Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-08-17
THE CONVENTIONS WORK.

THE CONTENTIOUS WORK.
The work of last Friday, at Richmond,
has done more to re-invigorate the loyalty
of the people of Virginia to the old Com
than that of any convention
that ever assembled under the shadow Of
her capitol. In the Valley we all feel like
a warm hand, long Withheld from us, had
been stretched across the Blue Ridge to our
people, drawing them nearer to East Vir-
ginia. Not half of us who wrote Of the
Valleys claims to recognition foresaw
what hearty spirit of qualification would
possess Our people when the recognition
came; what new OutcrOpping of kindly
feeling would characterize our regard for
the other sections of the old State. AS
matter of mere party policy the action of
the convention was most sagacious. And
then the candidate presented is such true
representative of the best type of men and
minds that the State has produced, that,
setting aside all sectional feeling, every
Virginian would crowd to his side in the
day of political conflict. 1t will be Vir-
ginia fight against everything that does
not come up to the old Commonwealth
standard Of honor and justice.
But more than local pride or the peculiar
fitness of the candidates, has the convention
pleased the rejecting people of the State
by its platform of principles. 1t appeals
so directly to the common sense Of the tax
payers. 1t recognizes without evasion that
the State is hard up; it favors the use of
all honorable means to bring about an adj
justment Of our debt, and the adoption OF
retrenchment and economy, and pledges
the party ''to preserve the public faith and
credit" This is platform on which
every Conservative, who wishes Virginia
well, can unite. And what Conservative
does not wish her well? Which of us, for
the highest place in the gift of the people,
would wish to see Virginia soiling her
hands with the use of dishonorable means
the violation of her plighted faith-to effect
an adjustment with her creditors? Which
of us could afford to stand apart from our
people, advocating the baser partI With
the fewest exceptions, we believe, those Of
our fellow-citizens who have entertained
the idea and championed the cause OF ad~
justment, have done SO chiefly from the de-
sire that something might be done, that the
policy of apathy might be substituted by
one producing some results. That has
we think, been the ruling motive with
those that have been agitating the question
Of the public debt, and they find their place
on the Conservative platform, which has
ended the policy of inaction.
Augusta county is particularly rejoiced
over last weeks work. 1t is the general
opinion freely expressed all over the State
that to Hon. MARSHALL HANGER is due
the honor of having steadied the largest,
most unwieldly and most excited political
body that ever assembled in Richmond, in
to working order, and to Gen. JOHN
ECHoLs, who led the HOLIDAY forces, is
everywhere awarded the praise of icing
the most sagacious political leader of the
occasion. The honors bestowed upon, and
the praise awarded to our fellow-citizens
are things that we at home take great
deal of just pride in.
It is quite certain that the ticket nomi-
mated will not have opposition. Not that
there may not be an opposing candidate of
some sort, for it would be strange if the
hot rays of Reputation, playing upon the
corpses of political bankrupts, did not
breed maggoty semblance Of life in some
of them, yet there will be nothing worth
the name of opposition. But we must turn
for the final winding-up of these questions
to the legislature we shall elect in Novem-
ber That is subject of most serious con-
sideration, and should claim our gravest
attention. The men that the people do
not want just now are the mere novices in
State policy; men taking up politics
as new experiment or as means
for forming new combinations; men
who will go to Richmond as sheep
to the slaughter to be handled by smart
politicians and then sent back to thei
constituents shorn. And this applies to
men representing both of the recent pha-
ses Of the debt question. For once at LEAST
all shades of opinion must drop demagogues
as their representatives, drop the man who
appears with soft prom ises of benefits to BE-
gained without compensating burdens to b.,
borne, and who will only come back at Ell
the session with his pinch-back talent fold
ed in its original napkin, and nothing done.
The people this time want men Of expert
ence, wisdom, candor, firmness, practical
views and determination. And besides
this they want successful men. If the del
egates are farmers, then let them be far
mers who have managed their plantations
with profit, not men who being failures in
one profession are but shifting to another
If they are lawyers let them be men who
know the law. This is no time for
the horse-fy of politics to alight on a
frame that is scantily covered with flesh,
insert his bill through the ballot box and
suck living from the State Treasury
Virginia at this time wants men to manage
her affairs who have well managed their
own. She wants solid men representing
successful interests in her legislative halls
no blind leading the blind, bankrupts
leading bankrupts. She wants cool, level
headed farmers, who know the farming in
terests, merchants who know the mercan
tile interest and fnanciers who know f.
nance. These are the sort of men who
only can legislate Virginia out of her
present straits. And, as much as any, she
wants men who will familarize them
selves with the details of the State
government and economist them with
an unspar1ng hand. Men who will
hunt them out. The criminal expenses of
the State for instance are enormous and
they are made so. The sight of a boy of
eighteen carried to the State prison by
guard of several grown men, furnishing