Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-12-25
MahOne's Treachery and Fall.

It is not that Malone is Republican that
be deserves the condemnation of the people,
but the fact of his treaehery in protesting
to be Democrat when he is Republican.
1t is for this that he deserves condemnation,
for, as the st. Louis Republican says, ''if
Malone, at any time previous to his cleo
ton to the Senate, had left the Democratic
party and joined heart and hand with the
Republicans, he could not have been justly
condemned by those who value manly in
dependence in such matters and appreciate
its obligations. But when, protesting to be
a Democrat, he obtained his election by
Democratic votes, and then openly and
without shadow of apology or excuse sold
himself to the Republicans and became their
active and INSCRIPTIONS servant, he touch
ed the depth of political infamy, and no
condemnation language can frame is too
severe for him, no contempt the mind can
conceive too strong. The matchle4s treach-
cry has been followed by work entirely
worthy of it. The traitor was not one of
those who stake the first false STEP" and
then, smitten by shame or stung by consci
ence, edo not to hell's perdition CO." He
proceeded at once not only to earn the wages
of his sin by voting steadily with men who
bought him, but to assail in every possible
way the party he had betrayed, and to har-
ass and humiliate the State he had bar
gained to misrepresent. Directly and in
directly he has done more harm to Virginia
than was done by the armies that made her
historic soil the great battle ground of the
civil war. He has stabbed her credit, he
has stained her reputation, he has checked
her prosperity, he has disturbed her peace,
he has kindled animosities among the peo-
pie which will live and burn long after the
grass has grown upon his grave. Inten-
tionally or unintentionally, he has been an
unimitigated curse to the State that bore
him; the State that trusted and honored him
until he proved himself an ungrateful and
faithless son. There have been 'bosses"
and ''bossism" elsewhere, but no ''boss"
like him, no stbossism" like his, ever before
disgracsd the American name and Nation.
Compared in this respect with Malone,
Conkling and Cameron are angels Of light
They, occasionally at least, tried to give
their tyranny color of decency, assuming
virtue if they had it not" but he has
seemed to take pride in making his tyranny
utterly indecent as well as utterly hateful,
and no semblance of virtue has marred the
long catalogue of his misdeeds.
But the responsibility of what is now
known in our political vocabulary as ma
honeism" does not rest exclusively upon
the man who fathers il. From the day be
pocketed the price Of his treachery until
now he has had the hearty support and CO.
operation of the Republican party and all
the aid and comfort a Republican Admins
tration could give Republican organs and
orators have sounded his praises and ap-
plauded his efforts, and Federal Offices have
been placed at his disposal to reward his
friends and punish his enemies If the Re-
publican party outside of Virginia had sim
ply let Malone severely alone, and if a Re
5 publican Administration had refused to lend
him it's patronage or grant him its indorse-
ment, he would have been extinguished long
ago, III spite of his desperate energy and
splendid ability for political intrigue and
intimidation. When we think Of the moral
strength an immoral cause can receive from
the appreciation and encouragement of q
great party, and the almost omnipotent in
tluence Of ''the spoils SYSTEM" the wonder
is, not that Malone has escaped defeat ST
long, but that he did not escape it altogeth
er and continue his rule Of ruin indefinitely.
He has been beaten now-and we believ.
helplessly and hopelessly beaten-not by
luck or combination of for tunate circum-
stances, but by wisdom, courage, indomita-
bic zeal and incompatible work of the Vir
ginia Democracy Never before in the
= eventful history of the grand old Common
wealth has Virginia been the scene of sucl
political struggle as the one now 80 hap
PLY and gloriously ended; and she owes to
her Democratic children the browning vic
tory which, won against overwhelming odds,
is worth more to her than all the bright
laurels her sword has gained. The most
shameless and insolent of "bosses" has ben
knocked down and out, leaving record and
lesson well calculated to discourage future
imitation of his treachsry and tyranny; the
Republican party has been taught that the
purchase of Democratic Senator does not
insure the Republicanizing of Democratic
State, much less the breaking of solid
Democratic South; and Republican Ad-
ministration ought to be convinced that it
has been partner in very dirty business
without even the poor consolation of seeing
the profits balance the losses"
CREDITABLB REsoLUTIoNs.-The Savan-
ma NeacS calls special attention TO the action
OF III Intelligent and representative body of
eolored men that met in that city during
the past week. 1t was the executive COM
mittee of the Farmers Store Association