The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-06-15
The Address Of the Readjuster Mem
bers Of the Legislature.

will as affirmed by their overwhelming en-
dorsement of our party at the November cleo
ton. In this statement we shall recount, a
briefly as may be, the age-ces and influence
by which the people have been deprived par
TALLY of the beneficent fruits of their magnifi
cent victory over Bourbonism. 1t is german
to the subject to trace the political struggle
IN our State for dozen years past, during
which the people have on several occasion
declared their will only to have it perverted
as it has just been perverted. by the want O
4 hdelityio few oftheir representatives to tn
trust they had solemnly accepted. As on pre-
Vlous occasions, the faction representing mi
nority OF the people have been prompt to util
ize the treason, while they despise the trait
ors to your cause. Once more-let US hop,
tor the last time-your will has been partially
baft1ed by combination Of the Bourbonisn
you have condemned with few individuals il
whom you have placed confidence which they
have forfeited.
In the year 1869, in contempt of the Bour
bonsm which manifested its impractic@blt
temper and incapacity tor affairs by nominal
ing Bourbon ticket upon Bourbon plat
form, you wisely and periodically adopted q
liberal policy for the reconstruction of the
State and her restoration to her coordinate
place in the Union. You declared your ap.
proval OF the constitutional amendments
your adherence to the Federal Government as
loyal citizens, and your earnest desire to sup
port the administration through whose favor
you had been enabled to strike certain obnox-
ious and proscriptive features from the pro-
posed new Constitution of the State Upon
this wise policy you succeeded IN electlng a
| Legislature pledged in the most solemn and
emphatic manner to Observation-Disclosures
both extremes that sought to betray you--the
extreme Radcalism no less than the extreme
Bourbonism of that period
The Legislature so elected and so pledged
was only true to you and its pledges so far
and SO long as was necessary for the re-admis-
sion OF the State into the Union. That re-
suit accomplished, it began a course disturb
ing to the harmonious relations with the Fed
eral Government and with the enlightened
thought OF the country which you had de-
creed at the polls. The sequel revealed that
Bourbonism, under false pretences of submits
sion to the Federal and popular will had
filled your General Assembly with representa-
tlves who readily forgot the Liberalism they
had protested, and seized every opportunity,
as far as they dared, to re-establsh the old
reign OF the Bourbon leaders from whom you
had revolted. Prejudice and prescription
reared again their hated heads and ali the
passions OF sectionalism, of race, and of war,
were again invoked and inf1amed. Nor was
that all: for this Legislature elected by you
to carry into effect your earnest desire and
sagaclOus policy to make friends indeed of
victorious enemies and to bring back peace
and prosperity to our homes, lot only proved
false to that great trust but undertook to
basey sell you and the State to ring of bro
kers upon pretended settlement of our pub
lie obligations, about which they were forbid
den by the Constitution to take any step until
an adjustment had been made, or sought in
vain with West Virginia
How, or for what purposes, this alarming
perversion OF the people was accomplished,
| does not demand discussion here Sufficient
that an enormous and unjust debt was thrust
| upon you, and upon terms as hard as they
We're derogatory and dishonoring; and uti-
mately you found yourselves divorced from
that independent position in National politics
which you had sought, and made captives to
Bourbonism in the politics of the Nation which
you had spurned in the politics of Virginia.
| lou promptly met the attempt to Cypress
| you and to contiscate the revenues of the State
by electlng Legislature which, in 1872, al
most unanimously passed an act repeating
| some OF the most oppressive features of the
Funding bill of 1871, and intended to practi-
cally stay and countervail that disastrous meas
ure, But the Legislature which passed the
Funding bill had also elected a Bourbon
Court OF Appeals, and, unfortunately that
| tribunal was entrenched in position for term
| OF twelve years, and thus beyond the imme-
date reach OF your corrective hands and this
court, so organized with honorable excep-
| tions) condemned your will and the repeating
act OF your representatives-cOoll putting
you under foot and humiliating and degrad-
| ing the state upon preteXt of deciding side
issue against a tax-collector
| Batf1ed thus by the course pursued toward
you, your rights and interests, by your own
supreme tribunal and unable to have a hear
ing on the merits of your cause, you bore the
yoke SO unfairly put upon you with such pa
| thence as you could command, until the alarm
| ing increase and accumulation of annual de-
| ficits, together with the simultaneous robbery
| and ruin OF our tree-school system, the Grip
| ping OF all our charitable institutions, and
the paralysis OF every enterprise, aroused you
| to the necessity of decisive action to avert
| overwhelming and fast-coming insolvency, re-
quotation and shame. 1t was then that in 1877
| the Conservative party-a generic name for
| the organization formed in 1869, and designed
to embrace citizens, of all condition and
| races, willing to enlist against Bourbonism,
Radical ism, prescription and intolerance, and
to restore the Commonwealth by healthtul
policy met IN convention at Richmond
Alter framing platform declaring for an
equitable settlement with your creditors upon
the basis OF your revenues, this Convention
nominated candidate for Governor publicly
pledge to leave that settlement to YOU and your
legislators as a matter with which he had
nothing to do; certainly not in opposition to
you and your Legislative representatives. You
elected this candidate and at the same time YOU
elected General Assembly of which large
majority were instructed and pledged to re-
adjustment of the debt upon the basis of the
platform you had adopted and which every
body well nderstood-everybody, from the
Governor you elected to the school-boy who
could read. That Legislature earnestly en-
tered upon the work before them and began
the enactment OF series of measures for the
relief and deliverance of the State and peo-
pie; but upon the very threshold of their la
bors they were confronted with veto after We
to from him who had pledged himself to abide
your will, who had accepted your nomination
upon your platform, and who took his office
by grace OF your suffrage-suffrage which
had at the same time elected the LEGISLATORS
whom he now defed Moreover, he commem-
GRATED his faithlessness by every circumstance
of insult, even declaring that YOU and your
representatives were dishonoring the Common
wealth, and that free education for your chill
dren was "a luxury" which they should not
ENJOY by his consent until you submitted to
all the exactlons OF the brokers and their lob
by! And these vetoes, thus sauced with inso-
lence, were applauded and sustained by the
Bourbons. Worse than all, however, treason
developed among your representatives, and,
at the last, traitors combined with Bourbons
to lnllct upon you another outrage under the
guise of another funding bill known as Hugh
McCulloch's Brokers bill.
Undismayed, the rather inhamed and melted
to greater and sterner efforts by the folly OF
some and the treachery of others, you rallied
again to the polls with resistless force and en-
thusiasm in 1879 and reaffirmed the resolve of
1877. Again treason reared its abhorrent 'front.'
but your majority was still so strong and
steadfast that you elected Readjusters to many
of the important offices of the State; filled the
benches of most of your county courts with
men in sympathy with you ; sent Readiuster
the leader of your party and the peoples
cause-to the United States Senate, and pass
| ed the Riddleberger REIMBURSEMENT bill, which
was only defeated by another veto from the
occupant of your Executive chair.
| Fooled still in this initial and vital measure
of deliverance, you a third time Joined battle
with the enemy in 1881, with a constancy and
determination only equalled by that of your
| forefathers who fought British power. native
Tories and purchased traitors for eight long
years before final success crowned their sacr
fees and their efforts Again you triumphed
for a people resolved for right and arrayed
against wrong are always inyincible. You
succeeded for the third time, and now, at last,
you believed that your victory was decisive
and conclusive, for you mot only elected a
working majority in each branch of the Gen
eral Assembly, but also the Governor, the
Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney Gen