The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-09-17
SPEECH OF COLONEL HUGHES AT
CULPEPE6 COURTHOUSE, SEP
TENDER 18TH.


Colonel Hughes opened~the discussion
in Culpcpper in q speech Of an hour an
q half.
He began by expressing the utmos
confidence in his election. He said tn
Republican party represented progres
and development. II represented the in
terests of the country. 1t represented
the principles Of equal rights, equal laws
and equal liberties, on which the Ameri
can government was founded. It was q
party of good feeling. Its speakers and
writer's were not found abusing anybody
or any section, or any class or race ol
people. 1t invited every man of capital
and enterprise into Virginia, and was lib
eral enough to allow all who came to
profess any faith and to entertain
and express any opinion thew might
choose. II was strong party. IL held
every department Of the federal govern
ment and three-fourihs of the state
governments. 1t was likely to hold sway
in this country as long as the life of the
youngest man present.
A party of good feelings, good princi-
pies, and good motives was likely to hold
sway in this country for all time. The
Conservative party of Virginia, which is a
party which rested on hatreds. preju-
dices. antipathies, abuse, and sectional
ideas could not last long. The American
people and the Virginia people were good
natured. They might tolerate party Of
hates for time; but, by-and-by, they
were sure to give it up and quit it, as
the Virginia people We're now quitting the
Conservative party.
The Republican party of Virginia was
branch Of the Republican party of the
nation. Her national party. as the state
party, was in favor of internal improve
ment, by the general government, in favor
of universal education, in favor of justice
to all classes without reference to color or
condition, and in favor of relief to the
people from the losses brought upon them
by the war.
It was not negro party nor was there
any danger of negro rule resulting from its
ascendancy. Those who made this pre-
tence knew there was no ground for
it. They made it only to de-
ceiye weak-minded people. There
were 100000 whites to 100000 blacks in
the state. Two-thirds of the counties of
the state had white majorities. The last
legislature had only about thirty colored
men in it. There were three hundred and
fifty candidates for the next legislature in
the field, and there were not now more
than ten and would not in the end be more
than twenty-five Of the three hundred and
fifty who would be colorcd candidates.
The Republican convention at Lynchburg
consisted Of one hundred and fifty-seven
white delegates to one hundred and three
colored showing that the colored men
were not trying even to rule the ''negro"
party. That convention nominated a
state ticket Of all white men by unanisaous
vote. The colored people were not
trying to rule the state. All they
asked was a just administration of the
laws, and some of their own race on
juries which condemned their own race to
infamous punishment
Colonel Hughes then went on to state
the objections which the people had to the
Conservative party. 1t was party of
hatreds and abuse. 1t sought to make
Virginia a hornets nest. Its policy and |
clamor drove out all who desired to come
In to swell our population, wealth and
resources. Colonel Hughes then took up
the claims of the Conservative party to |
consistency. lie dwelt at length on this |
subject: .- 5e =
THE SEVEN DTFFERENT CONSERVATIVE
saQ48 PLATFORMS.
The most Objectionable characteristic |
Of the Conservative party is its in
fidelity to principle. III inconsis-
tency be q crime, then is it doubly, |
triply, quadruplY, criminal. Ithas had as
many platforms since the war as there have |
been elections. And so conscious is it of |
its own infirmities in this respect, that it |
feels it necessary to cry out Justify and con-
tinually against my own inconsistency, to
its own many faults in this regard.
had been up to 1866, all my life,
warm state-rights, southern man. 1t
has been the habit of my enemies to praise
the ability and earnestness of my exertlons
in that cause down to the fall Of the Con-
lederacy. They now go back sixteen and
twenty years to hunt up violent articles in
The Richmond Examiner (Which every one
who is acquainted with my style knows
never wrote, but for which own nv
self responsible il they were published
between 1853 aud 1857 to show the cx-
travagance of my zeal for the southern
cause. Yes, was faithful to the southern
and state-rights cause as long as there was
one; and no man in all this land has
ever impeached my fidelity to it, or can
impeach it.
But the southern people staked theircause
and their peculiar principles on the issues
Of battle. They fought gallantly, and they
lost the stake. They were overcome in
arms, and forced to pass under the Caudine
Forks Of the conqueror. Nay, they each,
without compulsion and voluntarily, took an
path In these words: -
OF THE CONSERVATIVES IN
~ ~ 1865. M
81, James L. Kemper, do solemnly