Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-08-22


8TAUNTON,V VA.
FRIDAY MORNING. AUG, %. 1879.
WHO THE AGIIATORS ARE
ACCOUNTABLE TO.
The gentlemen, some half dozen in
number. who are canvassing the State and
attempting to upset a settlement of the
debt, the fulflment of which promises
peace and prosperity to the State, are un-
der an accountability to large body of
the people OF Virginia, and one of which
noamount Of appeal to passion, no attempt
at diverting the popular mind from their
failure, no professions Of love for the
s'dear people" and no amount of abuse
lavished on their opponents will serve to
avert settlement. They owe those peo-
pie who have been struggling to preserve
the financial credit of the State at any
cost, absolutely nothing. The voters from
that side have opposed them at every hust-
ing and cast adverse ballots at every poll.
The constituency that these gentlemen
have to settle with is different one. The
elections to the last legislature of Virgin
ia showed that body of voters whose senti-
ment was decidedly in favor of a read
justment of the public debt, was largely in
the majority. They wanted the debt re-
ajusted to point within the limit of the
States ability to meet and they wanted it
settled. They went to the polls with this
view simply, and with no view to further
ing the congressional aspirations of this
man, the senatorial hopes of that man, or
the gubernatorial chances of a third. They
neither expected nor desired the success of
any eebooting scheme of forcible adjust
ment, to be characterized as reputation,
but in its stead they wanted settlement
that would bring peace that might be
enjoyed, and the rest and satisfaction of
which could not be alloyed by recollec-
lions of dishonorable means used in bring
ing it about. These voters were not office
seekers. The vast majority of them never
hoped or desired to hold any other or high
er Office than the control of their own
affairs enjoyed with the respect and good
will of their neighbors. They had their
favorite candidates and hurrahed for them
and worked for them and voted for them,
and they did so because they believed these
men thought as they did about the debt,
and had the ability, the wisdom. and the
influence to carry such measures of legis-
lation as would realize the hopes of those
who supported them-and not merely to
give them an Office. So general was this
feeling, so large the constituency that
shared it, that the gentlemen who repre-
sented to them that they possessed these
requisite qualifications and who promised
to bring about the desired settlement were
in large majority in the legislature when
it met:
And now it is to that constituency that
the gentlemen we have pointed to are &C.
countable. To what were called the
s'debt payers" they owe nothing, for had
the latter been successful they would have
been left at home. How, then, has the
confidence of this Readjuster constituency
been rewarded The first symptom that
it was to be abused was exhibited last fall.
To the establishment Of this constituency
there appeared all over the State as candi-
dates for the United States Congress, men
who had received their suffrages as the
proper men to settle the State debt-an end
to which they had not as yet accomplish
ed one step; and to the still greater sur
prise Of those who had supported them
they were either misunderstanding the
Conservative organization or running
fatfooted against it. This opened the
eyes of the people in great measure, but
fully. At the last session of the legisla-
ture, by the votes of Readjusters and their
opponents-both combining on the mea-
sure, debt settlement satisfactory to the
holders of the debt. and the representa-
tives Of the people who owed it, was
adopted, and no sooner was this done than
the gentlemen who are now canvassing
the State, assembled and formed to oppose
the settlement new political organiza-
tion, which, if it were successful, would
not bring the debt a step nearer to settle
ment, but might in the fortune of poll
tics be advantageous to those directing
the movement.
+, This, then, is what the Read listers Of
Virginia, who did the voting at the polls,
have received in return for the votes they
cast: new set of congressional candidates,
a new candidate for the Senate, and new
aspirant for the Governorship. These
three things the Readjustsrs of Virginia
political move ment instead of the realiza-
ton of the promises made them. They
have had neither the ability, the wisdom,
nor the influence to bring about a settle
ment, and their enemies intimate that
in addition to these three they also lacked
the purpose. Be that as it may, the con-
stituents who elected them in the first
rlace, and placed in their hands the work
of making a settlement with the credi-
tors will hold them to stricter accounta-
bility than they seem to expect; will not
take as an answer that they dearly love
the people," and will teach valuable
lesson to ambitious politicians-that clam
or does not conceal failure.
Between the ''shot gun policy" and the
s'confidence game policy" our colored
brethren seem to be getting behind hand
in the matter of the Freedman's Savings
Bank. Those depositors whose lives are
spared to look into the matter find that |
Jno. A. J. Creswell, Of Nd, exp postmaster |
General; Robert Purvis, (colored) OF Phil |
adelphia, and B. q. T. Leopold, have, flor |
five years, been receiving 5000 each, a
year, for winding up that swindle and are,
by the process of salary absorption, wind