The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-09-09
Troubles of the Virginia Democracy

Troubles of the Virginia Democracy.
A dispatch from Petersburg to the Phila-
delphia Press states briefly what other pa
pers have deliberately presented, the efforts
of the Funder wing of the Democracy to
bring about fusion of the two wings of
the party, so there may be but one electoral
ticket in the field. The dispatch reads -
Mr.. A. Koiner, the Chairman of the reg
ular Democratic Committee and General
William Malone, the Chairman and recog-
nized head OF the Re-adjusters' wing of the
same party in Virginia, have been cores
ponding for several days with view Of
bringing about crystalization of the DEM
ocrats in this State. The correspondence
was opened by MIR. koiner. and it is under
stood that Malone informed that gentleman
that he would not agree to any conditions
which embraced a withdra wal of any of the
Electors put up by his party, or making
any concessions which would tend to make
the Re-adjuster party lose its individuality.
Several letters have passed between the
Cbairmen of these respective wings, which,
it is understood from those who are in
formed, has resulted in an agreement for
held here on the 18th of October. 1t is be-
lieved that this conference will result in the
withdrawal of one of the Democratic tick
cts now in the field. The Malone people
q ra full of homo and fu11v caticfiad that tho
Funders will withdraw theirs, urging as a
reason for so doing pure and disinterested
patriotism which will not longer permit
them to jeeopardize the State in the ap-
preaching election. The programme is for
Mahone's Committee to extend an invita-
ton to Koiner's to meet the former here at
the time designated, when, as is believed,
the whole matter will be arranged. A
prominent New York Democrat and leading
member of the bar of that city has been
here for several days, it is believed, rep
resentlng the interests of the National
Committee in securing this arrangement. :"
The prominent gentleman alluded to is
General Roger A. Pryor. 1t will be an
interesting epoch in the history of the
the once boastful and tyrannical Con-
sentative party to see it crawling at the
feet of the Re-adiusters, whom they so
summarily read out of the party but short
time ago. We stated then that the Som
mittee" had bit off little more than they
could conveniently masticate, and that they
would live to regret their rashneSs. We,
however, do not think there will be a fu-
ition-nothing but abject surrender, and
a virtual extinction of the Funders as
party, and his recognition as the leader. the
embodiment of the Virginia Democracy, as
he has made it, and may in the future
choose to WELD it. To see Echols, and
Payne, and Daniel, and Lowell, and Holli-
day, and the smaller fry of the arrogant
and proscriptive party. with the Dispatch
and State playing second fiddle to the
Whig,an the little weakly echoes through
out the State Ginning in with the music,
will prove an instructive chapter in the po-
litical history of Virginia. And this will
not be all. Such surrender will give eve
ry Democratic Congressional District in the
State to the Re-adjusters, and there will
not be one left in the next Congress to tell
the sad story of the humiliation Of the
great Conservative party Of Virginia"
Beale will be succeeded by Republican or
Re-adiuster; Goode, by a Republican !;
Johnston, by Johnnie Wise; Cabell, by
Stovall Tucker-the great Tucker-by the
despised and traduced Jim Frazier; Harris.
by Paul; Hunton, by Williams or Bayley :;
and Richmond by Col Fulkerson. Malone
already has won the seat of Withers, and
next in order will be Riddleberger showing
Senator Johnston out of his senatorial shoes.
That will be picture for Puck or Mast to
illustrate, and to 'show to the world'' how
the mighty have fallen, and the polite al
Gullivers of the mother of States and of
statesmen, bound hand and foot by the Re
adiuster Lilliputians.
Then will follow still further humilations.
Massie, next year, will waltz into Holidays
slippers, and what may be expected of
him, after the merciless defamation and de-
nuncation which have been heaped upon
him by the Funder press and speakers. it is
not difficult to surmise. He will make a
clean sweep Of every vestige of Funderism.
School, asylum and all charitable institu-
ton boards will be thoroughly recon
structed and re-adiusted. with no eleventh
hour sycophants admitted to even partake
of the crumbs which fall from the table. The
whole horde of barnacles which have fas-
tened upon the body polite for the last ten
years will be subjected to the scalpel and
a clean cut original Re-adjnster regime in
augurated.
Not only will the State offices be wrested
from the possession of the intelligence and
respectablity'' of the Commonwealth, but
they will be barred from all participation in
the patronage and favor of the National
Government. The Republican party will
be in control there, and remembering the
vindctive spirit which has controlled in the
prescription and persecution of Republi-
cans. simply for exercising the rights of
freemen and expressing their opinions upon
party issues, no comfort or solace will be
drawn from that source.
Bourbenism in Virginia is in the last
stage of dissolution, with no hope of con-
yalescence, and no future but that which
will bring remorsc for opportunities abused
and great wrongs perpetrated.
AS the Democratic party has chosen to
select its own ground in this contest, it is
not out of place to boil it down. Gov Hamp-
ton has pledged 13S electoral votes from
the South for the Democratic nominees
That means that the Constitution and laws
of the country are to be defied and spit
upon and that violence and fraud are to be
the prime factors in the election returns
from half of the Southern States
State sovereignty is to be re-asserted. with
the train of woes to the country which
would follow.
A tariff for revenue only,' means the
prostration of American Industries, and the