The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-04-06
: Mr,-eayard's Innocent Ignorance,

- M. RRayard's Innocent Ignorance.
Hon.. Thomas +. BayarJ, United States SEN
ator from the State of Delaware, enaoysa high
reputation for political honesty and consistent
cratic politiciau III these desirable and COM
mendable iMiacteristics. But we suspect that
he is not n careful reader or observer of pass
ing events; or, probably, he is incapable Of see
ing more than one side to a question. He GER
tainly does not understand the situation in the
South, and is not sufficiently informed to ex-
press an intelligent opinion in regard to South
ern matters. In illustration OF this, we have
only to quote single sentence from his recent
speech, delivered in the United States Senate,
on the resolutions offered by Mr.. Morton in
reference to- political frauds in Mississippi and
their investigations. Mr.. Bayard was lectur-
ing the Republican Senators on the bitterness
of their feeling and sentiment, as lie thought,
againt The Southern people. and asked: is it
possible that at this stage Of the worlds history
men are to be condemned, yilified, abused be-
cause Of their honest political or other opinions?
! 1t seems to me very narrow-mipded, and a
miserable condition of affairs if such things
should be-
The interrogatory Of the gentleman might
have been answered by Sehat( Wthers, in the
| speech that he afterwards delivered on the same
subject. He might have told him that in the
campaign in Virginia of 1878, when Mr.. W..
was the Democratic candidate for 1t. Govern
| hot
white Virginian who voted the Republican
ticket lis worse than Benedict Arnold or Judas
Iscariot-ttat he should be scorned from res
pectablc intercourse, and branded as traitor
to his State, his race and his kind, and that the
slow-moving finger of public scorn should fol-
regarded as the highest attainment Of an .'ad-
vanced civilization, - and that it's consumma-
ton was religious duty in which all true Vir-
ginians should eng &c. Senator Withers ri glt
have informed Mr.. Bayard that that style of
denunciation, applauded to the echo whenever
uttered, prevented many persons from voting
the Republican ticket who really believed the
principles of the party were right, but did not
care to encounter the social ostracism and bus
iness injury that would result from voting their
honest sentiments. He might have informed
the Senator that he (Mr. w himself had been
one of the most bitter proscriptionists foropin-
ions sake, and escle wed all association and re-
cognition of native whites who allied them
selves with the Republican party, when he was
campaigning the State in 1868 for Governor.
In truth Mr.. Wthers might have Informed
Senator Bayard that there was not We
! ting precinct in Virginia where gentlemen,
to the ''nanner born' were not in 1928. in
the Presidential and Gubernatorial cont ests,
condemned. yi;lified, abused because of their
honest political opluions.'' To vote for Gen.
Grant, the friend OF Virginia, who had mag
unanimously acted towards her people, over lIor-
Face Greedy, the lifelong traducer of the South,
land for r: w. Hughes, one of che most gifted
of Virei1ia's sons, over Gen. Kemper, was to
| receive the condemnation, vlification and abu:e
which SO astonishes Mr.. B;lyard should be en-
couraged or tolerated by any people in this en-
lightened age.
1t was not only so IN Virginia, but through
out the South The only otfensc was and is
| that voters OF the South who acted and
| sympathizcd with their people during
the contiictNof arms, recognized tlic result Of
| the Conflict determined to support the laws
aid CONSTITUTION of the country as they had OBJ
ligated themselves to do. They had lest none
OF thern,aterial identity with their section-had
abated, hone of their affection for the land Of
their nativity-but recognized the necessities
of the times and the events that had trans
pircd. and believed that the peace and prosper
ity of their sect ion were intimately associated
with spirit and temper in harmony with the
government of the country and the party that
supported and upheld that government
| demned, villified abused.
| II MIR. Bayard would have proper under
standing OF the politics of the country, and the
political situation throughout its limits, it
would be well for him to seek information
from other sources than the men who have
been sent to Congress from the Southern States
to represent the reactionary if not the revolu-
tomary sentiment of the Democratic party, as
now organized.
| In this portion of the South, however, there
has been Il vast improvement within the past
few years in this respect. The sharpness of
sectional 'asperities have been somewhat blunt
ed; broader federation has been practiced; a
more generous disposition manifested, and the
promise gwen, from these considerations, that
the day is not far distant, when party differ
cnces will not be ma se the cause of personal
estrangcnrent, but recognized as the inevitable
| result of free thought and independent action.
In such consummation rests the future of the
South, and may it be speedily realized.
We noticed paragraph copied into the
Washington Chronicle from the New York
Democrat. in which the Washington corresp on
dent of that paper attributes to Mr.. Tucker, of
Virginia, the use of profane language in a COLI
yersatlou with Mr. Hewitt, of New York. 1t
is hardly necessary to say, at least to our Fir-
ginia readers, that this is not so. Mr.. Tucker
is christian gentleman, and while we differ
from him in our political views, we will not