Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-01-13
A CAMP FIRE TALK WITH THE
DEMOCRACY.

A CAMP FIRE TALK WITH THE
DEMOCRACY.
The Democratic party of Virginia has,
as one might say gone into winter quarters.
It numbers over one hundred thousand
men, safe, reliable men; an army of which
any leader might be proud. AS every old
soldier knows the amount of drilling in
winter quarters isn't great enough to ia
tigue. but the amount of thinking and
/ talking done by the men is vast. A good
deal OF the talking is done without think
ing, but on the other hand there is great
deal of thinking done which is never vol
ced. We are of the opinion that just now
while there is no engagement in sight and
while the enemy is in has winter quarters,
and very snug ones they are, we had as
well be frank with each other and talk
about the future without concealment. It
ought by this time to be clear to the dull
est of us that the party organization has
been badly managed; that all over the State
there are more or less city leaders, county
leaders, township leaders, neighborhood
leaders who have fallen in rear of the
times and who ought to be pensioned off,
laid aside, anything to get rid OF them.
Men who are in fact but the followers of a
fore-ordained set of other men, and who
never exercise their own intelligence,
which is by no means of mean order, in
making their selections. To these new
man appearing as an aspirant for represen-
tative honors, is per Sc rank heterodoxy,
and young man without the imprimatur
of wide field of extraneous influences is
little short of an dissertation of the sa-
cred presidents Of Virginia. How are we
ta,sccount for the appearance of many OF
.eung men In the ranks of the enemy
last fall save from the fact that they could
find no place in their own party except as
hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Such propositions as the refusal to pay a
lust debt; such political methods as Goa
lition with the most ignorant and danger
GUS class of voters in our country. find no
natural home in the chivalric mind of the
young. It was the closing of the doors OF
their own political home against them that
gave the tempter the opportunity to win
them and gave the tempted the frame of
mind in which to be won. No party can
successfully carry on political warfare
without it makes use of and elevates its
Young men. They are the seed of the har-
vest. Nor can it live without putting for
ward new men. Rust, mildew, rottenness,
overtakes, sooner or later, the organization
which pins its faith to one set OF men
through generation.
The worst part of it with the Democrat
ic party of Virginia is that the "old TO-
gies'' in it are conscientious, intelligent
gentlemen. To what we have said above
thew will ask if tried servant is not bet
ter than a new one? True. If man
who has proved himself efficient in posi-
ton is not worth trying again? True
again. But suppose you marshal your
tried servant and your efficient man to the
exclusion of others so often that the peo-
ple tire of and defeat him. Then whers
are YOU :? The 'sBourbonism' which
the -Readiuster Coalition com
planned of in the Democracy was not the
Bourbonism of principle. There was nc
Bourbonism IN wanting to pay just debt
which we were able to pay; that is young
and fresh all over the world to-day having
the growth and freshness of an evef living
principle. There was no Bourbonlsm IN
demanding that he who votes taxes shall
help to pay them that is the law
of the most progressive States in the
American Union. But there has beer
Bourbonism and plenty of it in the party
organization of the Virginia Democracy
and there is good deal Of it there to-day
1t was that which caused the existence o.
the Readjuster party. The Liberalism
of that organization is mere pretence
the establishment of the public debt was
but a means to an end; the real secret was
that it was as Governor Cameron said, :
revolt against the Democratic party. He
might have added, had he been SO minded
that it was also a desperate struggle fol
recognition outside of the party by an ele
nent which had been denied it Inside of it
In this, as it were, camp fire talk witt
our Democratic mates we don't wish to bt
understood as approaching anybody. Re
examinations after defeat are waste Of
time. and perhaps we haven't been any
better than the rest of them in the very
matter we are pointing out. But all OF u!
will have plenty of time for reflection II
the next two years and we should use Il
TO our benefit. If we learn nothing IRON
orr late defeat we will be Bourbons in
deed. Let us recognize the fact that oul
pssty needs true liberalism-not towards
The enemy but within itself and towards
its own members. Let us bring into mar
ket some of our new wheat. Some weeks
before the November election we read
list of the men before the people in whole
tier of counties in a section OF the State
and there were hardly half dozen whose
names hadn't been before their constltu
'epcies for nearly decade. An experlen
ced public man remarked that if the party
could carry them successfully Daniels ma
iority in Virginia would be fifty thousand
They were musty and weevil eaten. But
two. we believe, out of the list were elect
ed. Whether the next two years will de
yelope in our party leader, time alone car
answer, but in the mean time we can al
address ourselves to the task of setting lts
affairs in order, giving proper direction t(
it's sentiment, liberalizlng its spirit, push
ing the right sort of men to the front an6
retiring the fossils. AS long as there is 3
Republic there will be Democratic party
Let us see that it is a Democracy III thu
best sense of the term and it will not have
long to wait for that success which vii