The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-04-20
Heal the Breach.

lence OF conviction as to either principle
Or policy. 1t is only explicable by the
admission that personal feeling and indi-
yidual aspiration, regardless Of the avowed
object of the dominant party, control in its
and councils. II we are
informed, there is no insurmount-
able objection to the important bills which
nave been arrested in the Senate by the
course of three or four protesting Senators.
The cause of the confusion, delay and appa-
rent defeat Of several Of the more promi-
nent measures introduced, is assigned to
personal differences and arrangements,
growing out of minor and non-essential an
yet having their influence in
the entire policy of the party in
power and exposing it to severe criticism
from both friend and foe. 1t seems to us
that il the cause we're made paramount and
all mere personal considerations subordi-
mated thereto, there would be but little dif-
ficulty in uniting che forces for common
object, involving, as we consider, the very
existence of the party, and certainly It's
usefulness and efficiency. 1t is not now ap-
to discuss the several propositions
which are engaging the attention OF the
and which have been placed
before it by competent party authority
They have been considered in the councils
Of the party-are the reflection of its pol
cy, ard having been thus endorsed and pre-
sented, there is no way to dispose OF them
but to affirm or withdraw. To do the latter
would be a confession of weakness that
would have as demoralizlng an effect as alb
solute defeat, with a tendency to a result
by no means pleasant to contemplate. Had
we had the suggestion OF the subjects for
legislative action we might not have intro
duced all the bills which have been made
prominent; but the authority of the party
determined that they were proper to be
and now that the organization
is committed to them, there is no safe way
but to 90 forward and allow as little delay
as possible.
In view of the interests involved and
the effect the action of the Legislature must
have upon the future of the party. spirit
Of concession and Cancellation should pre-
vail. and all mere personal feeling should be
made secondary to the primary considera-
ton of a crystalized political power,
competent to measure strength with the
Bourbon forces. 1t seems strange indeed,
that gentlemen who have been allied with
the Re-adjusters from the first inception
of their policy, and have encountered all
the Pronunciation and prescription which
generally follow challenge to we'll for
titled and entrenched party, insolent from
long exercise of authority and defiant be-
cause of its assumed intelligence and
wealth, should, when the battle has been
won and the trophies in reach. turn away
from the victorious field, and join forces
with the defeated to turn victory into dis
aster. We can see nothing in the situation
that will Justify such conduct. We profess
to no familiarity with the mere personal
phase Of the dissension. We assume, with
out hesitation, that this cannot be invested
u.
proportions more imposing than the cause,
and that when personal considerations come
in conflict with the cardinal policy of the
party, they should be surrendered, if me-
cessary, to consummate the legislation
deemed essential for future success.
We are sure the gentlemen who are the
direct parties to the arrangements in the
Senate, and who have heretofore acted to-
gether, do not fully measure the extent of
the mischief they are incubating or the eff
feet that will follow an adjournment of
the Legislature without enacting into law
the legislation which has been matured.-
Assuming legislative control with an un-
questioned majority in both branches of
the General Assembly, and looked to by
the people who elected them to work har-
for common end, failure to
accomplish what the wisdom of the party
has determined on would bring with it
train of misfortunes not to be readily COM
puted at this time. Its members, but re-
Gently congratulated upon their victory,
would return to their constituents defeated,
not for want of numbers but for want of that
of the situation and devotion
to the cause, VIII ich were expected of them
when the verdict at the polls was rendered.
1t would be q confession of weakness, the alb
sence of that sagacity necessary to direct
majorities to certain results, and an admis-
sion that they were incapable of doing the
work the people delegated them to perform.
The break in the forces which will have
brought about defeat, would widen into dis
if not fatal decentralization. In
fact, it is life or death to the Readjusters
that is confronting them. The one they can
preserve by sacrificing mere personal notions
to the cause, and the other they will invite
by reckless disregard of important in
terests that personal spites and individual
ambitions may be gratified. Confidence
once impaired by failure in the mission en-
trusted to them, would never be restored.
Popular distrust would grow into popular
disgust, and the fatal warning be written
upon the wall, weighed in the balance
and found wanting"
Wherever the blame may be located for
the want of harmony among the Readjus-
ters, it is proftless to discuss. True wis
dom suggests that mutual acknowledge
ments and concessions should be made, and
the forces once more united to fight the
common enemy in the Legislature now,
and before the people hereafter. This is es-
sential to future success, If not to future
existence, and it is for those who have the
power to heal the breach at this time to de-
sermine the destiny of the party.
The views contained in the letter of Hon.
Frank Hatton to the Cincinnati Postmas-
Ter on civil service, are sim liar to those ad-
7anced by the VIRGINIAN in 1877, when
he Richmond Bourbon press attempted to
prevent us from driving the wedge into the
Democratic party that split it in twain, by
us with the hostility of the adj
Of President Hayes, because of
'ivil service order No. /. That campaign
owed the seeds of dissension and the fruit
ipened in 1881. The files of the VIRGIN
AN will show that every argument, every
.ppeal which has since been made against
Bourbon despotism, infidelity and treach-
ry, was but a repetition substantially of
What we then wrote. 1t was to arrest the