The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-10-28
THE VIRGINIA BOURBONs.
" Oh, ,oad some l,o,oer tie gytie gfe u.s.,

mercial, writing from this city on the got
instant, gives US an excellent bird's-ey
view Of the political situation in this state
as seen from Conservative standpoint
The letter is lengthy one, but we give il
main salient POINTS:
The contest in Virginia is struggle be
tween the races for supremacy. We speal
OF 1t as Conservative against Radical, Blu
it IS really white against black. Ali th,
Conservative speakers boldly make the is
sue, declaring, as they did Friday night Al
Charlottesville, that it is not cor.
test SO much between parties as be.
tween race. BY putting the issue upon
such ground, they are better enabled to
"spot" every white man who chooses to
act with the Radical party. They refer to
him as man who prefers the negro race
to his own-who not only favors negro
equality, but negro supremacy "a white
man who goes over to the negro party
said Holiday at Charlottesville, "throws
an insult in the teeth of his relatives, his
nelghbors, and his friends. He saws to
them, in effect, that you are not lit to
govern your own proud and noble state,
that you are degenerate sons of honored
slres, and that the negroes are more capa-
BILE of governing you than you are of gov
erning yourselves. That is what he hurls
IL. your faces, men of Virginia, and is it not
burning insult?' This is specimen Of
the sort of talk that the Conservative
speakers indulge in. They kindle anew
the old fires of hate that have in meas
ure been slumbering during Walkers adj
mlnistraton. They say to the people that
every man who joins the Radical party is
either fool or knave, and that if he is
fool he should be excused as such, and if
knave he should be treated as such.
This is meanness and prescription both.
Virginia is a border state, and many of her
white people might choose to be Republic
can from choice, as they certainly have a
right to be. But no, say the Conservative
orators, every white Republican is either
fool or knave. He goes back on the
glorious memories of the past and would
turn over this proud old commonwealth
to the keeping of an inferior and deprayed
race.
When you understand that there are
hall hundred orators of the Conservative
faith going up and down the state
traducing the Republicans in this manner,
you Will not be surprised at the bitterness
engendered by the campaign. The white
man who joins the Republicans immedi-
ately becomes target for all to shoot at.
lie buns the bridges behind him and is
without hope of retreat. The fingers of
All the sham orators are pointed at him and
ne is described as white man with black
heart-a man who believes that the negro
race is more competent to govern than the
whites.
NO attempt whatever is made to concili-
ate the blacks. 1t may be said with truth
mat they are not even invited to vote the
Conservative ticket. They are repealed
with absolute rudeness. In the whole
state of Virginia the Conservative ticket
VIII not receive the votes of twenty colored
men. In every county | have been the
question, "wil any of the colored people |
vote the Conservative ticket?" has invaria-
bly, received the answer, mo" There is
not in any southern state such condition
Of things as this. Everywhere else the
negroes are at least invited to vote with !
the whites. Not so here.
1t is not enough to prescribe man for
voting the Radical ticket. but if he fails to |
vote the Conservative ticket, he must be |
singled out as target for censure. The |
drill-sergeants and ring masters do not |
propose to allow even middle ground |
where man of mild convictions may |
plant himself. Said the Richmond En-
quirer the other day: "The white women
OF Virginia who are Immediately con-
cerned in the success of the Conservative |
party, should recognize no man who fails
to vote, and thus preserve their social sta
u.s." And again: 'Let every Virginian |
mother see that it is not the fault of her
husband or sons, should she be subjected |
to social negro equality" In all the long
range of silly and absurd assertions in hot |
campaigns, was there ever anything so |
silly and absurd as this? Where such |
sentiments are entertained, what do you |
think would be the ''socal status of |
white man who should choose to vote the |
Republican ticket?
The Virginia Conservatives are going q |
little too far. Such extreme measures |
will cause reaction which will overwhelm |!
them. Their majority at best is small. |
and they are taking course calculated to |
still further reduce it. Men can not be |
driven as they were before the war. The |
Slave whip can not be ordered as of yore. |
and the party whip has lost much of its
efficacy.
We often hear the Ohio Democracy
spoken Oh as FOSSILS and Bourbons along |
with attempts to estimate the distance thew |
are supposed to be behind the times. But |
they are enlightened and progressive as
compared with the Virginia Conservatives.
Colonel Holiday, in his speech at Char
lottesville, the other day, attacked the
common school system. What sort of a
reception would a stranger meet in Ohio
who went up and down the state hurting
abuse and rldicule at the common schools |
Of the land? He could count his votes on |
his fingers and toes when the returns came
IN. Holiday said that it was the boast Of |
the northern people that they had common
free schools, and we didn't have any. He |
said he had been much among the northern !
people, had spent year or two in New
England, and the most ignorant men he |
had ever seen in his life "were those very
New Englanders, who had been taught |
reading, writing, and to cipher in the |
double rule of three" He could 90 to |
the hills of old Virginia and find men who |
had never seen q school-house, who could |
not read and write. but who were smarter
than the New England common school |
graduates; knew more about the theory and |
principles of government and who "could |
oeat them all to pieces in trade.n
n ms Is the style Of argument" the |
conservative orators make use of in refar