National Republican., 1883-05-26


Weekly.
"Nfr. Malone" became prominent in Yir-
ginia politics in 1869 as tho leader of the
movement known as "True Republican"
which elected Walker governor, ratified tho
fifteenth amendment to the constitution in
fulfllment of the pledge in its platform, and
elected John F. Lewis, a thoroughgoing re-
publican, to the United States senate along
with J. w. Johnston, conservative.
In 1879 Mr. Malone was prominent in Vir.
ginia politics as the leader of new party
called the readiuster party, to which ho
| rallied majority of the white voters, and
/ nearly the whole body of the blacks, who had
! been basely deserted by certain false northern
republicans. In that years contest, as Mr.
Curtis very well knows, "upon review of
the situation it was apparently decided at
Washington that the Malone movement
should" not "be sustained by the administra-
tion" of Mr. Hayes.
| The legislature that elected Malone was
chGEcn in November of that year against the
most vitupeiative opposition by the bourbon
democracy and the openly declared hostility
of the Hayes administration. And yet Mr.
George w. Curtis has the brazen ef1rontery to
belle the history he knows by heart and
meanly to tell his readers "when Mr.. Malone
became prominent in Virginia politics % % f"
it was decided in Washington that tho
Malone movement should be sustained by
the administration (Mr. Hayes then being
presidentl and that "the only gain has been
secured by Mr.. Nal one, who has become u
senator" &c. Gen. Malone was elected
United States senator by the Vir-
ginia legislature in January, 1850,
ten months before Gen. Garfield
was elected president and fourteen months
before his Inauguration, Harper's Weekly,
like Macbeth's witches, understands the art of
lying like truth. 1t does not say at what period
of tho movement in Virginia il was "de'
cided in Washington"a that il "sh0uld be
sustained by the administration without ap-
proval of repudiation,o Its faIsehood is in
the assertion thst "the only gain" made by
this support of the administration "has been
secured by Mr.. Malone, who has become
senator, and who has relentlessly and for his
own ends used the power committed to him"
The writer means to have it understood by
this that Malone gained the senatorship by
the support of republican administration
when in fact, as before stated, he cncoun-
tered tho utmost opposition the administers
tion could bring to bear. The honest negroes
a republican, in company with the bourbon
members; and their integrity alone pre-.
vented tho disgrace of an open coalition be-
tween the bulldozing democracy and the re.
pubicans against tho liberals, who were in
revolt against bourbon methods.
1t was the administration of Gen. Garfield
that decided to support the Malone move,
ment, and it was Gen. Garfield who declared
to Senator J. d. Cameron, Charles Emory
Smith, Frank A. Burr, and the writer Of this
article, at his home in Mentor in the winter
of 1885, that the Virginia debt statement
given to the world by Malone was "an honest
document" Those were his very words. And
SO he never made the qualification suggested
by Mr. Curtis in the Sian derous words Of hi'
editorial, ''without approval of reputation
Harpers Weekly lends itself to the worst ele
ments in American politics when it says o
the Virginia movement:
The result is not encouraging. That the cond
tlon of the colored citizen has been seriously i'm
proved does not appear The state has certainl,
not become republican. Its creditors are no
more satisfied.
The condition of the colored citizen Is bet
ter in Virginia than in any other state il
the union. He is treated more as n man b!
the readjusters than by any bourbon sympa
thizers of the Curtis stripe to be found in th
north. Colored children are being educated
in fifteen hundred schools, a thousand o
which are taught by colored teachers. col
mako sure of good opportunities for tn
coored men and women, who ar
} to be employed as teachers in tn
future, to qualify themselves for thei
important work. The ballot-box
free either from violence or taxation, whic
was not so under the rule of Mr.. Curtis
bourbon friends. The whipping-post, on
stripe at which disfranchised the victim
however trivial the offense or doubtful tn
, quilt. has been abolished Every colored cit
zen of Virginia will give the loud lie to tn
} statement made in the Journal of Ciyilizi
tion.'
, The state has not become republican, b.
: cause it is not yet settled whether republican
: : ism means bourbon restoration in Virginia {
! the onward march of ideas. If Mr.. Curt
and his fellow doughfaces are republican,
God grant that Virginia may mover becom
Q republican.
The creditors are sure of interest on tn
. ascertained debt of Virginia at three pc
a cent, and sinking fund to extinguish IL
9 principal. No bourbon swindle creating
false debt is respected, nor will 1t ever b
c The bourbons during their reign paid notl
1 ing except by receiving coupons for taxes,
: system under which the fundamental cond