The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1873-09-11

in comforting citizenship upon the Southern
blacks as they had supported it in couferring
freedom and the right to earn wages. The
producing classes everywhere, though rejoic-
ing in white skins could not afford to let a
great body of even black laborers even in
a section be degraded below the rank Of
citizens. 1t was because Virginia and the
Southern States were indissolubly associated
with all the other States in common
Union, that citizenship was given to the
black aborer.
And tellsthe Conservative party Of Vir-
GINA that this party will not stop here.
chat party had a convention 10 Richmond
the other week, and their speakers and edi-
tors we're ford of claiming that 1t was con-
vention Of gentlemen representing the gentle
mems class of Virginia Let it be 50. Ger
tam it was that there but one class Of citizens
represented in it, namely the non-workers,
the non-producers Of the State.
The producing classes Of Virginia had no
act or part in that body. And repeat that
the white laboring Glass; first in respect to
slavery and then in respect to colored citi-
citizenship, viii actuate them in respect to
tIC ptSoVht OCAoSl SaOAfC ClOit3 w plOoCi lDS
the laboring class from the proper fruits Of
citizenship and suffrage They cannot af-
ford to permit the great mass Of the
laborers in this State or any where
else, even thau their color be black,
to be made the subject Of prosoriptve cru
sade whose object is to deprive them of their
rightful political Influence and franchises by
appeals to the unworthy prejudiees Of
class and race, and with this proscflptive
programme. All laboring men, all produc-
ing classes, have common Interest ard sym
pathy with each other, however different
may be the color Of their skins, aud you can
nos deprive one class Of its just hires, or Ct
its liberty, or Ct citizenship, or of proper
voice in its own government, or oEsedu-
cation, without eudangeripg the fights o4all
laboring men and exciting th9f resentment.
The Republican party KstHe laboring
mans party, and actively and earnestly ad-
vocatcs the emancipation OF the slaves, the
elevation Of the black man to citizenship,
and the education of his children; and in this
great cause has had, for the reason / have
stated, the sympathy and active support Of
the producing classes Of the country every-
where-on ships, in the mines, in the fields,
and in the workshops.
No portion Of the predicting class in any
part of the Union can afford to witness
without determined resistance, the personal
thraldom, or the mental thraldom, or the po-
litical thradom of any other portion OF that
class. Everywhere 1t is bound to Insist upon
the personal liberty, the political liberty and
the mental enlightenment Of its own class.
/ went to N,arrenFou the other day, a
place reported to be the South Carolina OF
Virginia in its extreme sectional spirit and
Bourbon adherence to the obsolete State
rights doem4s Of politics, to show them now
completely the Virgins people had rdpudiat
ed and rccauteI from those doGmas.
come here to the home Of the great
American apostle Of equality, justice and toll
GRAFTON to show ahy this ptoscrlptye pro-
gramne Of the Conservative party of Viz
ginia, must fail and come to grief. We live
lin a great Union, whose government is
founded on just principles Of righs and equal
| ty, and no narrow programme OF wrong, In
Justice, and intolerance can be successfully
pursued in Virginia, as if she were an exclu-
sive preserve, set off with walls, bitches and
hedges apart from the nation.
Mr. Hughes then went into an exposure
of the changes of the platform which tie
Conservative party of Virginia had made
| since 1867, showing how this party which
SO persistently condemned him for inconsist
encv, had adopted different set of priuci
| pies half dozen different times, as it hao
suited their necessities Ile had their va.
rying platforms Of 1867, 1868, 1869
1872 and 1873 displayed on one large sheet
Of paper, which he said presented as many
comp lexious as they were colors IN Jo-
seph's coat.
He thought that our opponents were con.
Quoting the campaign IN way quite unwor-
thy Of great party. They deal in abuse
without reason assertion without argument
In nothing do they display this weakness
ore conspicuously than in the capital
which they try to make out Of the con-
dition of South Carolina, Louisiana, and
other Southern States. If you go to those
States, you will find greater evidences OF
material development and thrift there than
in Virginia. But the complaint is Of theil
governments These, he admitted, were
not all that they should be. The white
people of those States had refused to take
the advice Of Governor Orr. who urged them
to % into the management Of public affairs
They refused to accept the situation They
deliberately permitted the control Of pub
lie affairs to pass into the hands of inexpe-
rieuced negroes, who would have taken theil
advice and accepted their guidance, if they
had consented, for the public good to give il
to chem. Gov. Orr argued rightly, that ii
only as many as fifty white men in each
county would Join the Republican party the
negroes would be glad to place public az
fairs under their control. But ne insisted
that the Republican party was an essential
condi ton Of the happiness Of the negroes,
and as such was the only party which the
negroes could be induced or expected to joiu
But the whites stubbornly refused, and nothing
was more natural than that the inexperienced ne
GRO shopld fall into the hands OF vicious white
| men of whom none were more corrupt and un
scrunulous than Yarmouth, the Greeley Govern
or Of Louisiana
Aside from the irregularities which thus result
| ed from the refusal of the whites themselves tx
act the part Of good citizens the condition Of the
Southern States would compare very iayorably
with that of Virginia. In nothing do the Con
| servative speakers SO egreglousiy mlsiead tht
| neopIe than in their misrepresentation of tn,
fnancial condition of the Southern States. W,
bannen to have in Virginia an authentic docu
meut on this subject the accuracy of which ou1
Conservative friends cannot dispute. 1t is
...,oo+ ~ Tho dobts uf The States oven h,