Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-05-01
Curry-c0mbing the Augusta Sem
RtAF

GEOEs
The Petersburg "Appeal' has long
memory. Senator Cochran, from Augusta,
was very earnest opponent of the Peters
burg Charter, and very able one too. The
News of that city had forgiven him and,
not long ago, said "a better selection could
not, perhaps, be made" for the Lieutenant
Governorship, whereupon the "AppeaW
says
We cannot agree with our neighbor that
Judge Cochran is the man for the position.
That he possesses abilities of no mean Or
der we concede /; but his recent record
does not recommend him to the people of
this section certainly, nor to the C0nser-
natives of any section who loved the party
and looked to it as the ark of Virginia's
political and material safety. Judge Coch-
ran went to greater lengths in denouncing
the Petersburg Charter than even Govor-
nor Kemper himself 4; and has been recog-
niZed as one of the new departurists who
| have departed our Conservatism and who
may depart into the camp of Grant and
| the other radical oppresSOrs of the coun-
| try. We would like to see a Lieutenant
| Governor of another stripe of record and
another cast of opinion /; one on.whom the
! faithful mantle Of the present incumbent
may be considered to have worthily de-
scended.
And, after thinking over the matter,
the next day, under the caption of "a Sc
cessionist, also," it finds another fault
Another good reason out of a thousand
or more why Senator A. B. Cochran ought
not to be Lieutenant Governor, is that he
halls from section which he testifies to
| be ripe for secession from the ancient
| Commonwealth of Virginia. During the
debate on the tax bill, MI. Cochran resist
ed very hard and very successfully the pro-
posed levy of two cents a gallon on whis-
key He said such tax would bear with
great severity ON many of his worthy con-
| stituents who are engaged in the distilling
business and that if incensed by any fur
I ther invasion of their rights and attacks
on their interests they were ripe for sepa-
I ton from the mother State. We do not,
| of course, pretend to give the exact words
| of the honorable Senator.] Mr.. Cochran
said he was not personally in favor of Sc
| cession, but that great many of the peo-
pie of his section were already ready for
even that expedient to protect their inter-
ests. And SO, under pressure Of this threat,
| the whiskey tax was reduced to one cent
per gallon instead of t,vo.
| Wouldn't we be in a handsome and a
happy fix if we had a Lieutenant Governor
residing in another State? We think Humid
| ley would suit the position a shade OF two
better than Mr. Cochran.
What says Petersburg
| In Richmond letter we find the extent
! of the Senator's reasonable secession put
down this way:
Senator Cochran to-day in discussing
the liquor tax in the general tax bill, said
on account of the denial by the Legisla-
ture Of the rights of the people of the val
ley, an enlargement has been caused in
the affections of that people for the old
State; this he much deplored. He should
never belong to any party to undertake
further to divide the State, even if it should
cause him to sink into his political grave
but deep down in the bosoms of many of
the people of the valley, there was feel
| ing very different from his. For this rea-
son he besought the Senate not to consent
to the odious class legislation contained
| in the bill as it passed the House. He be-
| lieved that it was the last feather upon the
cancels back, and that it was measure
fraught with most dangerous conse-
! quences. Mr.. Cochran's motion to strike
out the gallon tax failed by a close vote.
1t is hard to say what the others of the
thousand reasons of the "Appeal" are, but
it is not unreasonable to guess that the
suitableness of Mr. Hundley is the one
altogether lovely and the chief among the
thousand.