Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-05-03


merest rant at township gatherin,
there was not a campaign speech mad
; by Republican from the beginning |
the end of the canvass that did not hay
In 1t Hancock and intimidation at th
South. tissue ballots, rifle clubs, night
riders, and the ghostly kuklux khan.
There was not man in the Unite
States so ignorant that he did not knoy
the issue; it was placarded on the walls
put in double loaded editorials at tn
head of your papers it was preache
from the sacred pulpit in the name q
Christ, "vote for Hancock aud you vot
for expressing the negro; vote for Gar
field and you vote for the party of pro
gress and liberty. free ballot. and q,
honest count" Before the Senator from
Virginia that proposition was distinctl,
and emphatically made. The Senate
from Virginia was no unsophisticateC
country gentleman to be caught by
flaming editorial. He is an old politi
clan, trained to the harness. He was a
the head of party in the State of Vir
g1n1a which had elected him to the Sen
ate, and here was the great issue put be
fore him. Hancock and the solid South
tissue ballots, rifle clubs, ku klux khan
Garfield, and free ballot and an hones
count. Which did he take? Wher,
did he go? There was chance for the
Senator from Virginia to show his devo-
ton to free ballot and an honest count
With all these magnificent orations re.
sounding around him, with all these
editorials he deliberately cast his lot in
with the tissue ballot party, as the Re-
publicans called 1t, of the solid South.
and not only that, but in his:superser-
viceable zeal he telegraphed to Hancock.
my party, the Readjusters:of Virginia,
will give you 10000 majority over the
Grip-Sack and the Funder parties put
together" If the Senator from Virgin
ia could take the Democratic party then,
what has come over that party since
November that he cannot take it now ?
Mr.. Sherman-I do not wish to dis
turb my friend. but desire to say that
it was not the Democratic platform that
the Republicans objected to; it was the
Democratic practice under it.
Mr.. Vest-Ah Mr.. President. the
voter who took Hancock took him prac
tice and all, and he knew it. When he
voted for Hancock he knew all about
Democratic practices, for the Republi-
can party had made it resound from one
end of this Union to the other that Han.
cock was backed by the solid South |:
and we know that the distinguished
Senator from New York brought down
the applause of the whole party when
in the Academy of Music speech he
said: "They tell US that Hancock is q
man of nerve and will not be controlled
by the solid South when he is elected
Fellow. citizens, the lion and the lamb
may lie down together, but the lamb
will always lie on the inside" The
whole country heard this. And yet the
Senator from Virginia deliberately
threw his great weight as a political
leader and the electoral vote of his State
in favor not only of the principles but
the practices of the Democratic party
If he took one he took the other. He
knew that Hancock was a Bourbon
Democrat; and yet to- day we are told it
amounted TO nothing.
Mr.. President, we have witnessed re-
mark able scenes in this Chamber. Eigh-
teen months ago the President of the
United States declared in speech in the
State of Ohio, that he would never, so
help him God, extend his hand in
friendship across the bloody chasm to
any man who had engaged in rebellion
and who did not openly express his re-
pentance for it; never would he grasp
in friendship the hand of any man that
struck at the life of the nation until he
publicly and openly declared his repent
ance for that great crime. The Senator
from Massachusetts has rung the
changes on it here over and over again
the junior Senator. When did the
Senator from Virginia repent? The
other day we saw the Senator from Vir.
criF nj OF ~ n Acf 0ff
can Senators and in emphatic accents
declared that for his part in that strug-
gle he had no repentance to express, no
apology to make. I have no apology,
he said, to make to any man for my par
ticipation in that struggle, and then af-
ter this heroic declaration he fell back
into the amorous embrace of the junior
Senator from Massachusetts,, and they
billed and cooed together while the air
was heavy with the fragrance of flowers
sent here from the executive cOnserva-
tory to grace the wedding feast.
Two years ago almost I said on this
floor that there was not confederate
brigadier, reeking as they called it with
loyal blood, spotted and stained with
treason, that the republican party would
not take into its embrace if he would
only agree to vote the radical ticket and
give power to the radical party. Sir, the
waters of the Jordan, all the medicinal
springs from the days of Hippocrates
down to this, have not the healing virtue
of one single Republican ballot; it COW
ers all sin. hides all iniquity. The chief
recommendation the Senator from Vir-
ginia gives to your candidate for Ser
geant sat Arms is that he was q full
fledged traitor before he was eighteen
years old, and commanded a company
in the confederate army. That is his
chief recommendation yet to day all Is
forgotten; you take him into full fellow
ship and communion without any eX-
animation by church or session. He is
ready for the New jerusalem, the tenn
pie not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens"
Mr.. President where is the consistency
of this great party that controls the Gov
eminent? Gentlemen, you have to- day,
by an accident, control of the organiza-
ton of this Senate; you have planted
the flag of Democratic Virginia in the
midst of its hereditary foes. Sir, there
is legend among the Mortimer of the
olden time of Danish king whose BAN
ner had waved in triumph over a hum
dred stricken fields, till at last he fell
in defence of it with bis fierce warriors
around him. His hereditary foemen
seized that battle flag and bore it off in
triumph, and at night, with wine and
wassail, his foes celebrated their unex-
pected victory. The wine flowed red
and the song rose high around the flag
that hung mournfully and sullenly in
their midst. Suddenly a hush came
over that band of revelers. In their
midst stood the form of the dead king,
and his spirit hand seized that flag and
tore it away from his hereditary foes
forever. Sir, if the gallant living of
Virginia land she has thousands as
brave as any that ever rode through shot
and shell and saber stroke do not in the
coming Fall redeem this flag, dear to
me as my own honor, because in Vir-
ginia rest the ashes of my fathers-if her
gallant living redeem not this flag from
where it stands to day, polluted by the
grasp of those who have always traduc-
ed and slandered it, would expect, un-
der God, that the awful majesty of JEFF
ferson himself, father of the Democratic
party, would darken this hall and with
spirit hand wrest that banner from those
who have always hated it and give
it to loving hands. (Applause in the
galleries.)
q r n