The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-06-07
The Demagogue's Rule Ended.

The popular voice is in happy tune to
chant the death dirge of the demagogue.
Passing from the strifes and bitter conten-
lions of great Presidential contest, in
which the apprehensions OF the adherents of
each party were seriously aroused, and tie
success of either regarded by the other as
detrimental to public peace, the people re-
alze a sense of relief that the Inauguration
of the administration of the successful party
has calmcd these apprehensons, and insti-
tuted national policy that gives assurance
to all classes of our citizens that even-handed
Justice is 10 be dealt out, irrespective of par
ties. The declarations of President Hayes
in his Inaugural address were so broad and
catholic, so elevated and just, so free from
partizan bias and stripped OF all the harsh
remembrance OF the fiery ordeal through
which the country had just passed, that they
went out as messages of peace and good will
throughout the Union. The better emotions
OF the national heart were stirred, the springs
of that fraternal yearning which at times
moves and inspires the whole human race,
were touched, and the hopes of the country
for once lifted above the hates and passions
of party into an atmosphere where reason
and conscience hold supremacy.
In proportion as these more elevated and
pleasing influences allayed the passions Of
parties and sIilled the strifes of prejudice,
emancipating the mind and heart from the
domination of the baser passions of our ma
ture, the mission OF the demagegue neared
its close. and his occupation became thing
of the past, when he reveled in the hates
and contentious his insidious and wicked
appeals had created.
Weakness and wickedness are the two
controlling Ingredients of the professional
demagogue. Too weak to instruct and lead
when reason and conscience are the instrlI-
mentalities to approach the public mind or
define principles and policy, his wickedness
comes to his relief in irstigating appeals to
prejudice and passions, that his own selfish
ends may be attained through the disorders
of society and the contentious OF neighbors.
The people of the South have been kept in
constant turmoil for the past ten years by
this class of public pests. Virginia has been
the field upon which they have fiourished
and grown fat. No obligation was too sacred
for these chronic agitators to disregard, if it
interposed an obstacle to their own promo
ton. The assurances of national fealty, in
which the peace and prosperity of the South
were involved. did not receive any practical
recognition because the professional politi-
clan saw in it the close of his own public
career, and the institution of healthy con-
dtion of government inimical to the ends
at which he aimed. Pretext after pretext,
and falsohood after falsehood were coined
for the purpose of subor9inating the reason
of the people to the wicked influences of
passion, knowing that it was only in this
way that the demagogue's supremacy could
be maintained. Legislature after legislature
has been elected through such means, and
the peoples money squaIdered in the most
shameful excuses, without any beneficial
results flowing therefrom. Public interests
have been neglected, public position de-
bauched, public honor tainted. and all the
great concerns of the constituent body utterly
ignored, while the paid servants of the people
dissipated their time in compromising the
integrity Of the Commonwealth. Year after
year the demagogue's rtile has brought the
State nearer and nearer to bankruptcy. The
people have been sweating and toiling to
meet the demands of the tax-gatherer, and
they have found at the close of each fiscal
year that all their sacrifices had gone for moth
ing, and worse than nothing, for the condition
of the State has been growing worse all the
time. The most potent leverage that the
demagogue has welded to accumulate the
wrongs which now hang like an impending
doom over the heads of the people, has been
the " caucus. 1t is this that has been the
source of his power and influence. 1t has
been called into requisition to supply the
absence of the mental and moral force to
attract the confidence of the people. Its
machinery has been used to bind the con-
sciences and the judgment of those whose
rights and interests were to be sacrificed,
and its relentless enginery was brought
to operate to the disruption of even social
bonds and personal friendships, in order
that the demagogue might ride rough-shod
over all the conservative relations of society
to the goal of his ambition.
The disturbed condition of the public
mind. sensitive as to the causes and the re-
suits of the recent civil strife, was an oppor-
tune occasion for the demagogue's work.
He cravcd power, position and perquistes.
He knew that he had misled and deluded
the people, until the footprints OF desolation
were left at every door-sill. To come before
the people, with an address to their reason,
was the last thing he thought of, because he
knew he would not be trusted. Passion
must be aroused, prejudice inllamed, and
the judgment blinded, and with appeals ap-
propriate for his purpose against the scala
wag," carpet-bagger and nigger,"
gain control of the C caucus." and thus seize
the control of government. We all know
how. successful these insidious receptions
diave been practiced for the past ten years,
iand the people now begin to realize how
dearly they have paid for the despotism that
has been pressing upon them.
The popular calm that has succeeded the
Inauguration of President Hayes and his
conciliatory policy, has removed all the ap-
prehensions so earnestly conjured up by the
demsgogue, and opened the eyes Of the peo-
pie to the fearful progress they have made
towards material ruin, under the caucus
mandate. They now see very clearly why
it was that the demagogue chung to the eau
Gus. It was his only hope OF preferment,
and that preferment implied continued
wrongs to the Taxpayers of the State.
The people begin to feel the inspiration of
under the relief they realize from
They are beginning to think
q little fot themselves, to consider the fright
full embaf rassments that confront them, and
to devise means for their rescue. The Farm
ers of Augusta have been the first to APP
proach the subject, and they have done so
and courageously. They had a
right to do so, and it was their duty to do so.
And notwithstanding the taunts that may be
ERECTED against them by those who have
,eea heretofore the supple tools of the dema-
k1,os..