The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-11-22
earnestly striving for things nobler and

better.
If our public servants have been honest
and faithful, as the record shows they
have been, then Il large portion of our peo
pie have either abandoned their principles
and willingly voted all these good works
into the hands of those who would fain de-
StrOy them, or else the recent election is
not fair and nnrestrained expression OF
the popular will. That the latter is the
true explanation of the result will not be
doubted by the candid people of the coun-
try when they are brought face to face
with some of the means employed by the
Bourbon faction.
1t is not pleasant to hold up crime and
laWlessness to the worlds gaze, but when
the fruits of these are made to seem the
honest will and opinion of our people it is
patriotic duty to let the truth be known.
Virginia, so long exempt from the blood
shed and violence which have left such foul
traces upon the political records of some
OF her sisters. has, under Bourbon lnStlga-
ton. been dragged, even at this late day
when the whole country hoped for peace,
into scenes and methods no whit less
bloody nor less brutal than those which
fiourished in the palmiest days of ku-klux
and white leagues.
When the Bourbon faction assembled in
Lynchburg in July last to formulate plat
form, y large element of its membership
avowedly and openly favored the adoption
OF the 'colOr line.'' Bourbon journals
proclaimed that the true issue of the can
vitSS was the race issue, and that the con-
test should he forced into struggle be-
tween the whites and the blacks. That
such plank would be incorporated into
the platform adopted seemed highly prob
able until the final action taken developed
the fact that, for reasons best known to
/ themselves, the Bourbons had determined
not to make written proclamation of their
purpose to draw the color line. Even the
most moderate Bourbon did not pretend
that this failure to draw the color line in
the platform sprung from lack of purpose
so to do, but it was admitted on all hands
that it had not been formally adopted from
motives of policy. The temporary chair
man OF the convention addressed himself
70 Iiic WiteeU' i,eeIle % An;--es- 4 =; 1nadin
Bourbon organs recommended the plat
form adopted, as "a avllite man platform,
and while Bourbon cOadjutOrs, under the
name of straightout republicans, were
sent into the black districts to disaffect
colored voters, the whole burden OF the
Bourbon leaders in the white districts was
to excite the race prejudiceS and passions
of the white against the blacks.
The debt question was not the issue on
which Bourbonism hoped to win, for their
attitude to gard it was one of abject aban-
donment of all pretense of principle and
acceptance of every measure they had de-
nOunced.
Their attitude upon the questions OF
suffrage, education, economy, and Taxa
| ton was equally abject and cringing. They
therefore sought to find other issues upon
which they. might appeal to the voters OF
| Virginia.
! In their written platform they sought to
sound a keynote against republicanlsm,
but their own support of Heretofore pro-
nounced republicans answered chs clamor
and paralyzed the power of this appeal
| On the tariff they assumed position so
incomprehensible that the people recog-
nized them rs impostors. On the subject
of II repeal OF the internal revenue system,
which they sought to make an issue, they
found no opposition. In the weak and
Cabling clamor of opposition to bosslsm.
| they found it impossible to produce facts
or sustain public interest. In studied
array of offenses of omission and commits
sion against our party. with which they
adorned their platform, it was found. as
| soon as our canVaSSerS met them, tnat
| there was not a good count i'll the lndlct-
ment.
And so, the Bourbon faction, finding
naught in their platform, naught IN the
record OF the readjusters whereWlth 10
break the solid front of our party, dellD-
erately abandoned all other issues and
| threw the whole power of it's speakers, It's
press. and it's organization into the race
cry with the energy of despair.
AS late us July 26, when their conven-
ton adjourned, in the faith that other is
| sues might prove available, the race issue
| had not only not been made prominent by
| the Bourbons, but had been ignored. So long
as it was not agitated, and, indeed, up to
! the last week of the canvass. when murder
became rampant, our party was intact,
and every report from every section
brought confident assurances of victory.
But as the election drew near the Bour-
bon faction, realizing that on every other
issue it was hopelessly defeated, Infatuated
by a knowledge of impending disaster,
! seized upon the race issue, chanted, chO-
| rused. and intoned it until, wrought up to
| fever heat, it became their sole, only, and
absorbing theme-screamed IN thTeatenlng
| frenzy. nefce ana DeWlldeIlns 40 lIle ueno0
| and song of the Carmagnole in the days OF
| the Sans-Culotte.
AS early as September leading Bour-
bon editor announced to a member OF our
party in public place that the Bourbon
plan of the campaign was Ito buy all they
could and bully the remainder. How
faithfully this programme was carried out
the sequel will show. What was at the
time regarded as a sententioGs piece OF
badinage has now been realized as the
dim foreshadowing of a bloody trnth.
The progress of the canvass developed
an organized system of Implicitly, practiced
by our opponents, whereby in black dis
tricts they appealed to the blacks for sup
port on the ground that our party gave
them no recognition and used them as
mere tools and cats paws, while, at the
same time, in white districts, their appeals
were made to every prejudice OF race tt
save the whites from an alleged purpose
on our part to elevate the blacks above
them.
The same speaker, who would be found
to-day in a black district protesting al
lection and regard for the negro and apur
pose on the part of himself and party to dc
more for them than the readjusters hat
! done OF promised, would be found tO-mor
row in a white district proclalmlng in i'm
passioned appeals that the whites in thu
negro sections were being trampled unde
the feet of the blacks that he came
from their down. rodden homes with a CT.
of despair from them us message to thel
brethren, and that ''by the gods this wa
a white mans country and the white mel
should rule OF the rivers should run blood.
The above is no idle statement, but quo
tation from Bourbon speeches heard b.
; tens of thousands of Virginians under cir
cumstances of excitement, accompanied
by floods of falsehOod pretending to sus
tain the appeal, and circulated too late t.
be contralicted before election day.
Cotemporaneous with these appeals, sen
Sational circulars from Danville, Cumbel
land, and elsewhere, filled with false state
J ments of wrongs and outrageS committed
by blacks cartoons depicting negroes, pun
ishing white children; pictures OF negro
men with white child on one knee ana Z
black child on the other; infamous per
juries, as to the utterances OF our public
speakers, and lies, great and small, calcu
: lated to intlame race prejudice, were Sprea(
broadcast through the white districts o.
the State, backed by corruption none.
D without stint, while they were studiousl.
D suppressed in the black districts and thei
!; absence supplied by doubled funds OF none,
9 to ssbuv OF bully'' the blacks.
l AS the excitement thus begOtten became
more intense-as the buying Of blacks be
came more and more apparently imprac
2 ticable-the violent policy became tn
more necessary to intimidate blacks an,
inhame whites. Arms began to pour int
the southside regions, the supply of SINAI
arms in our larger cities was exhausted
and the demand extended as far as Balti