The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-11-28
Malone will Fight Again.

Senator William Malone has issued ringinJ
circular explaining the defeat OF the readjust
ers In the late election. He declares that th
fight in Virginia shall still 60 on. 1.-THE re
adjuster party" he says, "came into being n
the expression Of the popular will concernin,
the state finances, the rights OF citizens In tn,
matter OF suffrage and free education, the pro
lection Of all our people under the laws, ant
last, but by no means least the relations exist
ing between the state and federal government ;
He recapitulates the settlement Of the publ,
debt by the founders and shows that their en-
emies, after years OF denunciation, hav,
stamped 1t with their approval. He show,
that the readjusters three years ago took tn,
government from the Bourbons with an empty
treasury, and large floating debt; that they
lay down the government with the floating deb
extinguished and nearly three-fourths of mil
lion dollars in the treasury, The senator
ment which, under Bourbon rule, averaged
$1,084 1854 annually, has betn reduced by thu
readjusters to an average Of $500, 234; that TIN
suffrage has been liberated from the stumbling
block OF the capitation tax; that the public
schools have been increased from Q, 491 under
Bourbon rule TO 1857, and the colored schools
from SO TO $50; and that the relations of the
state to the federal government have never beer
more friendly than they are now since the close
OF the war Of the Rebellion.
THE TRUE EXPLANATION.
III our public servants" the senator con.
tinues, have been honest and faithful, as the
record shows they have been, then large por-
ton OF our people have either abandoned their
principles and willingly voted all these good
works into the hands OF those who would fain
destroy them, or else the recent election Is not
fair and unrestrained expression OF popular
will. That the latter is the true explanation Of
the result will not be doubted by the candid
people OF the country when they are brought
face to face with some OF the means employed
by the Bourbon faction. The debt question
was not the issue on which Bourbonism hoped
to win, for their attitude toward 1t was one of
abject abandonment Of all pretense Of princi-
pie and acceptance OF every measure they had
denounced. Their attitude upon the questions
OF suffrage, education, economy, and taxation
was equally abject and cringing. They there
fore sought to find other issues upon which
they might appeal to the voters OF Virginia.
AS the election drew near, the Bourbon faction.
realizing that on every other issue 1t was hope
lessly defeated, Infatuated by knowledge OF
impending disaster, seized upon the race is-
sue, chanted, chorused, and intoned 1t until.
wrought up to fever heat, 1t became their sole
only, and absorbing theme --screamed in
threatening frenzy. fierce and bewlderipg as
the dance and song Of the Carmagnole in the
days OF the Sans-Culotte The progregs of the
canvass developed an organized system of du-
plicity, practiced by our opponents, whereby In
black districts they appealed to the blacks for
support on the ground that our party gave
them no recognition and used them as mere
pools and cats paws, while at the same time
in white districts their appeals were made to
every prejudice OF race to save the whites from
an alleged purpose on our part to elevate the
blacks above them. The same speaker who
would be fonnd to-day In black district pro-
Tossing affection and regard for the negro and
purpose on the part Of himself and party to
do more for them than the readiusters had
done or promised would be found tomorrow In
white district proclaiming in impassioned ap-
peals that the whites in the negro sections
were being trampled under the feet of the
black; that he came from their down-trodden
homes with cry of despair from them as a
message to their brethren, and that by the
goos THIS was white mans country and the
white men should rule or the rivers should RIM
Dlood. Contemporaneous with these appeals
sensational circulars from Dsnvile, Cum ber-
land, and elsewhere, filled with false state
ments OF wrongs and outrages committed hy
piacks, cartoons depicting negroes Furnishing
white children, pictures of negro men with a
white child on one knee and a black child on
the other, Infamous perjuries as to the utter
ances OF our public speakers, and lies great
ana small. calculated to inflame race prejudice,
were spread broadcast through the white dis
tricts OF the state, backed by corruption money
without STINT while they were studiouslv ann.
pressed In the black districts and their absence
supplied by doubled funds of money to buy
or bully the blacks
THE DANvnLE MASSACRE
The massacre in Danville Is dignified by
bourbonism with the name of riot. The facts.
as gatnered from all sources, are that upon Sat
urday evening preceding the election, lust after
the Danville negroes had received their weekly
pay and were buying their Sunday supplies in
. crowded market-place, white man appep red
had an alteration with negro, and whipped
him. The fight was ended and no other negroes
came TO the rescue OF the punished man. But
tne programme was not interrupted by this
circumstance An armed gathering Of the
best people OF the best and brayest' was
conveniently near and in moment a murder
Gus throng poured ont of the building where
they were assembled, opening a deadly FIRE
upon the unarmed, defenseless, and flying ne
groes How many were killed no one knows
and no one will probably learn the truth. for
the condition OF things Still in Danville is such
that the truth cannot be learned That thew
were shot In the backs like dogs while running
away; that no pistol-shot was fired by black
man That no white man was injured, save by
were found dead in alleys, in warehouses;. and
under houses, like poisoned rats that had
crawled away to die; that the negroes fed to
the woods, to the state Of North Carolina. to
the four winds of heaven-these are a few Of
the facts OF this bloody, wholesale murder
"niSh "oo boioBIdpnou lar ana near by BOur-
pons as an insolent uprising of the blacks
against the whites. simultaneously with these
occurrences the crack of the Bourbon weapon
engaged In political murder resounded and the
Bourbon knife sank deep in the counties of
charles City, Halifax, Hanover, Floyd, Au.
gusta, Lee, and elsewhere, mingling with Sab
path day sympathies from the bourbon capt.
tal, and the race cry was shouted with brutal
1eroclty intense enough to make Virginia the
rival OF any southern state in her record
OF bloodshed and lawlessness. These. fellow
citizens, were the means resorted to. The
enects were all that the bulldozers could have
hoped for"
THE RESPONSIBILITY
The result Of these outrages has been to
add the crime Of murder to the already long
ilst OF Bourbon offenses. The responsibility
!or the crime rests upon the leaders of that
faction who by incendiary appeals inflamed the
brutal perpetrators to commit these deeds
mat the reaction will come, and that swiftly
and completely, is not matter of doubt II
Ii true that Bourbonism has gained a triumph
upon campaign of falsehood and detention.
py appeals to passion, and by a barbarous
resolve TO shed as much innocent blood az was
necessary to its success. 1t Is true that by fair
means and by foul it has procured a temporary
majority. And yet it is equally true that the
majority OF our people are conservative at
heart, and abhor falsehOod and violence. AL
ready the voice OF those who were deluded.
.peholaing the injury they have done their own
interests under the false excitement by which
they were infsmed, begins to be heard Al
Hoauy, even among those who have heretofore
acted with this revolutionary faction. men be-
gln 70 realize that the desperate agitators and
promoters Of these outrapaa % nnor NO $1,000