Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-12-11

the total Democratic gain as compared with
the last election. These counties contain
| only about one-eighth of the population OF
the State. One-eighth of the State, then,
IN counties where the purity of the election
is not impeached by the widest Coalition
partisan, has contributed nearly one-ffth
of the total Democratic gain. What caus-
ed this revolution of public opinion in these
sixteen countiese
That is a story which the public will
never hear from General Malone. 1t may
be well for the representatives of the Demo
cratic party briefly to recite it. In the first
place, Virginia is by history and conviction
a Democratic State. The miscarriage Of
the Demscratic party in the elections of the
last few years was solely due to division
in its ranks which had been produced by
difference of opinion on the State debt. That
yexed question alone gave plausible rea-
son for the formation of the Readjuster par
| ty. But the State debt is no longer po-
lisical issue. By the resolution of the
Democratic party at their last State Con-
vention to acquiesce in the settlement made
law by the last Legislature, and pronounced
constitutional by the Supreme. Court of the
/ United States, that question has been taken
out of politics in Virginia. With the re-
moval of this issue, the only proper reason
for the existence of the Readjuster party
disappeared.
What, then, could be more natural than
the immediate return of all the Democrats
in the ranks to their old party allegiance?
But that return was quickened by the
spectacle Of the unnunbered woes the am
bition Of one man had brought upon the
State, and the apprehension of worse evil to
come, from which accident alone had jus
saved the Commonwealth.
A Legislature pledged by its majority in
advance to obey every mandate of party
caucus; that caucus sitting only to register
and transmit the degrees of its master; the
executive and judicial offices greedily seized
by the dictator's personal adherents; blind
loyalty to one man set up as the sole test of
fitness for positions of trust; the asylums
for the insane, those touching monuments
of the public charity, and the free-school
system. that nobler monument of the pub
lie wisdom, thrown in to swell the dirty
heap of party spoils-so much of this wild
revel of mock craftsmanship has passed in
to history. What was threatened-re- ar
rangement of congressional districts and
judicial circuits, repeal of municipal char
ters, usurpation of the powers long vested
in chancery courts to control, through their
own commissioners, judicial sales Of lands
all this was intended to fix, confirm, and
perpetuate the power of the autocrat, this
new Dr. Francia.
Well, here are the causes of the revolu-
tion of public opinion among one eighth Of
the purest and best voters in the State. Is
not the inference irresistible that the same
causes produced like change in the remain
ing seven-eighths?
Why go about to look for secondary caus-
es when these great primary causes are
starting all the world in the face?
The truth is that all the conditions con-
CURED which thinking men recognized as
the necessary forerunners of the downfall
of the coalition. The uprising of the peo-
pie of New York and Pennsylvania last
year against "bossism'' and other vicious
methods in politics; the marked success OF
the Democrats in the local elections last
spring in this State; the recent Democratic
triumph iu Ohio; the steady and predestin-
ed march of the Coalition party into the
arms of the Stalwart Republicans; the pa
triotic fervor animating the Democratic
ranks and kindling in old and young a very
contagion ofpublic spirit-all the portents
of the political skies plainly foretold that
Virginia would prove true to her Democrat
ic traditions.
The peaceful revolution has come. To
doubt its coming, would have been to de-
spair of free institutions-to doubt the JUS
tice of the final Judgment of the people.
In the address of General Malone sys-
tematic murder and bloodshed are charged
in Charles City, Halifax, Hanover, Floyd,
Augusta, Madison, and Lee counties, and
in the town of Danville.
Tn those counties (axcant Madison\ tbc
Coalitionists polled 2, 496 more votes than
ell