The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-01-06
A Political Fraud.

A Political Fraud
Tie difficulties experienced by the average
Conservative editor in Virginia, in defining
the position of that party, excite our sympathy.
Isolated in nomenclature from all other parties
Of the country, it requires strain upon the
ingenuity of intellect to make plain precisely
what the ends chat party aims to accomplish.
In glancing over the prospectus of the Rich
mond Enquirer our attention was arrested by
a rather anomalous announcement: SIN State
politics, the Enqureris Conservative in Fed
cral politics, Democratic" In other words,
the Conservative party is really the democrat
ic party, and the term Conservative in Virginia
is only used to seducc into the organization tie
inbred old line Wings, who would not coop
crate with it, were it to openly assume the
name of Democratic. The essence of the or
ganization in Virginia, let it be known by
either OF the designations. is sectional hatred
and prescription for opinions sake-a malev-
olent antipathy in politics to everybody that
was not born on Virginia soil, or emigrating
here, will not do as he is hidden by the leaders
of that party.
What has the party done for Virginia under
its local designation of ''Conservative?'' 1t
has FRUSTRATED industry, driven away capital
and enterprise. falsfied nearly every pledge 1t
has made in connection with reconstruction bur-
dened the people with taxes, increased the
public debt, lowered the standard of
public credit, and hedged around the Com
nonwealth so many hideous and forbidding
preiudices, the outgrowth of narrow section
alism and national antagonism, that liberal
minded men turn away from the State with
disgust.
The ends it aspires to in Federal relations,
under the name of Democratic may be I'M
derstood from the following paragraph we take
from the same issue of the Enquirer containing
the prospectus !: ssrhere is considerable talk
in Mississippi of amending the Constitution, so
that no citizen can vote unless he can read and
write, and the Democratic press is calling up
on the Legislature to prepare such an amend
ment for submission to the people. There is
probably no simpler, and on the WHOLE more
satisfactory remedy, for the ills ii ON Which
the body polite is suffering in Mississippi
[ Here is proposition to substantially annal
aprovison of the National CONSTITUTIONS
provision endorsed and accepted by Mississippi
and all the Southern States, as one of the con-
ditions of representation in the National leeis-
lature and the resumption of that State auton-
Omy which had been forfeited by the act of Sc
cession and armed hostility. The object of
such an amendment would be to establish and
perpetuate more oppressive and iatolerable
Oligarchy than existed in the days of chattel
slavery. and degrade the negro below the STAN
card he held under the barbarous usages when
the Institution was the corner stone of South
ern politics and society.
But the Enquirer, in the proclamation of its
faith, enlightens us further by the expression.
land Southern to the heart" 1t should be
remembered that here is journal aspiring to
the high position of an educator of public
sentiment-seeking to impress and control leg
fsation, and striving to elevate the party to
the control OF the nation, whose mouth-piece
IN Virginia it processes to be. TO the ssheart''
OF the Enquirer, there is no North, East or
west. Its ambition and contemplation is
Southern and Southern alone. It does not
comprehend the national character of our laws
and institutions-that we are an integral part
OF the nation, subject to its legislation, and
amenable to its enactments and that in order to
enjoy the confidence and cooperation of the
citizens of the whole sisterhood of States, we
must cultivate spirit of national catholicty
and national differentiation.
The. Enquirer has been unusually candid in
its pronunciamento. 1t clearly states that the
name CONSERVATIVE is a cheat and fraud
that it is only deception to strengthen it's
power and increase it's numbers in Virginia.
that the Conservative party of Virginia is a
part OF the old Democratic party, and that the
mission of that party is to nullify the cardinal
laws of the country, and cultivate sectionalism,
at the expense OF all the pledges the people
have made of national fealty.
IT does not require any great force of argu-
ment to establish the truth of the Enquire,'s
positions. The CONSERVATIVE party of Vir-
ginia is a most palpable political fraud, for
while it is aiding aud abetting the old Demo-
cratic party spirit, it assumes its present nom
enclature to sedice into its organization these
who would not recognize or CO operate with it,
were its sinister and traitorous purpose fully
known. The Democratic party of the country
is to-day plotting treason to the Constitution,
and the Conservative party is in full sympathy
with it. 1t is preparing to reverse the deter
limitations of the war-plunge the country into
turmoil and agitation, the effects of which,
should they succeed, would be to leave desc
late the very South where the ssheart" OF the
Enquirer rcposes its affections exclusively.
The people of Virginia have been deluded
heretofore into the belief that the Conservative
party was essential to the preservation AMI
prosperity OF the State. They pow begin to
see what that prosperity and preservation con-
sists in-simply to keep in Office the old poiti-
cal hacks now bankrupt in morals and pockets
who can best subserye their purposes by ex-
citing the prejudces and inflan,ing the worse
passions of human nature. They care nothing
for national obligation-tley recognize no du-
ty to support the laws and the government of
the country, but subordinate everything to
their own selfish aims, regardless of plighted
faith, the duties of citizenship, or the true in
terests Of the people.
Is it not about time the people of Vire mia,
the honest masses, were recognizing the obi
cations OF national citizenship, the duty to
support national laws and respect the govern