Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-04-28

FRIDAY MORNING. APRIL %. 1882.
THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
OF THE SESSION.
The adjournment Of the legislature ON
Saturday last, leaving many things impor-
tant to Gen. Malone unaccomplished. is .
greater disappointment to that experience
ed politician than it is to the rank and nls
Of his party. There have been unmistak-
able signs since the passage OF the Riddle
berger bill, which is supposed by them
to end the debt question. that among =
certain class of Rsadjustsrs the later
events Of the legislature have been viewed
with the idle interest Of spectators who
watch players at chess rather than with
the intense curiosity Of those having some
thing at stake. The debt question being
out OF ths way, a. they suppose. the Vir-
ginia legislature has besn looked upon for
several weeks past ~ > board on which
Malone and Massey were playing for high
stakes-the former for eight congressman
to hand over to Arthur's administration,
and the latter for seat as congressman
at large. On the other hand the Demo
Gratis Of the State, who compose the great
body Of taxpayers Of the Commonwealth
have regarded the session with anxiety and
hail its close with relief.
The measure Of the most practical i'm
portance to the pockets Of the people that
was carried through. was the tax rsduc-
ten on real and personal property in the
State from fifty cents to forty cents. This
is most hazardous bid for popularity
which shrewder statesmen would have
steered clear of. The ruling thought with
the people that contributed to the success
of the Coalitienists, was not lower taxes,
bat the staving off Of higher taxes. There
has been no loud call for lower taxes. But
if after the FREQ hand with which the ma
jority has been appropriating the revenues,
any mishap should bsfall the working of
the Riddleberger bill; if the strong hand
of the United States Supreme Court shall,
as is most probable. check it, then the
Commonwealth will be in a deplorabls
state OF bankruptcy and confusion, state
of affairs that the people will visit on the
party that brought it about by repudiating
it.
On the same contingency depends the
other important action OF the session, the
change of the Court of Appeals. Should
the U. s. Supreme Court settle the Vir-
ginia debt by its mahdamus, the now state
Supreme Court will be of no more use to
the Coalition, than the five distinguished
Judges who have been displaced would
have been.
The two measures OF Importance to the
people which obtained unqualified sue
cess, were those abolishing the lash for
larceny, and the prepayment of the
capitation tax. The first can hardly be
called Of Importance to the tax payers.
though the tax payers were unquestionl
ably benefited by it as an economical
mode of Furnishing petty crime. Its pas
sage, however, will satisfy those who think
the mode savorsd of barbarism, and dis
satisfy-no one in particular. The second
met with but little opposition, indeed not
a 1.-THE of the opposition it should have re-
eeived. While it will benefit a few who
need it, it will chiefly serve as sop to an
idle and thriftless class of blacks, whose
participation in the government is giving
grave apprehension to the thinking men
of both national political parties.
The failures of the Coalition party in
carrying it's measures have been few, but
to it-or rather to Gen. Mahene, impcr-
tant. Their Importance however is ofdif-
ferent degrees of gravity. The arst-the
failure to redistricG the Judicial Circuits
was rather the failure to find places for
political friends than failure to forward
the cause Of readjustment. The most
learned Readjuster in the seat of a Circuit
Judge could not fend off one OF the Mar
shals of the Supreme Court of the United
States. The second-the Commissioner Of
Sales bill merely disappointed a few hung
~ Coalition newspaper men and grieved
some one hundred worthy citizens who
had hoped for fat places. As a matter of
fact the people at large of all politics were
afraid of it and its adoption would have
given satisfaction to very few. Men want
to control their own affairs as far as pos
sible and the idea of the Governor Of the
State thrusting his proboscis into the sale
of every farm was not popular one The
nonsense talked about lawyers is very
much of sort with that talked about
physicians-but you will notice that when
ever a man is sick he wants not only a
doctor but the doctor Of his choice. And
so it is when map has law business; be
wants lawyer to attend to it and wants
to select his own lawyer without the aid
of the Governor. The third, and failure
pregnant with disaster was the. Congress
sional Reapportionmentb bill. To the IN
initiated is little known how many personal
ambitions were blasted by this failure;
how adrolty prepared slate was smashed
and how many promises were doomed to
disappointment. But all know one prom
Use that was prematurely made public, and
that was the engagement to furnish the
Republican Administration, in return for
its support, with six more Virginia Con-
gressmen. In breaking up that arrange
ment the stern and incorruptible Coalition
Senators who defeated their former leader
gave the country an example of political
backbone that successfully withstood the
heaviest strains of temptation.
The Coalition party has in this long ses-
sion of the legislature thrown off many
pretences with which it entered it. Not
withstanding its syren notes about the
.speople" it has persistently avoided rec
ognizing them IS having voice. It
refused to submit the Riddleberger bill to
s'the people;;'' it refused to submit the
election of men who were to conduct the
sales of their own farms to "the people,"
it refused to submit the changes in their
mhartars tn tsthe nannlat, of citiea and