Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-04-13
"A Policy Not to be Repeated.
50 President Arthur has given


y A Policy Not to be Repeatea.A
President Arthur has given
whole weight of the Administrator -
support of the Virginia coalition" says
the Washington organ of Mr.. Malone.
Fairly construed, that la1guage means
that the President Of the United States
has made a special and great effort, as
President, :. to foment and keep up
party quarrel growing ,soutS of a local
question in the State of Virgins: 1t
means that the President of the United
States s. has given the MholesWeight of
the Administration =" to matter with
which President has no more legiti-
mate business than he would have with
a political affair in Canada OF Mexico.
For there is nothing intM Constitution
or in the laws passed. in pursuance
thereof thatrequires, authorizes or per-
mits any official meddling in State
politics by. a President of the United
States.
n We do not believe the President will
regard with unmixed gratitude the
declaration that he has so Strangely
misunderstood the duties and obliga-
tons of his great Offices The Post, it
should be borne in mind lis not making
this charge against the President. 1t
is simply taking the inmistakobly plain
words of the Repu6licu,s and making
just application thereof.
On the 14th Instant our neighbor
made loud and eloquent demand for
free conventions, free elections and
free Legislatures. On the next day j,
Issaid, as above quoted, that the '.whols
Isweight''tof the Administration had been
used to build up Mahoneism in Virginia.
! What sort of free conventions are
possible to the people of a State in
which the ''whole weight of the Fed
eral Administration, including an army
of officials (ostensibly hired to perform
public, non-political duties, but actually
employed to pack primaries and ''set
up conventions), is thrown into tho
! scale?
The people of Virginia, like those OF
| Michigan, know what suchs free con-
ventions' are. They have tested the
desire of the Administration to promote
freedom of political action. They have
seen, as the central Administration or
gan declares, 1.-THE whole weight of the
Administration in support of the coali-
tion,' and they have seen the3knife at
the official neck of every Federal officer
who would not work in the traces with
Malone. They have seen relentless
prescription personified by Malone,
I clothed with 1.-THE whole weight of the
Administration, hunting down and
trampling out opposition. The people
of the whole country have heard Of the
doings of Malone as deputy of the Adj
ministration; have heard these things
with regret, disgust and Indignation,
but they did not expect the central
organ of the Administration was going
to rise up and boast of such local and
unwarranted use of the Federal execu-
tive power. .-..-.
1t is worse than folly to talk of "free
elections i'm a State thus dominated.
The verdict of a jury, every man OF
whom had ten thousand dollars of the
defendants money in his pocket, as an
argument for the defense, would not be
a greater mockery of Justice than the
farce in Virginia last fall was of free
election. Large sums of money, paid
as salaries to department officials, and
handed over to the Hubbell committee
| by those officials, ''for fear of what
might befall them in case they should
refuse" (see President last annual
message), were sent into Virginia in aid
of the coalition. Troops of Federal
! officers, leaving their official work, went
over and over the State, telling the Re
/ publican negroes that the President de-
! sired them to vote for the Malone candi-
| dates. In short, :. the whole weight of
| the Administration was given in sup
port of the coalition given without
color of lawful authority, in direct and
palpable violation of tho right of the
people of State to have fair and free
election. 50
9. Free Legislatures are as impossi-
bic as any other ingredient of local self
! government in a State where thesEed-
eral machine the whole weight of
the Administration -is brought to
bear on local politics. There is no free
dom in the nomination of candidates for
the Legislature and no free choice at the
polls. When such burlesque on the
name of Legislature meets, the boss is on
hand-as was Boss Malone at Rich
mond-to control its action; to control
it, not as an influential citizen of Vir-
| ginia, but rs the accredited representa-
! tive of the Federal Administration, with
honors and emoluments for those who
will do his bidding. .4..An
The Republican ought TO be able to
understand that its policy of admins
4 trative control in State affairs has been
condemned, most signally condemned
and tranpled into the inire of public
contempt in all the States. where .iptelli-
gence generally. prevails among Repub-
lican voters. The people in the might
of their righteous wrath, have decreed
that the Administration must and shall
keepits hands out of the Stata elections.
The present Chief Magistrate of the
United States has, in avery graceful
manner, shown that he fully understands
and accepts this decree. If Malone and
his organs are counting on future like
the recent past, they are leaving the
most Important factor out of their cal
culations. THE whole weight of the
Administration will not be thrown into
the Virginia contest this year or next.
The vote for Grover Cleveland against
Secretary Folger was a lesson that is
mot forgotten Washington Post.
e IA boy sixteen years of age has pc
titioned New York court to appoint
for him a guardian who may institute
in his name a suit for divorce from a