Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-08-25
the hope that Malone would rise up in every State
of the South to free them from political oppression

Of the South to free them from political oppression
At the Staunton Convention of 1880 twenty of the
twenty-one delegates, led by me their chairman,
voted to postpone placing electoral ticket in the
field until after yor convention met The single
cepton Peter J. Carter, then, and until peculiar
persuasice persuasion used, bitter opponent of
yours 70 90 N.t9 fNfo aIgtte
sMahone, Virginia :" You never had more de-
voted and loyal adherent than have been in your
fight against democratic prescription and misrlle in
Virginia. and you would have found one more
willing to serve in the ranks of the holy
engaged in but when discovered your hypocrisy,
and that your real purpose to secure power at the
sacrifice of every principle of justice, and to build
yourself upon the ruins of the partyI loved SO well,
humble and friendless as am, high, exalted and
powerful as you are shall strike this blow for
liberty and justice, even if fall, crushed by the
might of those have helped to exat
must not fail to remind you of an important SER
vice rendered you at critical period in your politi
cal history. was the first to discover conspiracy
w:s ben hatched in Washington to defeat your cleo
tiop to the Senate by combining the republican and
democratic vote in the Legislature against you. Be-
lieving, like simpeton, that you would be an honor
to Virgin if elected to the Senate, and that you
would be faithful to the pledges you had made
communicated my discovery to you and also induced
friend to notify you of the effort being made to de-
feat you. You sent Colonel Cameron (now Governor)
to Washington to confer with me- gave him what
information possessed at that time, and afterwards
went to Petersburg to consult with him upon the
same subject.
1t is barely possible that to my early discovery of
the scheme to defeat you and the notification gave
you you owe your election to the Senate hope
not because don't want such sin to answer for in
the future. But if it be true that by this action of
mine you able to your election, shall
begin at once to pray for forgiveness, and humbly
pardon of the people of Virginia. without re-
gard to race. color, &C., &c., for having done them
SO great wrong. If my action made you Senator
and thus enabled the republicans to obtain control of
the Senate, they owe me debt of gratitude that
ought to secure me better position than the humble
clerkshp from which you bounced" (your favorite
term) me so INTERNATIONALLY. If any of your col
leagues feel grateful to for the results which fol-
lowed my action, all ask is that they stand off and
see fair play between us.
In 1880, by disgraceful means, you attempted to
steal the republican vote of Virginia and give it to
Hancock and English. By the most questionable
means you attempted the same thing with our vote
for your candidates for Congress in districts where
the republican vote otnumbered that of your party
ten to one In my district you found me in your
pathway, and you will always find me there when
you attempt to violate republican principles shall
stand by my republican friends and the glorious prn
ciples inscribed upon banner whenever assailed
by enemies whether they in the guse of friends
whose real purpose is power and plumber, or in the
more cominendable shape of open and honorable
foes. - t. *
Sir have withstood democratic prescription and
intolerance for the past sixteen years. and still
maintain my loyalty to my party; and if you the
President and Secretary Teller expect me to submit
to your despotic demands by deprving me of the
means to support my wife and children, you all
mistaken in the stuff of which am made. We (the
wife and chdren) have suffered greater inconvenien-
because of my politics than it is possible for you
to subject to but if you had the power to torture
us ALL the mother and children are as true as the
father. They, too, bid you defiance, and spit upon
your petty meanness.
I came to your rescue when white men of my party,
who now belong to your privy council were trying
to assassinate you stood by your side long as
believed you to be the friend of political liberty; but
since you have unmasked, and have the proof over
your own signature that you are miserable tyrant
and would deprive me of rights which the Kuklux
Klans of the past respected, mean to fight you
through the press and before the people until prove
that you are unworthy the esteem of the humblest
negro in Virginia, to which class you owe all you
to-day. He shall be made to see how you have VIC