The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-10-25
Partizan Desperation.

gned. The People are too deeply inter
sted in the practical questions affecting
leir Individual and collective prosperity,
, be befuddled in this way. Every sensi-
lie. intelligent man knows that in this
tate contest, neither the Negro, as race,
or the politics in Ohio, is involved. 1t
5 simply whether the People of Virginia |
re to reap the benefits of reforms already |
instituted by the Readjusters, and the |
benefits of reforms to be enacted into Law
hereafter, should the Readjusters have
control of the next Legislature. The court
house rings had been lording it over the
people ever since 1870, until the Coalition
party was formed. The train of woes
md the multiplied burdens imposed upon
Them by the results of this ring rule, are
fresh in the public mind. The People are
Just beginning to realize what slaves they
have been to the whiskey rings and the
lawyer rings, and how they have suffered
because they have listened to appeals to
passion and prejudice, in order that the
tools of these rings might be placed in
power. 1t is the same old game they are
now. In the past they cared
nothing for the People, as their record for
ten years fully attests. In the future the
same ubiquitous policy Of oppression and
wrong will be inaugurated, if the tricks
and devices of these schemers are per-
mitted to succeed. The People must come
to the rescue for it is their cause that is at
ISSue-JueIr interests which are Involved.
To the next Legislature will be committed
vast and vital interests. 1t will have it in
it's power to defeat the debt settlement !;
to restore the tax-receivable coupon /; to
cripple, if not destroy, the public schools /;
to perpetuate the oppressive chancery
laws and proceedings to allow the banks
to violate their charters in the exaction
of usurious interest to protect the rail
roads in their usurpations and wrong
doings, and to legislate in the interests Of
classes, as heretofore, instead of for the
masses of the people.
If it were possible to get at the real fig
ures we believe it could be demonstrated
that the unnecessary charges attending
chancery proceedings under the present
laws and the illegal interest extorted from
the people by the banks, would aggregate
more than all the legitimate expenses of
the county. These things have been per-
mitted simply because the People have
never had their attention called to them.
They have it in their power to correct
them, by sending to the legislature men
who are pledged to work for reform in
these matters, and to protect the people
from the burdens which are unnecessarily
and illegally imposed upon them. 1t is
matters of this kind which cause the
complaint of hard times, in many instances.
The People realize that something is
wrong, but have, not had their minds
drawn to the sources of it. So long ac-
customed to rest under these infections,
and to listen to the sensational appeals of
designing place hunters-to bear the yoke
of the courthouse rings-that they have
really been insensible to the causes of their
oppression.
Is it. not time that the people were
thinking over these things-looking for a
remedy in the election of the men they
send to make laws for them? If they
have the right kind of independence
real, genuine manhood, and are not afraid
to strike blow for their rights and inter-
ests, they will let it be known in Novem-
har ooyt tbot oourt bo,,co ,inrc opd tba
creatures of court house rings, will have
to 60 to the rear, and men who are COM
mitted to essential reforms-who feel with
the people and sympathize with them be-
cause of common interests, be delegated to
reflect the popular will.
Fulcher and Hamilton could be elected
by a thousand majority, were the people to
vote their real sentiments as to the vital
questions at issue, land disregard the clamor
wicked falsehoods about the negro and
mixed schools-a condition of things that
no white man and no negro wants, or would
have. 1t is falsehood these court house
rings and their deluded or designing fol-
lowers resort to for the express purpose of
binding the voters to the practical ques-
tions in controversy. They know the
record of the Bourbons cannot be defended
on any of them, and that the record Of
the Readjusters cannot be truthfully as
sailed. They prowl into the fields, and in
the workshops, and whisper into the ears
of the unsuspecting- do you want mixed
schools, negro trustees over white schools,
negro constables, negro assessors. negro
overseers of the poor, mixed marriages
If you do not, then vote with us for Echols
and Opie and against Fulcher and Hamil-
ton." Such, we learn, are the wicked in
situations and even charges that are being
used to control votes. Such insults to the
intelligence and virtue of the men and
women of Augusta county ought to be re-
buked at the ballot box, and the declara-
tion made by the people of the county that
they are not all fools to be misled by such
infamous assumptions. What do these
designing creatures think of the virtue of
the white women of Virginia, that their
fathers and brothers must be warned
against mixed marriages ? Do they as
sumo that it is necessary to protect them
from such condition that the Bourbon
party must be placed in control of the Leg
islature of the State? The very absurdity
of the proposition ought to draw down upon
them the whitening indignation of the faith
ers and brothers Of the county and State. So
crazed with passion and prejudice and so
consumed by greed for Office are these
Bourbons, that they seem ignorant of the
extremes to which they go. They insult
every white lady in the Commonwealth by
their dastardly assaults against their vir-
tue. And yet they would pose in the role
of the best people themselves, jealous of
their blood and lineage, while they pro-
claim that all Eothers must be protected
from the communicating influence of mixed
Could desperation 60 further
Could grosser reflection-a more brutal
insult be offered to the'ladies of Virginia2
A party employing such means and such
efforts to secure power, ought to be visited
BY the severest condemnation of the faith
srs and brothers of Virginia, and made to
Know that all the ''best people" are not in
GUIDED in the court house rings and their
ludacious tools and followers.