Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-02-22
-sTAUNToN SPECTATOR AND GENERAL ADVER

40 -. ~ 49, Al. -
Address Of the State Central Committee
OF the Democratic Party to the People
OF Virginia.
The State Central Committee of the
Conservative. Democratic party of Vir-
ginia, at a session held in the city of
Richmond on the 18th of February,
1881, unanimously adopted the follow
ing resolution
RESOLVED, That convention be held
in the city of Richmond on the first
Thursday Fourth day. of August, 1881,
and that in every city and county there
shall be one delegate and one alternate
for every 200 votes and fraction of 200
votes exceeding 100 cast in such city or
county for the Hancock and English
electoral tickets in the late presiden-
tlal election; and all that supported
Hancock and English on either ticket
are invited to participate in the cleo
ton OF delegates to the Convention,
and we assure them hearty welcome
and an earnest pledge that we will in
good faith Co operate with them all in
striving to unite the Conservative Dem
ocratlc party to save the State from the
Radical Republican party in the No
vember election.
Pursuant to this resolution the Con-
sentative voters of Virginia, irrespec-
tive of past differences on whatever sub
ject, are invited to assemble in their va
rious counties and cities, under the di-
rectiOn of the local authorities of the
Conservative party, and choose delegates
to speak their will in public conven-
ton.
In accordance with the uniform policy
Of this committee, and its duty as it has
ever understood it, it summons to par
ticipation in this choice every member
of that great party to whose keeping
the public interests of Virginia have
been committed for so many years.
Last, almost, among the southern
States to escape the mailed hand of mil
itary despotism, Virginia, under the
wise counsels of this party, was the first
to resume her place as selfsgoverning
Commonwealth; and while a tempest
of corruption and robbery, of social ter
ror and public discord, swept her I'M
happy sisters, she marched steadily on.
ward in career of peace and happiness,
pursued by methods that were the mod
els on which those less fortunate States
painfully and slowly won the heights
which she reached, through Conserva-
tive triumph, at single bound. And
now that menace to the supremacy in
her government of the virtue and intel
ligence of her people confrOnts us more
fatal than any we have encountered
since the yoke of the Underwood Con-,
stitution was lightened, let US meet it in
that spirit of unity and Cancellation
never heretofore invoked in vain. Our
party had its birth in the throes of a
supreme act of compromise. It has
waxed mighty, nourished by concilia
tions; it is the child of sacrifices; 1t has
not lost the capability of concession,
and never before has the need been
more urgent. Encouraged by our di-
visions, the Republican party, which
eight years ago made but a feeble strug-
gle for the prizes of government, and
four years since fled from the field, sud-
denly sprang into formidable existence
in the late election, and under ciroum-
stances the most discouraging disclosed
a strength which with slight increase
would have swept the State.
What Republican triumph in south
ern Commonwealth means let the
wretched record of fifteen years attest.
It signifies, in word, the dethrOne-
ment of the virtue, character, intelli-
gence, and property of the State, and
the erection on their ruins of a dynasty
of proffigacy. ignorance, and malice,
whose unvarying fruits in southern
States have been social degradation. uni
versal robbery, continued disorders-the
undoing, in our case, of the toilsome
labor of twelve conservative years.
Higher, in our judgment, than any
4, hot ho RI
people is the preservation. of THAR civili-
cation and the maintenance of white
supremacy in their government this is
the life of the State; our first duty; all
else is secondary to it. 10 secure it for
ourselves, to transmit it to our children,
is the sovereign service imposed upon
us by our time and circumstances. This
must be saved, whatever is lost; and to
rescue it and plant it on enduring foun-
daUions is an obligation that amounts
high above the domain of party politics
and demands of US every sacrifice.
Upon the question of the public debt
the Committee disclaims any power or
purpose to speak for the Conservative
Democracy of Virginia. 1t but states his
torical facts, however, when it alleges that
all previous attempts to settle it have
proved but partially efective-that its
settlement is asmatter of admitted and
urgent need-and the Conservative, and
not the Republican, party of Virginia is
the organization by which that settle
ment must be made if it is to be definitive
and at the same time just. No guaranty
of a final and acceptable settlement can
beIafforded half SO potent and effactual as
the pledge of united Conservative
party q
When that party Uas united it an
nounce6 in its State Convention of 1877
that whatever scheme of adjustment
might be adopted it should beso ordered
as to add nothing to the burdens of the
people by way of increased taxation,
and doubtless that resolve will be ad-
hered to when again it shall speak with
united voice. In this interest we urge
the conservative people of Virginia to
send to the Convention of the 4th Of
August their most representative fellow
citizens-men who will wisely as well
as faithfully reflect their opinions-with
the view to final compromise and set
Element of the debt on such concession
of extreme position as the best judg-
ment of the Convention may deem nee
essary.
This concord is likewise needed to Sc
cure the public. school system of the
State. AS the founder of that system,
its hereditary guardian and unfiinching
friend, the Conservative-D Democracy will
see to the preservation of this beneficent
institution-to its development, and to
its defence against all assailants.
We invoke now the spirit or concord
which brought together in the late elec-
ton so many Conservatives formerly
estranged to the end that Virginia in
her domestic affairs may speak with the
certain and potential voice which
marked her response in the Federal con-
test-that order, social freedom, and the
blessings of good government may be
added to the advantages of material
prosperity, of which the omens are so
suspicious. We invoke it no less that
in the great contest of the near future
for the rights Of States and the princi
pies of constitutional liberty, Virginia
may not be prevented by divided Con-
servative counsels from welding her
whole strength in the good cause to
which her glorious history commits her.
In view of these urgent needs for the