National Republican., 1882-10-07
MahnnC--.XiH,ninin-


Mahonc---Virginia.
OF course it is qu ridiculous in the
eyes of Bourbon editors that we should
feel any interest in political affairs in the
Old Dominion. Indeed, it has always
seemed to them fooishncss. But we
manage to do very we'll without their
sanction, and we keep on guessing right
as TO results despite the warnings we
have that the Bourbons are about to
swallow their enemies whole. We never
have considered the Virginia Bourbons
as very formidable since they failed
to keep Nah one-the object of their
batred-out of the United States Senate
We we'll remember how desperately
they fought him, and how they begged
the negro members of the Legislature to
allow them to fuse with them for the cleo
ton of that whilom Radical leader, Will
liam c. Wickham, to the seat then filled
by Gen eral Withers. We know that the
Administration of Mr.. Hayes, in the
presence of whose ethereal mildness
Republicanism in the South vanished
into thin air, was aroused from itslethargy
by the outcrics of the plundtrers of Vir-
ginia, and that it was incensed at the
resistance made by the State. The ne
groes of Virginia and few native white
Republicans saw that General Malone
meant business borrowing the express
sion of an eminent journalist), and that
under his lead results could be accom-
plished which Republican
-" Kings and prophets long desired,
But died without the sight"
The Southern negro had been butch
cred TO make a Northern Republican
holiday long enough. The suppression
of the suffrage was to him a snrinuS ,'aot
ter, for which he sought practical relief,
and not mere convenience by which
Northern Republicans were TO dominate
the North. And so, without leave or
license, he, the Virginia negro, turned
his back on those who only wanted him
for use as an issue for their own benefit,
and appointed new Moses for himself
on his own account. He had then seen
nothing of the Republican party in Vir-
ginia for three years. The last he could
remember of it was that in 1876 he had
braved every danger to cast vote for
Hayes, and that after the day of Inaugural
ton came the Republican party had been
ordered into the kitchen while the Bour-
bons were shown to the best parlor. He
Saw Holiday chosen governor in 1877
without so much as q resolution against
him, and he saw Republican Congress
sional committees dissolved and afraid
to fn, Dfh hai ,u
turned out Of Office u nder Civil-Service
Order Numb er One. There was no COM
plant then of Presidential interference
In Virgini politics Oh, no. A Repub-
ican Administration muzzling its Office
holders so that they could make no pro-
test against Bourbon wrong elected no
complaints from the sources which now
fill the air with brutal ISLANDERS because q
defaulting postmaster or a navy-yard
bully is removed.
In 1879, the negro of Virginia, aban-
doned to his fate by those who held
power in the government through
Northe ern sympathy with his wrongs,
heard out of the darkness the voice Of a
new friend. 1t was MALONE. He Of
fered no trade. He dealt in no maudlin
sentiment. lie said to the negro citizens
of the State that he and his stout fol-
lowers intended to beat the Bourbon
Funder party which was holding the
State down while aliens were robbing
her. He said to them that every citi-
zen should have chance TO vote.
He told the negroes that they
had as much right to vote as
white men, and that no matter how they
roted he and his friends intended to have
fair play for them at the polls. He said
that TO secure that the Rcadiusters would
if necessary meet Bourbon violence with
its own weapons. He promised them
that if his party obtained power they
would open the schools and restore the
school fund which the Bourbons had de.
spoiled that the dollar tax for voting
should be abolished, and that the whip
ping-post, which had been set up merely
to whip out of the negro his right
20 vote, should be broken down.
What wonder that the colored vot-
ers and all their sincere white friends
rallied to Mahone's support as fast as
they found proof of his sincerity. The
Readjuster party was triumphant. 1t
elected a majority of each branch of the
legislature. The negro Readjuster mem
bers were sixteen in number. Every eff
fort was made TO separate them from
Malone and his isex-confederate associates.
] could not be done, He had kept his
ith. He had proven himself worthy to
be recognized as the Liberator ofthe black
man from political thraldonl, as Lincoln
had been his Emancipator from chattel
slavery. Ingratitude is not an element
Of the negro character The Bourbons
desired to meekly follow the negroes if
these would only take Wickham, the Re-
publican, instead of Malone, the Read
1uster. The negroes understood this