National Republican., 1883-10-05
JOHN TYLER, Jn., on COALITION.
The Son OF the Ex-Prcsident Gives His
Reasons for Desiring the Success OF Ma
hone and the Readjustor Cause.

Reasons for Desiring the Success OF Ma
hone and the Rcsdjustcr Cause.
WASHINGTON, OCT. 1, 1SS3-MR. CHARLES
DEARBORN, SECRETARY COALITION EXECU-
TIVE COMMITTEE, ALEXANDRIA, VA-Dear
Sir; My official duties hero in Washington
absolutely coniine me to the city. 1t is, there
fore, out of my power to address tho citizens
of Virginia, at Alexandria, as you desire in
your letter Of the twenty-eighth of Septem-
ber and which has been also requested on be-
half of the Virginia Coalition association in
this city through it's chairman, Mr.. John N.
Sebrell, by letter. But l have no hosi-
tation in expressing my views and sem
timents as to the political issues and
parties of the day with the pen and
in form more potential and durable
than mere spoken words. This l can also do
from perfectly independent attitude, with
out fear, favor, or affection, being under no OBJ
legation, official or otherwise, to any political
leader or any political party whatsoever in
Virginia, and standing in awe of none and
desiring nothing at the hands of any, Apart
from all such considerations, through the
traditions and associations of the state from
the telling Of the first trees of the forest to
the present hour-throuRh founders, patriots
heroes, statesmen, judges, governors senators,
and presidents, in intimate relationship to
the blood within my vrins without inter
mixture from other climes-may not claim
the privilege of being respectfully heard by
the people Of Virginia as to what believe to
be best for their true interests, the more
especially when / shall so express myself
alone from judgment and conviction.
In view Of the utter subversion of the con-
stitution and institutions, laws, and customs
of Virginia by the civil war and its results,
If not annihilating in fact the ancient state,
establishing al ba n rI, q Al.
both socially and politically, with new re-
quirements and necessities at all points, it is
known that at an early day, well before "re-
construction" in 1869, | counseled an entire
change of policy and action on the part of the
leading minds and people remaining, both
Theoretically as to the central government,
and practically as to measures of administra-
tion from that entertained by them before the
war This-the whole of this-I believed at
the time to have been the absolute demand
OF wise beneficence in view of their situa-
tion. l knew the mill could not grind with
the water that had passed. They thought
dlherently, and guided alone by their blind
ing passions and prejudices, resorted to all
sorts of evasive and futile expedients that
only immersed them still more deeply in pow
erty and misery surrendering themselves
more and more to vain delusions, even to the
extent of accepting and supporting Horace
Greeley for the presidency until at last they
were compassionately accorded by President
Grant the favor, in 1869, to take control of
their state affairs without hindrance in the
hope that it would relieve their unhappy dis
quletude and restore them to reason
But having, by their previous hallucinating
course. suffered the "carpetbaggers" to take
control OF the negroes and to seize upon the
pubic councils. q curious spectacle soon pre-
sented itself Obdurately seeking to avoid
FEDERAL obligations as far as possible, yet de-
cto tn
matters, they now applied all their monoma-
niacal subtlety to effect an arrangement, un-
derstandingly, with the carpetbag gentry, by
which each set should be priviledged to abuse
the other, ostensibly, to the hearts content,
but comparatively to shape future results so
that they. should control affairs to the
end of the state offices for themselves,
while the carpetbaggcrs grasped the
federal offices, they being in numbers,
apart from the negroes just about sufficient
to that end. Under that condition of things,
for ten long years more, from 1869 to 1879, the
people were held in continuing impoverislN
ment and the credit of the state was so
impaired that its own banks even refused it
small loans. Its treasury was bankrupted,
| its public schools were prostrated, while
| capital and skilled labor were excluded from
its borders and iniquitous and barbarous laws
were placed upon its statute books. Never
theless, if any native citizen arose and
dared to enter protest against an arrange
| ment so disastrous to the public welfare,
counseling more beneicen regard for the
public interests, the allied influences were
| brought to bear simultaneously on the right
and left, per tas ant nefaS, to crush him out to
| prevent interruption to the continuation of
purely selfish personal purposes. The
| carpetbaggers wanted no rivalry for the fed
| eral offices, and hence discountenanced any
| native white increase to the republican party,
| while, on tho other hand. any interference
with the democratic game threatened the
state offices in the hands that held them.
Discovering, through tho opportunities of
travel and observation accorded to me, that
this double game of these political tricksters
pervaded the entire south, | denbunced it,,
unremittingly, both with pen and tongue,
from the Potomac river to the Gulf of Mexico,
in my editorials, in my public speeches, in
my campaign letters, and in my cOnversa-
tions, through an adherence of the double
perversion of the popular condolences, while
scorning alike the dishonorable honors and
the discretable emoluments so to be obtained,
whether legislative, judicial, or executive.
But wrote and spoke in vain. The carpet
baggers held the ears alike of the negroes in
the south and of the authorities in Washing
ton on the one hand, while on the other hand
the bourbon democratic leaders held also by
the ears the white masses in the southern
states against all approaches in either direc-
tibi uuIiuB tio pOAAou lioih lCOO uO
1879
At length, thank God in 1879 there arose
from the very bosom of the masses of the
white people in Virginia man of rare en-
dowmcnts, of sagacious perception. and singu-
lar energy, mental power and courage, who
seized upon happy coniuncture of circum-
stances associated with the mismanagement
Of the finances of the state and the heavy
pressure upon the impoverished people, of
all compilations, of an enormous public
debt unjusty saddled upon them by
the cooperative action of the double set
OF political lSnaves to whom | have
referred acting in unison always to
nelarious ends, not one cent of which had
been contracted by the new state autonomy
and its new citizens, but which had been
forced upon them to the ends of speculation
and greed following the assassination of Lin
coin, under pretenses of virtue and honesty
as false and hollow as those assumed BIZ tho
assassins of Cesar, and standing upon record
of his own in the civil war too brilliant for
obscuraton, hurled the iniquitous burden
from the shoulders of the oppressed people,
and, by them being sustained, drove from
the councils of the state the corpulent inca
pables and incompetents as to administration,
however skilled as traders in offices and
purses
Under his auspices the treasury of the state
has been replenished the credit of the state
redeemed, its school system re-established and
expanded, barbarOus laws have been repealed
the taxes reduced suffrage made free and the
ballot thoroughly protected, the walls of ey-