. It occu-
pies nearly eight columns in the Lynchburg
Press, and as it will undoubtedly be pub
lished as campaign document, we shall
content ourselves with giving gene raj
synopsis Of its argument. The speech is
marked with very great ability throughout,
and it is evident that Col. Hughes intends
to walk into the pretensions of Mr.. Greeley
as Democratic candidate, or one demand
ing Democratic and Conservative votes,
without any special regard for the "philso-
opher's Fl" feelings, though with the strictest
adherence to truth in reviewing his political
record.
After speaking of the ludicrous aspect
of the nomination, and the unmxed sat
istaction with which he finds the southern
Conservatives accepting the veteran abo-
litionist as q candidate for the Presidency
accepting the logic Of events, and dis
carding the narrow and intolerant sectional
ism by which they have been guided in the
past-he proceeds to consider the character
o. the Cincinnati nominee, his claims upon
the Conservative party, the shelycd condi-
ton of the Democracy, and the singularly
spontaneous gathering of the clans at the
sore-head convention which gave us the
Cincinnati ticket. In touching felicitously
upon these several topics, the speaker ven-
ttlates some of the earlier carpet-bag ele-
ments of our State, by which respectable
bargain and sale made all things 'loyely"
IN the estimation of the "rings of rogues,"
giving such sudden transformations of char
acter and political complexion as have only
been equalled by the astounding process of
manipulating Mr.. Greeley, the old blaze
Radical, into Democratic-C Conservative
candidate for 1872. All this is touched
up with pitiless irony by the unique brush
Of Colonel Hughes.
A few bold and vigorous dashes upon
the canvas brings out the old Democratic
party Of Virginia, as not only under the
thumb of the old-line Wings, but as whip
ped by them into the political movements
of 1869 forcing upon them camp-follow-
er Of old Ben Butler, and an avowed Re-
publican, of such immaculate patriotism as
compared with Governor Wells, that for
any Virginian to vote for the latter, in the
contest between the two, was to brand
himself as villain and scallawag of the
very first water. But by one Of those
strange and unaccountablc freaks in the
wheel of political fortune, which SO often
brings up spoke of another color, the
Wings had no sooner found themselves the
victors than they proved to be the van
pushed. But this process of manipulating
the Virginia Democracy, Notwithstanding
the unexpected disappointment attending
it, IS still kept up, and now holder and
more defiant game is to be played, as If
the disappointment in the case of Buffers
camp-follower, had inspired the old Wings
with new and uaheard of species of re-
yenge-the forcing of Horace Greeley upon
the old Virginia Democracy
In this way they commit their political
opponents to an old high-tariff Wing, an
old ally Of the Know-nothings, an old agi-
tator against Free Masonry, against the
Catholics, against slavery, against every
thing which the Democrats ever defended.
and call upon the followers of Andrew
jackson, Thomas Richie, John c. Cal
houn, Wise, Floyd, Hunter, Mason, Davis,
and Lee, to take off their hats, and scrape
low to their lifetime enemy and maligner
as their master. In this way the old Dem
ocrats Of Virginia bow down to the moon
caB which the old Wings, under the i'm
posed guise of conservatism, have selected
for Democratic alteration! Can hunllia-
ton reach deeper depth than this?
And yet Col. Hughes continues TO paint
the picture with unsparing brush and pig
ment. After showing up the deception
practiced in the Walker movement in 1869.
by which men run as "true Republicans |
baoame restless proscriptionists of Republic
canism in every department Of our civil |