Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-03-30
MallOne's speech.

The Washington correspondence Of the
Boston Journal contains the following con-
cerning the speech of Senator Malone:
THE SPEECH.
Alta. 10 General Malone took the floor,
not t0 surrender it until 3.lj. lie has been
sick for some days. His voice was faint and
thin and hoarse. There was an ominous dis
play of cut lemons upon his desk, showing
that the speaker would be compelled to resort
to some means to give strength to his voice.
All who watched him he rose. showing
evident traces of his illness, thought it i'm
possible that he should complete the mass of
documentary and other matter which was
placed before him. He weighs ninety pounds
and these ninety pounds must be composed
of brain and voice and sinew, for. nOtwith-
standing his evident feebleness. he spoke
calmly and earnestly for three hours. As for
the speech those who came expecting to wit
ness a renewal of the outburst of passion and
invective which characterized his first ap-
pearance in the Senate, when he made his
impromptu eloquent reply to the savage as
saults Of Ben Hill, went away disappointed.
There was very little that was personal in his
| speech, but there was enough to show that
the Virginia Senator intends on all occasions
| to take care Of himself, and that it will be
wise for the Bourbons to forego personalities
in their future debates with him. Those who
came to hear a careful explanation % the
debt question in Virginia, as it is understood
by the Kefunders, and to listen to an exposi-
ton of the opposition to Bourbonism, of
which General Malone is leader, went
away enlightened if not fully satisfied. The
| speech was not intended philippe; it was
designed as q careful exposition of the Vir-
ginia debt question, as an argument in sup
port of the Readjuster party and an arraign-
ment Of the Bourbons. 1t is the kind Of old
style, solid political speeches, customary with
Southern orators, which will be much sought
| and generally read in the cross roads coun-
| ties of the Old Dominion, where the tele-
graph and the newspaper press have not as
yet usurped the ancient function of the Con-
gressional Record.
NEW LIGHT Upon THE DEBT QUESTION.
The speech doubtless gives new light upon
the debt question, and it very clearly shows
that General Mahone's party is not the party
of reputation, at least not in the sense in
which that term is generally understood.
General Malone, with much fervor, denied
that he represented repudiators. He insisted
that the State of West Virginia should bear
her proportion, one-third, of the debt incurred
by the Old Dominion when she formed part
Of it. and in the benefit Of which her terri
tory shared. That one-third the party of
Malone propose that the pres
ent State of Virginia shall not pay.
but that the creditors must look TO West
| Virginia for it, and one of General Mahone's
| strongest points was made when he turned to
the Senators from West Virginia and charged
them with hypocrisy, in that they sided with
those who arraign him as a repudiator in Vir-
ginia. " hile they, as the representatives of Old
| Nsrr,r,o had faI a 1oviaI
tax to propose to paw a portion of the debt,
which is their equtabie share. The remain
| ing two-thirds of the debt Mr.. Malone said
that the Readjusters proposed to pay at such
| time and under such circumstances as they
| could.
The DEMOCRATIC LEADERS.
Gen. Malone indicated, possibly, line
| for future aggressive debate in the Senate
when he called upon the leaders of the differ
| ent schools of finance and tariff in the demo-
cratic party to stand up and tell him who
was the leader of the party. He was unable
to saw whether it was the stalwart green
backer, Voorhees,. the stalwart hard money
man, Bayard, or the author of the Ohio idea,
Mr.. Pendleton, and he called upon Mr.. Voor-
hees, whose silver eloquence, he SAID. he had
heard could make the water of the Wabash
flow backward, to answer the inquiry at his
leisure.
The SOLID SoUrH A MYrH.
In conclusion, General Malone declared
to him and to those who support him. the
solid South had become a mere geograph-
ical expression, that he and they stood for
the rights of freemen, and that he in the
name Of the brave men who stood behind
him, would guarantee to the North that here
after in Virginia there should be a full and
frAo hnllaf and n bOnesf cpuuf
RECEPTION OF THE SPEECH.
The republicans with some difficulty, re-
strained their applause at the conclusion Of
the speech The democrats in the CALLER
lee did not eadeavor to withhold their Kisses.
Enshinn Mites