Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-26

from all obligation to support him. The
Republicans, therefore, having caucus
nominees whom they could not and did
not wish to elect, thought to steal march
upon their opponents, and avoid the chief
embarrassments of their position, by pro-
posing Shober, WHO'S Democrat, for Act
ing Secretary. The Democrats had pre-
viously fixed upon him as their candidate,
SO Of course they voted for him. But what
the Republicans gained by proposing him
is one of these things which, to use the
words of Lord Dundreary, "no fellow can
Sc understand" The truth is that the
Republican Senators have been over
whelmed with difficulties ever since they
entered into the unsanctifed bargain
with Malone. That bargain was founded
in an objectionable abandonment of prin-
ciple. 1t was the most shameless and
open piece of corrupt partisan traficking
that has been witnessed for many years. Ma
hone may well be designated the evil genius
of the Senate, for he has led the Republi-
can members astray most deplorably, and
every false step made by them has entailed
new disgraces upon them.
Malone himself is brassy dema-
gogue, without convictions or principles of
any kind. He has by adroit and unscru-
pulous naneuvering succeeded in making
himself the leader of the most ignorant
and plastic elements of the Virginia vot-
ing population. He has become the cham.
pion OF villainous programme of repudi-
alton ; a scheme whereby the State of
Virginia is to be degraded into common
swindler, and is to refuse to pay her Just
debts for no better reason than that repu.
diation is less inconvenient than honesty
The negro voters, who do not possess
enough familiarity with financial princi-
pies to detect the sophistries of the So
called "Readjusters, have been entrapped
into an ignorant Endorsement of this in.
fanny, and Malone has made his hold over
these followers the leverage by which he
has undertaken to move the whole Repub.
lican party. By judicious use of his
political strength he has captured the Re-
publican side of the Senate, and in order
to secure a partisan success in Virginia
the time-honored principles of the great
party of honest finance have been thrown
overheard, and base repudiator has been
allowed to dictate the nominations for the
principal Offices of the Senate. Nothing
more humiliating to the self-respect of the
party which has seen so many triumphs
under the honest money banners, could
have been conceived. And this degrading
compact has been made so publicly that
there is no concealing it, and no possibility
of evading the legitimate consequences.
1t would have been better that the State
of Virginia should have been given over to
the Democracy for all time than that the
Republican party should have been forced
to drink this bitter draught. The partisan
advantage is at the best a bagatelle.
Never surely was great party sold so
cheap. And see what the discreditable
bargain entails. Already it is reported
that the new administration has made an
appointment in Virginia which indicates
the intention of President Arthur to sup.
port Malone. Thus this wretched repre-
sentative of public dishonesty is dragging
the Government of the United States-into
the mire with himself, and the power and
patronage of that Government, under Re-
publican administration, is being prosti.
tuted to the service of demagogue whose
one hope of success lies in establishing
principle the general recognition of which
would be fatal to civilization. $40 what
/" base uses may we come at last, says
Hamlet, but where is the Republican who
has fought for years against Democratic
reputation that will not feel personally
outraged when he realizes that his own
party is being made the defender and
approver of this very kind of iniquitv,
and for no more respectable pretext than
the capture of one Southern State What
Southern Republican managers have been
in the past the country knows too well,
but it was not prepared to hear that their
moral standard was henceforth to be
adopted for the whole party.
st is not, and it cannot come to, good.
This Malone bargain has thus far produced
only disgrace, modification, shame, and it
viii continue to bring forth fruits after its
kind. It has threatened the party with
the gross insult of an Endorsement of George
Gorham. It has made the party respon-
sible for reputation. And the narrow
minded partisans who have done this evil
work deceive themselves egregiously if
they think the mischief can be confined to
one spot. 1t will spread like fire in dry
grass. The betrayal of principles involved
in the Malone bargain will reeur to plague
the men who were guilty of the wrong.
The confidence of the Republican masses
will be rudely shaken by this fragrant evi-
dence of want of integrity among the party
leaders. For though Democrats can be
managed without convictions. it is not so
with Republicans. Let them once lose
faith in their leaders, and they will refuse
to follow them. They are members of the
party now only because they believe in its
principles. Take away the principles, and
they cannot be got to sell their support for
place or power. We have not seen the
end of this mischief yet, depend upon it.
It is one of those crimes which invariably
entail punishment upon the transgressors.
TIE ATTEMPT TO BURN THE BOHEMIA.
A brief dispatch some days ago stated
that what was supposed to have been an
attempt to burn the Cunard steamer Both
y