Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-09-12
A Word About B0urbonism.

A WORD About BOurb0n1Sms
There is much that is disgusting in
the constant reference Of Republican or
Readjuster organs and speakers to the
so-called prescription of Northern peo>
pie and Republican voters by the DEM
ocratatic party of the country. That
these malicious libels should be printed
and accepted by large number of
Northern journals and Northern Ipeo-
pie, who are as ignorant of the true
condition of affairs in the South as they
are of the state of central Africa. is not
to be wondered at, and there is reason
to be charitable and forbearing with
them; but there is no limit to the
meanness of our home papers that, to
subserve purely partisan purposes, are
constantly representing state of things
which they know has no existence save
in their columns and in the too eager
and credulous minds of their Northern
readers. All this nauseating and re-
pulsive twaddle about ruthless persecu-
ton, malignant hate, Bourbon malevo-
lence, :hrottling intelligent manhood
suffrage at the polls. systematic opppres-
sion and diabolical tyranny, has lost
even the semblance of plausible un.
truth. Bourbon stupidity, (which
never forgets anything and never learns
anything" and the Bourbon fierce
prescription and intolerance and Bour-
bon suppression of glorious manhood
suffrage" is nothing when boiled down
but the opposition of large majority of
the intelligent property-holding and
responsible citizens of Virginia to the
control of her interests by as motley a
gang of manhood sufragists as ever, in
the dark days of Republican villainy
and diabolism, essayed and well nigh
succeeded in running the States of South
Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
In these States this fragrant party bios
somed out into all the immeasureable
expansion of manhood suffrage that the
widest ecstacies of even the glowing
Viryinian could depict and when, by
its beaven.born exercise, they had foist-
ed on the States the most corrupt gang
of Constituencies thieves and marauders
that ever plundered a helpless people,
and drove the tax-burdened and des-
perate citizens to the rifle clubs as a
man would seek protection from mid
night piilager and his home from
spoilation, they have the supreme au-
dacIty (the organs OF this same party
to lay at the door of Bn urbon stupidity,
Bourbon malignity, an d Bourbon pro-
scril'.iveness, the responsibility of the
Soutfi's lack of advanc ement and ma.
teriai prosperity. We were too neal
neie hhors to these unhappy common.
wes.:hs not to smell the odor of Radical
rule here; and if the people of Vir.
ginin, with these lights before them
have been reluctant to confide theil
desti' les to the keeping Of similar
combination at home, there is, at least
q reason for this spirit which is intend
ed to be made odioHs under the name
OF "Bourbonism." 1t will require LITTLE
effort to get the emphatic denial of any
respectable Northern man to the decla'
ration, thai any citizen of Virginia
black or " bite, has ever, even during
the stormy days of Reconstruction
been impeded or restricted in the frees
exercise of any right pertaining to hin
as nan and voter.
no,,o,ro<.. In, kh<
county of Augusta give employment te
negroes where one Republican or Re.
adjuster does, and we defy any one tC
point out an instance where any man
has, in the ordinary relations Of bust.
ness, been discharged by his employer
because he voted adversely to him. II
these gushing editorials, embodying in
such stately paragraphs the Bourbon
wrongs to the precious Republican and
Readjuster voters, mean, in plain Ian.
guage, to charge that the Democrats Of
Virginia have endeavored, by terrorism
and violence, to make the polls too hot
for these patriots, who, it seems, are
heroically risking everything for the
disenthrallment of Virginia, and at the
same time the capture of her Offices,
will these same editorials please indi-
cate, for the satisfaction of plain Bour.
bon understanding, when and at what
Dc precincts aud voting places these high
crimes against the sublime rights Of
manhood have been perpetrated. Lei
us all come down to the level of COM
mon sense and common ruthfulness.
Bad enough it is that our Radical neigh.
bors away up North should SANDER and
abuse as, but how infinitely worse it is
for an old, stale, threadbare tissue of po
litical fiction to be revived or taken ur
second. hand and spun out anew from
our very midst. Readjusterism should
forever shut its mouth on the subject Of
intolerance and prescription. If ever a
party, born of those internal elements,
existed. that party has been thoroughly
developed in the Radico-R eadjuster
party of Virginia to-day.
AN ATTACK UPON PAUL.-On last
Saturday, there was discussion at
Markham, Fauquier county, between
John Paul and Col. Scott, delegate from
that county. A telegram to the Rich.
mond Wing says that in personal al
tercation between Paul and a man
named Ashby, that Ashby tore off one