The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1881-04-06
senator Malone as the Bal.
ance OF PoWer-VirgiRl3
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 all 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 a traitor, for gain, to every
political principle and to duty.
Since the opening Of the present
extra session of the Senate he has
been a anine days wonder" Spec
ulation was rife from the beginning
as to his position. Ben Hill, of
Georgia, settled the question by
smoking him out" very early in
The session. He came plump down
on the Republican side, and imme-
diately became famous throughout
the country and a power in the
Senate. As one of 80 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 s'biger man than old
Grant. He holds the balance OF
power. He is the Bismarck of the
Senate. To a man Of inordinate
vanity, as Malone is said to be,
this may be a reasonable eSplana'
tion 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
S patronage, and this charge finds
very general belief at least among
those who disapprove Of his course.
These charges be answered in a
four hours speech in the Senate the
2sth 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 bis
motives. A great part of the time
was occupied in explaining the
meaning Of readjuster in Virginia.
The speech was very ordinary, and
win have no effect either in or out
of the Senate. It neither elevates
nor lowers him in public estimation
he stands now just where he did
befere-a small man whom fortuit
GUS circumstances enable to play
great part. It has often happened:
as in the present case, that men
otherwise Insignificant can control
great events, and thereby become
objects Of much concern. Another
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 and the Mackey
House were contending for single
man, and he, a weak, ignorant ne
gro, turned the balance. For a
while. he 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 a traitor, and said he "sold out"
lsnew allies patted him on the back:
and made much of him. 1na short
while he ceased to hold the balance
of power; be was no longer neces
>Sary-and be 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 o soldier, he has won fame that
cannot be obscured. We are not
speaking of the soldier, but of the
politician.
While Malone as d Senator is
simply 8 mine days wonder, al
the head of the :'readjusters" in
Virginia he is q 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.
If the Republicans and negroes side