Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1880-08-03
nailed as first and mighty step towards
the better days of the Republic.

nailed as a first and mighty step toward
the better days of the Republic.
In one short hour its doom was sealed
the effort to thus purify American poll
tics, to vindicate the wisdom of our an
cestors. to restore the Electoral COlleg'
to its rightful functions, was ignomin
iorsly abandoned, and the eulogies o
the scheme were proved to be as insin
cere as the scheme itself was deluding
| No honest and intelligent citizen Car
recall these known and recent fact!
without being forced to the conclusion
that if their Republican friends hsC
stood by them at StauntOn, and GRAM
had been nominated at Chicago, the
le ders Of the July Convention would
now be in the field with ticket not
only not pledged directly or indirectly
to Hancock and English, but ticke1
openly pledged to- no one, and secretly
pledged to Grant
| Does it need any argument to show
that such men deserve nothing but IN
dignant rebuke at the hands of any
Conservative Democrat?
| The National Democracy met at Gin
cinnati on the 22d of June. Not only
were the July leaders conspicuous by
their a5sence from that body, but pains
WClC t0hCu W SuOW tldt tuCy vert
designedIy absent.
"We are mere IOOkers-On at Chicago,
a. we will be at Cincinnati" said the
Wig Of June Sd.
Two months before (April 5th) the
same paper had announced its position
to be IAN utter refusal to recognize any
Democratic or Republican authority"
The Nati0na! Convention met and
nominated the exalted and patriotic citi-
zens in whose hands the standard of our
party is held, and the Conservative press
and people of the whole land responded
with enthusiasm in heartiest ratification.
Their names were flung to the breeze on
a thousand flags, the ticket was at once
run up to the head of every Conserva-
Democratic paper in the land, can
mons were fired in it's honor, and the
universal satisfaction of the Democracy
of the country was manifested in un-
numbered ways. Intestine strifes in
State DemOcracies were at once healed.
No personal Jealousies or disappoint-
ment shadowed the general joy, aud
many brilliant workers in the Repub-
lican party, hailing these names as the
harbinger of concord, abandoned their
party affiliations and avowed their pnr-
pose to aid in ushering in the age and
methods of peace to our country.
In all this enthusiasm the July lead
ers took no part. AS they had consis-
tently denounced all allegiance to or as
sOciatiOn with the National Democracy,
as they had long been and then were
courting the aid of, and laboring for CO
operation with, the Republican party,
as they were on the eve of meeting with
them in State Convention, enthusiasm
over, or even the mildest endorsement
of Hancock and English would have
been both deceit and a danger; and
the most that could have been safely
ventured was the position formulated in
the Wing of June 18th, when, speaking
of our nominees it said:
POSSIBLY the July Convention may
order their names to be inscribed on our
banners, in which case we shall obey"
That Convention met. 1t was called
to order by General Malone, the puta.
tive father Ofthe electoral
ticket" scheme. and who has been pub
licly and notoriously, and without
denial, charged with a purpose to carry
chairman was HI. H. Riddleberger, who
declared on the floor of the Convention
that he "had no eulogy to pass on Han
cock and English" 1t contained with.
| in it between sixty and seventy known
Republican delegates, of whom forty
| were negroes. No praise of our candi-
dates or cause was heard throughout its
sessions. Its platform contains no de-
nunciation of Republican crimes against
liberty and the South, and no real en-
dorsement Of our party or its purposes,
and such apparent endorsement as is
vOuchsafed Hancock and English is
found in phrase whose plain meaning
is, that while not satisfactory to the
Convention. they are more acceptable
than Garfield and Arthur.
Strong opposition WAS made in the
body TO even this mild approval, and an
effort made to call the roll of the Con-
vention on the question ofsustaining it !;
but, unwilling to risk the consequences,
both this effort aud another to spread
on the journal the protest Of the Repub-
lican members were defeated by par
liamentary maneuvering
Such is plain, unvarnished tale of
the course and purposes of the leaders of
the July Convention with respect to the
National Democratic ticket, and in the
light of this statement let every Virgin
ia Conservative answer for his duty.
For fifteen years the Democracy of the
Union have lOnged for this hour, when,
their internal discords healed, Federal
interference with elections measurably
prohibited, and Congress, De mocratic
in both houses, securing an honest
count, they might take up the burden of
executive administration and resume the
record of glory, peace, prosperity, and
fraternity where in 1860 it was unhap
PLY closed. To crown these hopes or
hIo thorn ic tho hiorI, ,1t
posed to Virginia Conservatives To
maintain the regular ticket is to secure
the State-tO abandon it is to put it in
great peril, if not certainly to transfer
its eleven electoral votes to the Repub
lican column.
How in such contingency should q
Virginia Conservative act? Let each
patriotic citizen answer.
We ask no man to abandon any posi-
ton his sense of right may induce him
to favor as to State questions. 1t is not
pretended that any Federal matter is
susceptible of solution by State party,
or that any purely State question enters
into the national canvass. Least of all
that in the great struggle now impend
ing for restoration of true union the
subject of readjusting the debt of Vir-
ginia finds any place. Nothing of good
can come from the support by any Con-
servative of the July ticket to any cause
but the cause of the enemies of the South
and popular iberty-the Republican
party.
Already and universally the political
managers of that party throughout the
country see and glory in the advantage
the July Convention has given them
Every Republican organ in the North
applauds this Malone movement, and
as soon as it was consummated Mr..
Jewell, the chairman of the Republican
National Committee, announced for the
time his confident hope of carrying to
the Republican candidates the vote of
Virginia.
1t remains with Virginia Conserva-
tives, the life. long foes Of all that Repub-
licanism represents, to say whether they
will abandon the regular ticket to their
party and justify these hopes of their
enemies, and this at the bidding of men
now in notorious alliance with Virginia
Republicans, and but recently plotting
to transfer the vote of Virginia to Re
publican candidate for the presidency,
so bound up with all that is corrupt,
profiigate, and tyrannous in the admit
nistration of this Government that his
own party have turned their backs upon