Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-09-02
RID. Beckley's Arrangement of Malone.
70 The Colored Republicans of Hirqinia:

ace, both in the hours of personal and
political slavery. Both were oppressive and
wrong. God, in his power and wisdom,
struck from our limbs the shackles which
had bound our manhood for many years,
and for which we ought to thank Him de-
routly. Our former masters found other
means to continue their prosecutions. We
have been since the days of our liberation
the victims of political prescription and
persecution from those who ought to have
been our dearest and best friends, our
former owners AS a race, and at a time
when their families and property were left |
Mt our mercy, we forgot the wrongs we had !
and like devoted people we |
preserved the latter and protected the
former. We did right, and for doing the
right we ask no credit, but only justice. In
the war which resulted in our liberation
vast sums in treasure and thousands of
human lives were sacrificed. Shall we
prove recreant to the trust which these
sacrifices left in our charge? [ answer for
myself--neyer!
The democratic party of Virginia has
ever since the war aimed its shafts of ty-
ranny direct at us, and but for the shield
which the republican party has placed in
our hands, and which we have defended so
meath the waves of a political sea- But
three short years ago there appeared upon
the stage transmogritied actor From the
chief tor in scenes of carnage and blood in
which our people were the victims, this man
appeared, proclaiming himself worn out
with the part he had played Gorged with
the deep-hued blood of negro victims,
which failed TO bring him power he
appeared in the role of the defender
of our rights. He has been more
successful in this last character Fail
ing in his appeal to the white race
Of Virginia to place the crown of power
upon his head, William Malone asked at
our hands that which had been denied him
by the more intelligent men of our State.
Well he knew that he must offer us an
atoncmcnt for the past, and that he must
bring forth fruit meet for repentance. He
came with professions OF deep repentance,
fresh from the scenes of fraud and outrage,
and we accepted his proffer in good faith.
We placed the sceptre of power in hands
dripping with the blood of our people; his
conscience we believed had goaded him
to acts of atonement. His fertile brain had
hatched all manners of fortunes for you and
me. He it was who had stolen republican
liberty in Virginia, and delivered her bound
hand and foot, to his tyrant associate Wal
kcr. To him more than to all other men are
we indebted for the outrages and wrongs
that followed our acknowledgements, and
which we have borne so patiently. Had he
Il thousand lives, and each one could exist a
thousand years, and were hsto devote them
all to efforts to undo the wrongs Of the past
they would not atone for 1.-THE of the blood
Of the victims of his cowardly conduct.
The hopes ofthe confding negro were rails
ed Us in his humble cabin he thanked God
for this convert from bloody tyranny to
peaceful liberty Surrounded by difficulties
OF gigantic proportion, cautioned by our old
political associates to beware ofthis modern
saviour, discouraged by proclamations from
the White House at Washington and halls
of Congress, we came from the field and
cabin, from the swamps and forests of Vir-
GINA, and gathered around the ballot-box-
e., into which we tremblingly dropped our
atom ofpower that, condensed, made Ma
hone the tyrant that he is. We have lived
to see the fruits of our efforts.
This actor, who three years ago came plea
dining for our help, has changed not only his
garb, but is playing another character.
Grown to gigantic proportions, he struts up
on the political stage, waving our black
sceptre of power, and bids us kneel at his
feet rs cravens might. Shall we kneel as he
bids us do, or shall we snatch from his once
bloody hands that insignia of power that we
placed there, and send him back to that
station FROM which we rescued him? Shall
We be slaves to this satrap, or strike anoth-
er and llnal blow for liberty? ! hear your
answer rs it comes up from the fields and
patches Of the East; hear it as it comes
rolling along the valleys and is echoed from
tIn t,in ~ . hn
fee"
Evidences are fast accommodating and
gathering together that William Malone is
now traitor to the cause of liberty. He
has: with our aid, Embossed us from the
chariot-wheels of the many political despots
only to chain us to the juggernaut of his own
train.
We must not and will not he crushed bv
this traitors treason. Believe me, my peo-
pie, when tell you that it is with us now
10 redeem ourselves, and that we have dan
gers to avoid much greater and more des-
tructlrc than those from which we have es-
capped. Malone will be your master and
you will be his slaves as sure as you fail to
stand by the right you have acquired this
fall He has put candidates in the fields
everywhere in Virginia, who know of his
treason, and they will call upon you to in
vest them with power. I warn you that if
you vote for one of them, you vote for a
Trojan horse within which is hidden the
form and features ofthe tvrant Malone
| have neither the time or sapce to tell
you of the outrages which Mohone is per-
petrating. everywhere upon our old, true,
and tried Republican friends. 1t, would
take volumes in which to record them; but
everywhere and all around us lie the man
gled remains of those who in the DAYS of
Mahone's bloody outragcs stood as a mighty
breastwork, behind which we could gather
our little ones and cry for protection. Shall
we desert them now, and for this new and
false god j.? know that people who can,
as we do, love even our old masters, who in
the days of slavery did us. great wrongs
from our standpoint), cannot and will not
sit idly by and see the men who gathered as
friends around US in the past thus foully
murdered by the hand of or political assas-
sin. God help you ifyou prove such base
ingrates.
I'll