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

nOG dcCeQo TO your proposal IOr d JOlllG us
cussion in the Court House, on the usual
terms, it being your day. 1t is oar day at
the Hall where we propose to hold our
meeting, Truly yours, &C.,
JAMES BU4GAAlRaInAs u.
Chairman.
After reading these letters and comment
ing upon them briefly, Mr.. Craig presented
HON. EDGAR ALLAN.
AS the speaker arose, he was welcomed
with a prolonged burst Of applause. He
is much younger looking than one would
expect to find man who for nearly twenty
years has played prominent part in Vir-
ginia S political history. Spare made, with
shrewd, intellectual face and clear, fash
ing eye, it needs not a second glance to
tell the observer that Edgar Allan is no
ordinary man. His enunciation is distinct
and voice pleasant and sonorous. AT times
he reaches to the heights of oratory.
There were passages in his speech Of Mon
day, which for pathetic eloquence we have
never heard excelled, and more than one
eye unused to the melting mood filled at
his touching illusions to wrongs inflicted
and expressions endured. He is perfect
master of anecdote and has an inimitable
way of telling them.
The speaker commenced his address by
a handsome allusion to the late JnO. B.
Baldwin and, said he, the men who are
against us to-day, and who are now as
sembled in another part of the town, are
the same men who in 1850 81. in spite of
the earnest protests and warning of men
like Stuart and Baldwin, rushed Virginia
into the mad whirlpool of secession and
brought upon her the woes that laid her
PROSTATE in the dust. The proudest epoch
of my not uneventful life, said the speaker.
was when, in company with Geo. Rye, Of
Shenandoah, Forbes. of Richmond, L. H.
Chandler, of Norfolk, with Baldwin at our
head, / went to Washington to implore
the President and Congress to let Virginia
vote on the clauses of the Constitution
separately. The Committee of Nine had
failed to accomplish the object of it's ap-
pointment, and it looked as if the dis
franchising clauses of the Constitution
would be thrust upon the people Of Vir-
ginia. Through the earnest efforts of that
committee of Republicans the evil was
averted, the privileges we asked were
granted, and when it came to the election
$4,000 negroes of the State voted to en-
franchise the Confederate soldier. The
speaker then hurriedly run over the period
Oh reconstruction, and just here we may
state that no man in this Commonwealth
Is so intimately acquainted with the polit-
lcal history OF Virginia during those try
ing times as is Edgar Allan. He knows
all OF The secret springs which operated
the government in this State during those
days, and belongs to that rare class of
men who never forget political fact His
mind is perfect storehouse of Informal.
ton, and it is because of this that his o.
ponents dare not meet him on the stumn
PAGE OF POLITICAL HISTORY.
He referred, at length, to the movement
! in Virginia which resulted in the first 90,
alition ever formed in this State. In 1859.
Withers and Marye had been put up as the
candidates for Governor and 1t. Governor
by the Democratic party. The Under
wood Constitution was the leading issue