National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-03-18
BOURBONISM.
ITS EFFECT IN THE OLD DOMINION.
What Scnaior.Elect Harry Riddlebergcr, OF yir-
glnis, Has to Say About It--ln Interesting
Article on the Old and New
Plain Facts.

Senator. elect Harry Riddleberger Of Virginia,
has contributed an interesting article TO the North
lueicdn Rcpiei0 on "Bourbonism in Virginia"
Amer presenting In a lncid and forcbe manner
the whole history Of the State debt of the Old Do
minion, he closes as follows!
The Conservative Democratic party as II dclights
10 call itself had been as false in its professions
touching the negro aud the elective franchise MS IL
had been concerning the debt and the schools
BY system Of trickery, through disqualdcations
for petty ofenses, aud requiring the payment OF II
head-taN rs u prerequisite TO voting, and using
every means 70 prevent its payment they had vir;.
ually DISTINGUISHED the negro, aud by system Of
frauds in the counting and certifying Of returns
they had guarded against any accidents resulting
nom his casting vote. The system was too COM
plete 10 require any violence. Science in this as
In other perfected systems had overcome friction.
THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA
are an honest people, however much they may be
traduced. They abhor fraud and nuniC faith.
They are simple and conhdng people, and were
long led in paths whose deyiousncss they did not
know know; but when they realized that they had been
majesty and hurled their opprcssors to the earth
IL Yves day Of wrath when thcircyes were opened,
and the political coast of Virginia is strown with
wrecks, from the tall admiral who undertakes
the championship of n States homer he has done
90 g much to nnTSS to the Petty shiingsmacE 9f
speaks for itself The reasons forevery enactment
u contains are given in It's preamble. Space for
bids discussion of its details. Suffice 1t to say
that the people who have enacted it believe that
u makes liberal provision for the payment Of
every dollar OF principal and interest justly due
by the people OF the State, and restores equality
among creditors who were originally on the same
footing in favor of some of whom, and against
others of whom, gross and objectionable discrim-
nations have been made
UNDER BOURBON RULE
Senator Johnston's party feels no rcpugnance TO
NE advocates Of the R,ddlebcrger bill, for
and from that time to the present, il
has voted soidy for a leader VINO holds TO the
North Carolina theory Of debt settlement, and IN
I'm don -
bour bill second on its ticket II compromise be-
tween dcbt-paying pretension and pronounced re.
Pndiation as expOunded by the late Governor
Vance. Virginia occupies an exceptional and
anomalous position. No other State in the
Union was dismembered No other State suffered
One-half the losses she sustained. Out of these
grew equities aud embarrassments to which no
ether state In the South can lay claim. She has,
IN the Riddeberger bill, provided for the payment
Of larger per centum of her Indebtedness than
any other Southern State. Yet has Virginia been
tubiected to hypocriuCal aspeHiOn by men who
bower their own outrageous repudiationb by divert
Ing the public mind TO her with their Wild cries.
until the country will, in the end, I've made TO
believe that she who 'has done most to meet her
honest DEBT Is really the laggard and deiaulter.
1T IS NOT THE FIRST TIME
Ild Virginia has been made the scape-g by her
touthern sisters, and her people are beginning TO
ieallEe the fact. The bitterness of her former
hllies and the kindness Of her former foes work
heir effects. She is beginning TO learn that she is
hot the newer Of wood aud drawer of water in
peace and the bulwark in war for ingrates and
mise pretenders. She is beginning TO look else
where for alliances, and to realize that she cannot
lhrlVc chained TO the rottiug corpse of obsolete
IDEAS She begins TO realize that great revolution
has swept over America; that with 1t came new
ldeas, change-social, moral, and political; that
unless she Rdapts herself to existing conditions OF
Affairs she will soon lapse into oblivion and in.
hgnidcance even greater than she experienced
under Bourbon rule.
UNDER READJusTER RULE
she has aroused herself Her schools have In
creased from 249l to over 5000; her scholars from
Oe,V4to 2O156i her school term from three to
five months. The funds diverted have been par.
Tally restored, and normal institutes are being
Lounded. Defaulters have been made to dsgOrge.
The eleemosynary institutions have been once
more put upon their feet. The schools and coll
leges have been paid what was due them. Re-
forms and curlaiments have been made in the
maragementof her public institutions. The debt
question meets prompt settlement. Manhood suf.
lrage has beeh restored, with recognized consttu.
uonal qualifications. Population and capital are
spring UP. Mines are opened. Manufactures are
everywhere.
VIRGINIA Is AWAKE AND ALERT.
She begins new Greer, not only materially, but
IN thought and action. Our people to-day are as
little welded to any old idea merely because 1t Is
old as the people of New. York city. aud as su5.
ceptibie TO the influence of reason aud kindness as
any upon the earth. There is II class, small and
Eowing smaller, which never learns and never
Nrgets. reminding one ofthe nursery song:
There was an old owl that lived in the wood,
And the only tune tSs he Gould could Sing was
Fiddle, haddlc, feeble.
Who represent that type OF Virginia manhood
history win one day record. In my opinion the
people Of Virginia have reached that state of mind
that Democracy has no presumption upon their
allegiance, and Republicanism excites no terrors
IN their breasts In the coming national contest
they VIII cast aside the blind servitude of the
past aud ally themselves with that party whose
candidate is the best man and whose platform
strikes them rs best embodying their true i'm
terests. If pcrchunce, Virginia becomes a Repub.
lican State, II will be because BourbOnism walked
her up TO- sense of It's loathsomeness, and "ye
ancient bourbon" Will doubtless take his flight
piring grOan bastard" Yet English history
records that the bastard was more than once the
hope and stay of the declining monarch when the