The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-09-19
Lesson of the III. - lection.

- S>-S
The results of the ell cite in Maine has
occasioned good deal OF affected gratifi-
cation to the more desp, rate of the Demo-
cratic party. The defea o The Hon. Eu
gene Hale, Republican, gentleman and
man of experience and abiliby-by Mr..
Murch, ar ignorant, unlettered greenbacker
and communist, although in every other re-
spect radical Republican, seems to afford
a great deal OF delight to some of our DEM
ocratic friends. They do not seem to rec
ognize that the grcenback party substan
TALLY swallowed up tie Democratic par
ty, and that it was the triumph Of Ben But
lerism, through Democratic and disaffected
Republican support. In Maine, it requires
majority vote to elect the Governor, and
while the Republican candidate received
larger vote than either the Democratic or
Greenback candidate, he did not get more
than both of them. 1t stood, Conner, Re-
publican, $4,000; Smith, GreenEacker, 49,
600; Garcelon, Democrat, 10000. To de-
termine the goTernorship, the House of
Delegates has to send up to the Senate two
names, and by joint vote determine which
of them shall be chosen. The House will
have majority Of Greenbackcrs and DEM
ocrats, SO the two men representing these
elements, will be named and the Governor
chosen from them. This method will OF
course defeat the Republicans, but does it
show any augmentation of Democratic
strength? On the contrary it shows that
the Democratic party is virtually merged
into the Greenback party, and that hereaf-
ter, in New England, especially, the old
Democratic party will be represented by the
few sturdy men of principle, who contend
Tor honest money. This is evident from the
progress ofpolitical affairs in Massachusetts.
The delegates to the Democratic State Con-
vention to nominate a candidate for Govern
or, will. in majority of the appointments,
be in favor of Gen. B. T. Butler, on the
greenback platform. which further illustrates
how the Democrats are being fused into the
grcenback organization, and abandoning
the distinctive principles of the old Demo-
cratic party In 1872 their national platform
was emphatic in its declaration for specie
basis for currency; in 1876 they arraigned
the Republican party fornot having resumed
specie payments; but now, according to the
interpretation given to Democratic purpose
and policy by Judge. Harris. of this District,
and all the candidates nominated in Vir-
ginia, as well as many of those elsewhere,
and the recent formulation of platform by
Senator Thurman. specie is to be ruled out of
the monetary system of the country as pri-
mary element, and greenbacks, redeemable
in nothing and payable to nobody. to con-
stitute the currency of the nation.
While this fusion and confusion is going
on in the Democratic party, and the aban-
donment Of its time-honored principles
and acceptance of the leadership of BENZ.
Butler, in the mongrel coalition, the Re-
publlcans are directing the popular mind to
the prime necessity, as basis of national
and individual prosperity, Of maintaining
an honest currency, that can cheat nobody,
preserving national Faith. and in adjusting
the relations of trade and regulating values
to secure to labor an honest return for its
endeavors.
liz VI "Trip
pied in the recent contest, have nothing of
which to be ashamed. They made a square
fight for an honest financial system, nation
al honor and an elevated principle of public
virtue. They can look to this record with
out blush. They can go before the coun-
try without a faint, and renew this conflict,
until the just and essential policy for which
they contend is triumphant. as it will be
when the result is given in the great nation
al contest of 1880
We ask the people of Virginia to calmly
reflect on the lesson presented by the con-
dition of parties in the North and West. 1t
is evident that the Democratic party will be
swallowed up by the Greenback movement,
if it is their purpose to follow in such
lead, and thus abandon all the traditional
ideas of finance and government, which
distinguished the theories of the old parties,
and the statesmen who shaped and directed
our political system in its infancy, and to its
maturer growth. This Greenback lunacy is
making rapid advances everywhere. and will
continue to do so, until the sterling integ- |
rity of the nation shall confront it and
crush it out.