The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-08-11
"The Blue Blood"

"The Blue Blood"
Some journals are fulsome in their allu
siOns to the ''blue bloOded stock of their
favorite gnbernatOrial candidates. This will
do very well for a race horse or an Alder
ney, for the strain is kept pure, and only
pedigreed quotations are concerned. but in
men the hereditary flow generally fails. Be-
sides there is no true premises to start
from. Daniel Shelley, shoemaker, had
just as good blood in his veins. and more OF
it, and as much brains in his head, as had
John Randolph, of Roanoke, the bluest OF
all Virginia blood. from Pocohontas to the
very scion of the cavaliers who made such
distinguished figures around Gov. Berke-
ley, and whose mothers and fathers and
shoemakers and farm tenants were not
whit less than they intellectually, only they
dressed and fed them. 1t is so miserably alb
surd to refer to ''blue blood' for brains or
ancestry, when Hugh Miller, Ben Franklin,
Shakespeare, Lincoln and Garfield were all
of the laboring class.
s-
The Democratic Conservative platform
seeks to conceal the fact that the Public
School system is the creation OF the Repub-
can party. The Convention of 1867,
which adopted the present Constitution
was Republican--designated the ''black-and-
TAM" in derision, by the Democrats, and it
is to that fact that the free school system pri-
marily prevails in Virginia. 1t is true that the
system was put in operation, to a large de-
gree, at an earlier date, than the COnstitu-
ton required, and it is also true that after
the lapse of the period when the system
was to have been perfected, the whole fab
rio became paralyzed by Withholding
from it the revenues the CONSTITUTE on ded-
icated to it. We accept, however, any
public schools, let it come from where it
may, and congratulate Bourbonism, wheth
er lead by Malone or Daniel, on their ap-
proaches to the policy of the Republican
party. 1t will look better and sound better
were both these Democratic factions to re-
cognize the fact that but for the Republi.
cans there would be no constitutional pro-
vision for public schools-there would be
no arrangement for the education of the
poor children of the State but ignorance
would prevail as thick cloud and the fu-
| ture of the colored race be more gloomy and
cherries than their past has been, when
chattel slavery existed.
Republicanism is working its way
Whether the nominal strength of the party
shall increase or not, is for the party to de-
termine. Certainly its principles are grad
ually permeating other factions, and absorb
ing their fossilized notions, and inspiring
them with the liberal. progressive ideas OF
the Republican party.
For debt paying party, the Democratic
Conservative organization has made poor
progress in the construction of its State
| ticket. Mr.. Barbour was not only in ia
vor of scaling the public debt, but private
debts, when he was in control of the Rich
mond Enquirer after the war. The Bar
bour Bill reelected his views as to the public
debt, but no bill ever emanated from him
incorporating his notions about private
debts. Mr.. Barbour has never recanted
anything on the subject that we have seen.
There was no necessity for him to do so, as
to the public debt, in order for him to &C
cept the platform of the Richmond Cor
vention. That is really worse than the
Barbour bill, and gives no assurance to the
creditors, except some high-sounding
words. the meaning of which is inter-
preted by the closing sentences of the reso-
luton on the debt question to mean repu-
dation, in certain contingencies. That was
a fatal cause.-the pledge to the policy Of
not increasing the rate of taxation. 1t ex-
poses the deception that is intended in the
preceding sentences-ostrich like, sticking
its head in the sand, under the delusion tina,
the whole body would then be obscurei
from public gaze. 1t is honor and repudia
ton declared in one breath-an insult to the
moral sense of the people rarely ever so bra
zenly offered.