Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-08
The Virginia Election.


anticipated State election in Virginia
will take place, and before another issue
of the News appears the great questions
of reputation VS. honesty and Malone
ism VS.. Democracy in that State Will
have been decided. Perhaps no State
election has ever been held which has
attracted such universal interest-an in
terest so widespread indeed as to make
the contest national rather than local in
its character.
The reasons why such unusual import
ance has become attached to the Virginia
election of to day are readily to be I'M
derstOcd. In the first place, the contest
has long since been transferred beyond
the limits of the State to the broader
territory of national politics. Malone,
Virginia" since he first took his seat in
the United States Senate, has worked
with all the energy and zeal of which he
Is capable to induce the Republican
party of the country to espOuse his repu-
diation cause, and he has succeeded
Grave and reverend % Republican Sena-
tors, whose boast for years has been
that they alone represented the party of
high moral ideas and progress, have
formed an open alliance with him, and
have not only applauded his party
treachery, but have even striven to elect
his satellites and creatures to important
offices, while they have promised
besides to do what they could
to give him control of the
Federal patronage in Virginia so that he
might, by that powerful medium. be as
sisted in carrying the State for repudia-
ton. And what these Republican Sena-
tors have done the administration has
heartily seconded. So far every act of
Mr.. Arthur has been towards helping on
the Malone Readjuster movement, and
he has shown himself so ready to bring
about the forcible reputation of legal
obligations in Virginia, that he has
even gone to the extent of ousting
from Federal Office in that State bat
tie SCARED Federal soldier, and a life
long Republican, to make way for an ex-
Confederate, simply because the latter
was a Resdjuster. Such an act COM
mitted by a President who is so intensely
anti Confederate that he does not regard
even General Longstreet sufficiently loyal
for Cabinet position, is surely amply
sufficient to convince the most incredu-
lOus that he is heart and soul in SYM
pathy with the Virginia repudiationists.
and that victory by them today would
be regarded by him in the light of Re
publican triumph.
The next reason why the election in
Virginia to-day is invested with such I'M
usual interest, is the acknowledged in
fluence which Virginia politics have
upon the country at large. Devastated
as she has been by war; laboring, as she
does, under the disadvantage Of having
taken a prominent part in lost and de-
feated cause; suffering, as she is, under
the double affiiction of poverty and a
well nigh unsuppOrtable burden of debt,
yet in spite of all, it has not been forgot
ten that she is the mother of States and
statesmen, and has been mighty factor
in establishing personal liberty in the
country and n making this republic
glorious. Hence, Notwithstanding all her
woes and troubles, and the clouds of ad
versity which for nearly twenty years
have Overshadowe1 her horizon, Virginia
still remains an acknowledged power
in the land, and she has here
tofOre always commanded the respect
of even her bitterest enemies. 1t is gen.
orally conceded, therefore, that if Vir-
GINA goes in favor of the Readjusters to-
day it will not alone be her individual
honor which will receive serious blow,
but political treachery and reputation
will be invested with q certain degree of
responsibility which will result largely
in national political decentralization, and
which will, more or less, cast its blighting
shadow over the entire land. From all
We can gather, the indications are
that the cause of right and honesty
will triumph to-day in the Old
Dominion. We do not forget that we
are some distance from the scene of the
conflict, nor that two years ago, when
Democr attic victory was regarded as GER
tain, MshOneism swept the State. Now,
however, circumstances have changed.
Then hundreds, perhaps thousands,
voted for Malone under the impression
that he was an honorable man and, as
he professed to be, a true Democrat. But
now the eyes of the whole people of the
State have been fully opened, both
to his individual character and
to the dishOnor which he proposes
to visit upon the fair fame
of the commonwealth of which he is
citizen. That many of these, his former
adherents, will, today repudiate the
repudiator and the treacherous politician,
has been proven conclusively by their
action last year, when. they bolted his
Presidential ticket, and carried the State
for the Democracy. Therefore, apart
from the expressions of confidence daily
uttered by the Democratic press of Vir-
ginia, we feel justified in the confident
hope that tomorrow mornings tele-
graphic news will record a triumphant
victory for Daniel, the Democracy. and |
the honor and credit of the Old Domln-
ion.
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE
UNITED STATEs.-Much attention is
nOx- bainr oivan IN tho oupSfiOn of how