The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-11-20
What 1t Means.

w lAtzt IL 10CHuc.
When the Dispatch has been convicted Of
seeking to make false impression for par.
tizan purposes in utter disregard OF the
truth. as to the responsibility for the result
OF the recent election in Virginia, with as
sumed Indifference it throws away the
facts upon which the verdict against it il
founded. Trusting to the credulity of its
readers, who may not have seen the argu-
ment which it so contemptuously disposes
of. it proceeds to assert another deliberate
fasehood, in the following sentence s.The
pretence that majority Of the wAites in
Virginia voted with the Re-adjusters is a
false one. The VIRGINIAN knows better
or its opinion is worthy only of ridlenle.'
The Dispatch knew, when this sentence
was penned, that it was not true. The
VIRGINIAN never offered the ''pretence
that ajority of the whites of Virginia
voted with the Re-adjnsters Whas we
said, and what we still say. and that which
The facts will Justify, was, that three-fourtha
of those who voted against the McCulloch
Bill were white Conservatives. Not only
so, but the white opponents of the bill rep
resent the largest tax-paying districts of the
State, taking out the larger cities, and the
Democratic strongholds of Virginia.
All this clanor about the negro vote be.
ing responsible for the result is designed to
deceive persons abroad, and to be used here
q flor for no rtiz q n purnosoc Tho Cnn or rvo
tive party was so evenly divided on the
question of the debt, as presented in the
McCuiloch Bill. that few colored Republic
cans turned the scale against what was
claimed to be the organization OF the Con-
servati.e party. This was not so much the
result of opposition to the Bill, as it was op.
position to the despotism and tyranny OF tn e
managers of the caucus system, whose
power had been used in the Norfolk and
Petersburg Districts to practically disfran-
chise the colored vote in times past, through
ballot-box stuffing and the disreputable
tricks only known to the tools oil
made caucus measure, and the old parti-
Fan speakers had been ordered to the stump
| to defend it. many of the colored voters in
those districts only remembered their past
revengeful blow. That is the truth Of 1t.
In the Valley counties where friends Of the
McCulloch Bill were elected, it was due to
the votes and influence of the Republicans.
RIytf for bo t,au hoa ali
Re-adjuster delegation sent from every
county, from the Jefferson county, w. Va,
line to the Tennessee line.
1t is poor logic to assume that becaus e
some of the colored vote was cast with the
Re>adjusters, that it is responsible for the
result, and that the great bulk of the vote
against the bill, cast by white Conserva-
tives, is to be excluded from responsibility
Indeed, we do not know, when the aggre-
gate of the popular majorities is ascer-
tanned, that majority of the white
votes will not be found against the BILL
Certainly if there had been uniformly full
vote cast in all the counties west of the
Blue Ridge, where the lands represent the
greater portion of the taxable resources,
the popular maj )rity of the white vote
would have been overwhel mingly against
the Bill, leaving out the colored vote cast
with the Re-adjusters and giving the debt
payers the advantage in the count of the
colored vote cast for the bill.
We have no fancy for this kind of contro-
versy, but we do not Intend that the DIS
patch and its party shall escape the respon-
sibilisy which properly belongs to them
They are now planning for the national
campaign, land are gathering ammunition for
use in that contest. When arraigned on the
finance question, and the record of the
Democratic party is presented against the
integrity of the government and the faithful
fultilment of its obligations, the false his
tory the Dispatch and its partizan co-labor-
ers are trying to make, will be appealed to
to show that Republicans are not sound
that the Republican party of the country
should be held responsible for what the
Dispatch asserts the Republicans of Virginia
have done, and by that kind of clamor seek
to break the force of the charge against the
Democratic party of having sought to des-
troy the credit Of the national goverEme
and disgrace our national name.
The Conservative party, aud no other or
ganization, is responsible for the financial
muddle in Virginia, and it shall not escape
from whatever Odium attaches to it.
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The tactics of the ''organlzation, or that