Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-11-14
THE RESULT IN VIRGINIA.

FRIDAY MORNING. NOV. IA. 1879.
THE RESULT IN VIRGINIA. :.
The final summing up of the result of
last weeks election, is received and
shows that on the subject of the State debt
those who ran as readjusters have small
majority in the Legislature. In their case
a small majority is practically equal to a
defeat. Without a two-thirds vote no bill
intended to impair the working of the
McCulloch settlement can become a law
as long as the present occupant fills the
gubernatorial chair. The plan Of calling
State Convention will not likely get ma
jority in q body where the balance Of pow
or is held by Republicans, who will hardly
vote to open an avenue by which the State
constitution, adopted for Virginia by a
body of their own political faith, may be
swept away. So the next legislature will
meet, do nothing, and adjourn and there
will be . two years of rest from law max
ing. in which time the bondholders, il they
are wise will fund their bonds, and then
with q funded debt and the interest
promptly paid without increasing the
amount of taxation, the people will have
heard the last of the debt question.
How the defeat Of the debt payers came
about is an interesting and. it it did not
come under the head of crying over split
milk, profitable matter for reflection. Di-
rectly, it is the result Of the colored vote
and how indirectly we shall come to pres
entity. The body Of this class of voters
in Virginia, with some intelligent excep-
tions, is about as likely to comprehend An
argument about the state debt. the neces-
sity and advantage Of preserving the state
credit and the disadvantage Of impairing
it. as it would be to see through an elabo-
rate exegesis of a protective tariff. The
idea that they are in any way connected
with the responsibility of voting the prin-
ciples, debt paying or otherwise, Of the
Republican party has not yet entered the
heads of the colored Republicans any more
than an understanding of those principles
has. Their chief object in politics is first
to vote against a Democrat, and il two
Democrats are running, then to vote
against the one least desired by his party
organization. So in the campaign that
Democrat who appeared before them in
opposition to his party and with the prop
osition, which fitted their comprehension,
that a. they had nothing to do with crea-
ting the debt they should not be call
ed upon to pay it. proved to be the
man they were in search of. The Read
justers keenly appreciated this state of af-
fairs and at an early day began the
depreciation of the Conservative party Or
ganization. Even in congressional dis
tricts where their adherents were largely in
the majority they deprecated party con-
ventions announcing that the Conserva-
tive party had filed its mission. Finding
the plan worked well they took another
step in the same direction and organized a
separate party with headquarters at the
State capital. This last step found many
dissenters in their own ranks who had not
contemplated this early and abrupt de-
scent to which the stream they had been
floating with had brought them. The col
ored Republicans, too, could not yet see
plainly an active opposition to their old
opponent, the Democracy. and were not
demonstrative in their cooperation. But
the light was speedily furnished them by
an error of the State Conservative Central
Committee, who under the influence Of
some species of political insanity, met and
proclaimed the McCulloch settlement as a
Conservative party measure and read out
of the party those who opposed it. A
more unprecedented folly has rarely been
perpetrated by men entrusted with the
affairs of political organization. 1t was
hailed with the acclamations Of the metro
politan and nearly all the rural Debtpay
ing press, and with dissent by but three or
four. Among the latter was this journal.
The committeeman seemed to have shut
their eyes to the State and opened them
only in the committee room. The Read.
juster orators used this fatal error to great
advantage, dwelt on the fact that they had
been s'expelled'' from the Conservative
party with great JUNCTION, and quietly
laughed in their sleeves. In this district,
where such counties as Rockingham and
Shenandoah have given Democratic
majOritieS from time immemorial, the idea
of expelling from the party on simple
question of State policy, men who had vo-
ted the Democratic ticket all their lives,
and their fathers before them, was used to
great advantage. In behalf of the Com
mittee it is just TO say that they organized
a splendid campaign which for thorough
ness, ability and activity has never been
eQualled in Virginia, but while that went
far to atone for the error it could not rec
tify it. The cOlored Republicans, equipped
with capitation tax certificates and ready
to vote, with no idea Of the magnitude of
the question and with an earnest hatred
of the Democracy, numbered sixty -four
thousand five hundred and sixty-eight!
The line had been drawn for them by folly.
They decided quickly. 1t was in vain
that their white leaders tried to rally them
to the McCulloch settlement OF
those leaders they had seen acting with
the Readjusters on the debt question up
to the present campaign and the change
only confused them. In vain were authori-
tativs expressions of opinion in favor Of
honest settlement obtainea from President
Hayes-he had never been an authority
with the colored men like Grant In vain
were printed explanations of the princi-