The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-04-19

ing to plead in their behalf but the lnrty.
After having, through the pdrB machine
ry, brought the State to the very verge of
ruin, and it having been rescued from final
bankruptcy by kicking the party out of
power, they have the impudence to ask the
wronged and deluded people to restore the
party to power again. If ever the people
of Virginia had public enemy it has
been the Bourbon Democratic party. Look
back over it's ten years ofrule and bring in
tration, and there is not a single fact or
act to commend it to public confidence. 1t
proved to be an absolute and unmitigated
curse to the State. There was not an in
terest it did not paralyze. There was not
a good that it promoted. In the name OF
the party the people were made to submit
to wrongs and Outrages foul and intense
enough to have justified forcible disrup-
ton of the government. The revenues
squandered, the public institutions starved
into imbecility, the rights OF the people
denied, the credit of the State dishonored
and general bankruptcy and ruin threat
ened.
In this condition the ReadjusterS found
the Commonwealth, SO brought about by
Bourbon Democracy. Within four years
all this has been changed. The taxes as
sessed against the people have been faith
fully collected and appropriated to lawful
aho nI, nj
institutions invigorated into active USE
fulness by liberal appropriations for their
support, and the restoration to them and
payments of funds before appropriated
and never turned over the treasury is in
a healthy condition, the credit of the State
better than it has been since 1861, the bal
lot made free, and an era of general and
unexampled prosperity inaugurated.
Notwithstanding this contrast, the
Bourbon press have the audacity to ask
the people to restore that faction to power
again. 1t is impudeuce unparalleled, and
if the people should be so blinded by party
prejudice as to yield to the appeals, they
would deserve to have a yoke placed on
their necks and all their interests made SUI
coordinate to the selfish ends of conspiring
and trading politicians.
We care nothing about parties so far as
names are concerned. We want results in
good goyernment-just laws, operating
to relieve and encourage the taxpayers of
whatever class or condition; to invite
confidence from abroad to inspire enter
prise at home, and to give encouragement
for the active use and application of the
energies and efforts Of all the people, so as
to make Virginia better and more prom
Using home than any place else, and thus
keep our young men here. To turn now
upon the party that has done so much for
the good of the State, would be to invite
return of the condition from which we
have just escaped. Would be to protest
against further reforms for the relief of
the people and the breaking up of rings and
cliqueS, through which the people are
wrOnged and robbed Public sentiment
should be so shaped now as to prepare it
for the contest next fall. when u bold and
determined effort will be made to elect
Legislature which will have the courage
to tear up the crystaliZed wrongs of years
and emancipate the people from the ruin
Gus court proceedings, designed and en-
plOyed to absorb the estates of creditors
and debtors, to delay justice and impover-
ish litigants. Every vote cast now will
have bearing upon that, and as the people
realize their own interests, and the inter-
ests OF those who are to come after them
as they appreciate justice as betweenman
and man and the blessings of good govern
ment and laws enacted topromote the public
welfare, SO should they vote. Every vote
cast for a Bourbon is a vote to perpetuate
the laws which take from the people their
property without an equivalent and fasten
upon the State system of jurisprudence
which has done more harm to the masses
than was inflicted by the devastations
OF war. Let the people remember
that the only weapon of defense they
have against the wrongs they suffer
is the ballot. If they neglect that OF per-
vert its use, it will be sure to bring it's re-
suits in bad laws and bad government. Keep
fresh in mind that from which they have
escaped. Remember the things which
have to be done to assure further relief,
and vote for the party, and the men who
represent the party, that has indicated it's
claim to public confidence by legislating
and administering government in the in
terest ofsand forithe relief of all the people.
Let them be true to themselves, regardless
of parties and primaries and rings and
cliques, and they will prove their own
manhood, their intelligent citizenship and
their fitness to regulate and direct he
affairs of State.