Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-08-31
ALEXANDRIA VA THURSDAY EVENING AI1GIIsT 81 7ooo =

CAUCUS rules. That gentlemen, is this. You b,v
'n 'tuiIof ana Treasurer second auditor u Sun
erihtraueht Of the Pcnitcntiary Each one n
'hrSe officers has under him certain number q
rierks' or employees The law imposes th
u"tF upon the Auditor and these other officers Il
| appoint their own clerks. Gen Malone asserted
.''c riSht III the caucus to assume to itself tn,
power ni appointing the clerks of these sevcra
hc;ldS ot the department. instead of allowinr thon
! toappoln them themselves rs thcaw directci This
Is Is caurllS rule. 1t gnatcd in this way, befor,
| thG Lcglsiature met, Gen. Malone prepared a rul,
| ~ - pe i"Pteu by the caucus. which was to the Of
er' 'h;it II" man should be elected Auditor or r.
any "tirr o!tc who did not subscribe To the doe
rinr that thcraucs itself had the right to annoin,
INC c'crkS say that this rule was preparcd by
Heh Malone before the Legislature met because :
senator t"hi me he and read the rule in Gen
Siah",es office before the meeting of that body
.sn c hll'iohe nad little caucus of members be,
t .Tlc INC meeting of the Legislature, and said to
lhein' DON you want these little Offices, these
cirrkshIpS for your people IT, you let Massey and
theSc other men appoint them. they will
appoint their friends and You will NOT
not get any oft them. These fellows said eyes, Ger.
tainly We would like to have thcm." Tickling
theSe men with the idea Of their getting these little
places for their constituents every fellow wont in
Tor the rule. They did not know anything of the
evil consequences this rule, or the wrong oft.
Before 60 further, my friends want to saw at
this point that in the Legislature proceeding the
iast thls same question of taking away from the
Auditor and other officers the right to appoint their
own subordinatcS and to transfer that right to nm
irresponsible caucus was proposcd and
1T was defeated After the county Judges
had been elected and Mr.. Massey and
ana other officers refused to submit to that rule.
they were summoned by direction Of Gen, Mahono,
10 appear before the caucus and show cause why
they should not BIZ removed. [Laughter.1 They
IN In ffrl,t I had tl,o
honor pleading the opposition to the enforcement
oithat rule, and it was defeated in the caucus Two
years ago the last Legislature met Ifthe doctrine
that caucus can make its acts binding upon "a
y';tnd hat every man who does not submit to
them, Is to be real out the party and declared TO
bea traitor, then the man who re-introduced and
had adopted this rule after its being rejected as
wrong two years by the caucus is guilty of trea.
son. lCries of good, That's so" and applauseL
say ynu have the rule adopted, and that is the
way in which it was done. Gen. MhOne prepared
the rule. Gen. Mah0nc submitted the rule to tho
caucus the very first night they got there and they
adopted it. Then it began to lcake out that Mr..
Massey would not retain the Office He was already
in 1t, but he wouldn't retain it with any such re-
strictinn upon him rs to the selection of his aids,
Then Gen AlahonG began toappeal to tho caucus to
know whether they would not stand firm eighty of
them, or would they be ruled by one man. You see
how it was. he brought the fight OH. He is behind.
he is bringing on fight between Mr. Massey and the
caucus and will show you presently the real pur-
pose. As Isay he appealed to the caucus to know
whether they would stand firm, or yield to one man.
They said NO" VIC will stand firm, "Thrn
commenced the trouble. Out of that act of Gen,
Mahone gentlemen, has grown all the trouble H.
the read ulster party.
Thi: caucus rule has n public history and il
has private history. The public history that
you have heard of is that to the action oft6e cau.
Gus that claimed the right to appoint the clerks
agree. Mr. Massey was the auditor and he had
the right to run the Office in his own way. He
knew what qualifications were required of the
clerks he knew that the caucus was not a fit
body to select these subordinatcs, and he accord
ingly very properly rcbcled; and for such re-.
sisnncc to as great wrong is that, he ought to,
rs he no doubt does receive the sincere thanks of
every honest Firginian. Cloud appluusc,)
There, gentlemen, is the history of all this
trouble. What do you think of it? A party
rent and torn TO pieces Mt the very moment of its
triumph by an effort to deprive rs important an
officer as the Auditor of Virginia ofthe privilege
ofapponting trusty and efficient men to assist
him in caring for the funds of the State. Be-
ca,lsr ot this very cOmmrndable action on the
part of Mr.. Massey is hc denounced as a tlai.
tors the names 81! Arnold, Judas, Guiteau used
in connection with his Shame on the heads of
those who thus dclamc him, and all honor to our
candidate, Massey. (Great cheering for Massey.
did not endorse that rule my friends. I had
fought it two years before, and Gen. Malone
knew when he got the rule up, it never would be
endorsed by the people; that it never could be
sustained. Thcpubic history Of this thing shows
that Mr.. Massey has been guilty of treason to the
party because he would not permit Gen Malone
to force upon him these odious conditions which
would strip HIM OF the power of PUTTING in his
own assistants; strip him of the power of pro-
tcctng himsclfin office.
That is the treason. 1t WAS not the Caucus
nf f1,n =,
went to Richmond that would have introduced
that rule, or thought about it. 1t was not offered
by any member OF the Legislature except by the
direction Of Gen. Mnhonc. That is the truth
Let them deny it, | know who introduced it,
and where he got it. (Laughter and applause J
| say, then, that it originated with Gen Malone;
ard this whole war was brought about and inaugu-
rated by Gen Malone and for what? Because, if
the public hittory ofthc thing be true, Mr. Massey
would not allow the caucus to have the appoint.
mrnt to eleven petty clerkships in his Office
Here we have IN ES Senator; our great and
grand leader, and all OF our other leaders assem-
bled in Richmond, and IN internal war of tho
bloodcst kind innugurltrd. all because Mr.. Mas
sey would not allow eleven ccrkshps under him
to be filed by All irresponsible body with ire
sponsiblc and inefficient men. That is the casls
belli. (Laughter.)
Now, let ne show you something. Do you
suppose that Gen Mahunc would come down here
the disgracciul scenes that VIC have had in Rich
mond, just because the caucus wanted to rob the
Auditor Of the right to fill eleven little Offices
Is that MI there is in it? Not at ALL That is
simply prctcXt. 1t was Mahoncs pretext to
bring on war between Massey and the caucus.
Massey had been eulogized all over this State as
the best Auditor thepcope ever saw. Both sides
conceded that. (Crics Of That's so,' and cheers
for Masscy.) lie had been in this cause from its
inception. l had the honor of fighting side by
side with him for l0 or II years. We had fought
side by side in this cause when there was nc
earthly hope Of getting an office when no paper
in the State advocated it; when it was a little BIT
of thing, and when its flag was not bigger thar
II pocket handkerchief; when q man would
scarcely dare advocate the cause in Richmond
We Went on until 1871, when we succeeded in
building this cause up and giving it place, and
when we invited into it Mahonc who had beer
prosecuted by the five or six candidates who had
run for Governor That's the first time he cvel
came into its ranks.
Cen Malone saw that Massey was getting ,
stronghold upon the people that he had coltec
ted more money than anybody else; collected i
more promptly; that he had multiplied til,
schools that he was making the Auditors Office
IN institution that we could all point to will
| oc ,un lid n thn r,,ob or