The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-11-13
Locating the Responsibility.


the people is irreversible, to attemptto ex-
plain the causes or nullify the effects by in
effectual jeremiads. twas not our pur-
pose, therefore, to direct public attention
from the future and its promises, by recur-
ring to the canvass ON the debt question
through which the people of Virginia have
just passed, and offering an excuse for the
result we have to confront, but for very
unjust and extremely unfair editorial arti-
Gle which appeared in the Dispatch of the
9th. In that article it is assumed that the
negro vote determined the contest, and
that Paul, Moffett, Frazier, Lady, Fulker-
son and other Re-adjusters owe their cleo
ton to that Ignorant class" as the Dis
patch is pleased to designate them. 1t is
sufficient answer to this assumption to state
the indisputable fact that three-fourths OF
the votes cast for the re adjusters in the
State were cast by white citizens OF the
State, and that in the Valley localities the
Dispatch is pleased to mention as being in
fiuenced by the NEGRO vote, majority OF
that vote, and certainly the bulk of the
more intelligent portion of it, was cast for
the friends of the McCulloch Bill. In Lex
ington, Harrisonburg and Winchester,i III we
have been correctly informed, and in
Staunton, the colored vote was largely in
favor of the candidates representing the
settlement, while in each Of the counties OF
these towns, the Re-adjusters were com
posed largely of the white tax-paying
people, who were not satisfied that the b Ill
would not require an increase of taxation
to meet its demands. We have no defense
or apology for any class of voters who
voted against the settlement, for we think
those who arrived at that conclusion did not
give the question that reflection necessary
to full understanding of its import, and
the effect its defeat, we fear, is destined to
have. But as the Dispatch has extensively
opened the question of the cause of the
result recorded, and assigned the response
bility where it does not belong, it is not
amiss to refer to the plumbers Of that pa
per and those who approved its cause,
The first important mistake made was in
the action of the Executive Committee OF
the Conservative party in making the debt
question party meas ure. This was an in
vitation for every Republican, white and
colored, to oppose it. The more intelli-
gent of the members of that party, how
ever, and those who are looked to to shape
the policy of their party, chose to overlook
the indiscretion of the Committee, and de-
termine their action by the merits OF the
Bill, regardless of the partizan coloring
given to it by the action of that body. They
supported it as just measure of settlement
without reference to the edict of the Com
mittee, and as embracing terms of adjust
ment that they believed it was the duty OF
the people to accept, and as conforming to
the general principle of their party affect
ing national credit and integrity. Had they
been influenced by the same narrow chan.
mel of thought and similar personal spltes
to those directing the course OF the Daspatch
especially in its persistent attempt to dig
Nifty its personal enmity against Gen. Ma,
hone into aState controversy, in its bitter de.
nunciation. of all the prom inent men OPP
posed to it, they would have found ample
excuse to oppose anything that paper might
support. They were governed by higher
motives and ambitions, and as Virginians
had alone in view the honor and credit Of
the State and the justice of the settlement
presented. The most prominent mistake
of the Dispatch was in the bitter personal
canvass it conducted. The vocabulary Of
it's vindictive assault upon the leading ac-
tors among the repealers, and the subordi-
nation of the merits of the settlement to
the qualification of personal spites, espec-
tally against Malone, Massey and Fulker'
son, for whom no terms Of abuse were toe
severe and no assignment of motives toe
base.
| Following upon the unWarranted as
sumption of the Conservative Executive
Committee that the McCulloch Bill was a
party measure, came the old political stage
actors who had directed their batteries of in
vective against the ''negroes, carpet-bag-
gers and scallawags," in other and recent
days, and who drew upon this arsenal OF
gall and malice as proper agencies OF war
fare in a contest where calm reason and
statesmanlike arguments were the legiti-
mate implements Of disputation and aggres-
sion. The less informed of the colored
people, especially, knew these gentlemen
only in the role they had played in the pre-
vious party contests between the two polit-
ical parties, and hearing the same style OF
denunciation directed against the repeal
ers, that had been leveled at Republicans,
naturally concluded that it was the 'ssame
old coon," they had before encountered,
differing somewhat in appearance, but
distinguished by the same rings around his
tail.
1t was the partizan bias given to the con-
test in the arbitrary action of the Commit
tee, and the denunciatory epithets INDUCED
where fact and reason should have been en-
ployed, that had much to do with shaping
the controversy and crystalizing opposition
to the settlement. But for this, not only
would many of the abused voters that voted
against it, but large number of intelligent
white citizens who opposed it might doubt
less have been persuaded to its sup
port, and a different verdict rendered to
that we are now called upon to recog-
niZe.
1t will not do, therefore, for the Dispatch to
locate the responsibility of the defeat of the
McCulloch Bill upon the colored voters of
the State, especially when three-fourths of
the strength polled against it is composed
Of members of its own party, lead by re-
cognized leaders in that organization, and
especially when the more intelligent of the
colored voters gave the measure their sup
port. We venture the assertion that three
white Conservatives voted against the bill
where one colored Republican did, and if
denunciation is to be poured out at all, let
the Dispatch hurl it at its own political
household, and not against the poor ne
groes, whose remembrance of the political
prosecutions heretofore dealt out to them
11rr III E.,