The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1881-04-06
Senator Malone as the Bal
ance Of POWer-Virginia
Prospects.

Prospects.
For little man Malone is just
now filing a very large space IN
the public eye: ne is stared at,
gazed at, wondered at and cursed
at more than any public man in
America. By the Republicans
and himself he is held up as the
one Senator from ali the South that
dares to do his duty irrespective of
party lines or sectional issues. By
the Democrats, with the exception
Of an inconsiderable few who, like
himself, are Of easy and accommo.
dating political virtue, he is stigma
tized as traitor, for gain, to every
political principle and to duty.
Since the opening of the present
extra session of the Senate he has
been mine days wonder" Spec
ulation was rife from the beginning
as to his position. Ben Hill, of
Georgia, settled the question by
smoking him cut" very early in
the session. He came plump down
on the Republican side, and imme-
diately became famous throughout
the country and power in the
Senate. As one of SO Democrats
he would have been an ordinary
man but as one of 3S Republicans
he looms up in magnificent proper
tions: in the language Of Fitzhugh,
he is a ''bige5' man than old
Grant. He holds the balance of
power. He is the Bismarck of the
., Senate. To q man Of inordinate
vanity, as Malone is said to be,
this may be reasonable ezplana-
ton of his position. But other
reasons have been assigned for his
course; he has been charged on the
floor of the Senate and elsewhere
with having sold out for political
patronage, and this charge finds
very general belief, at least among
those who disapprove of his course.
These charges be answered in 8
four hours speech in the Senate the
29th ultimo. He claimed that his
course was prompted by patriotic
motives and a sense of duty to his
State and the country at large. He
was quite severe on some of the
Democrats who had questioned his
motives. A great part of the time
was occupied in explaining the
meaning of readjuster in Virginia.
The speech was very ordinary, and
viii have no effect either in OF out
Of the Senate. It neither elevates
nor lowers him in public estimation:
he stands now just where lie did
before-a small man whom fortuit.
Gus circumstances enable to play a
great part. It has often happened;
as in the present case, that men
otherwise insignificant can control
great events, snd thereby become
objects of much concern. Another
case in point is yet fresh in the
minds of our people: in 1876 the
State Government Of South Carroll
na trembled in the balance; the
Wallace House AID the Mackey
House were contending for single
man, and he, a weak, ignorant ne
gro, turned the balance. For a
while be was the object of public
concern, the subject of telegraphic
dispatches and newspaper >specula-
tons, caueuses, grave consultations
and negotiations. He came over.
His former political associates called
him e traitor, and said he "sold out;
hlsn allies patted him on the back,
and made much of him. Ina short
while he ceased to hold the balance
of power; he was no longer neces
sary-and he passed back at once
into the obscurity from which
chance and circumstances had evol.
we'd him. Thus, probably, it will
be with Malone, as politician
as q soldier, he has won fame that
cannot be obscured. We are not
speaking of the soldier, but OF the
politician.
While Malone as a Senator is
simply a mine days wonder, a.
the head Of the ''readjusters" in
Yirginis he is very important fac
tor in national politics.. He may
succeed in detaching Virginia from
the solid South and turning her
over to the Republican party. This
seems|to have been his purpose in
the Presidential campaign in 1880,
and is evidently his purpose now.
Ii the Republicans and negroes side
with the readiusters, and there is