The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-04-17
Facts of the Situation.

gilia and the best method OF uniting the
forces opposed to Bourbonlsm into one
organization in the approaching Presden-
tial canvass. We have been thus liberal
with our space and the patience of our
readers, in order to remove all just cause
of complaint, as well as to draw out the
views of prominent persons in the Repub-
lican party, who have not acted together
in State policies. Our object has been to
furnish to the public the reasons which
have influenced the several factions in the
attitude they have assumed, and the causes
which perpetuate the division among Re-
publicans.
If any one has followed these discussions
and has given them serious consideration,
he will have seen that the differences are
not such as to justify hostile attitude
between those who profess to desire a
common result in the pending contest
Indeed, the causes of complaint have been
more superficial than of such a vital ma
ture as to excuse the jeopardizing of the
success of the party. Admitting that
there have been serious, and even aggra-
waiting mistakes made in the exercise OF
power and the bestowment of favors, they
have not been of such cardinal charac-
ter as to subordinate the principles at is
sue and the interests involved in great
national contest, the result of which may
depend upon the electoral vote Of Vir-
ginia. 1t should be remembered that at
no time since the reconstruction Of the
State were the Republicans strong enough
to wrest the government from the Bour-
bon Democracy and arrest the invasion of
the guaranteed rights of the people. The
campaign of 1873 was marked by spirit
of persecution and reckless disregard of
the peace and order of society that would
have done credit to the barbarism Of the
dark ages. Indeed, it has been conceded
even by the Bourbons themselves, that
there had never been fair election and
an honest count, until in 1877, when the
Republicans declined to enter the field
with a ticket, in order to compel discus
sion and an eventual adjustment Of the
debt, which was becoming so huge and
oppressive that it's very magnitude threat
ened Reputation from sheer inability to
meet it's demands. This journal led in
that discussion and the avowed purpose
then was not only to secure some definite
and satisfactory disposition of the debt
complication, but to disrupt the Conserva-
! tive party, and by that means open the
way for such combination of political
forces as would liberalize public sentiment
and rebuke the cruel injustice and illegal
restrictions and inhibitions that had been
imposed upon the people, in order to per-
petuate Bourbon rule. The seeds then
sown brought forth their fruit in 1879,
when the Readjuster party was organized,
pledged to the reforms that the Republic
| cans had declared for, and which were
deemed essential to the progress and pros
perity of the Commonwealth. The Coali-
tionof 1881 formally announced a Divorce
| ment from Bourbonism in all it's shapes,
and emphasized it by the enactment of
laws which redeemed the forfeited pledge
of the people given in 1869 and violated
\ in 1876 in the adoption of the constitu-
tional amendments of that year. 1t re-
stored free ballot ,rehabilitated the public
schools. abolished the whipping-post, adj
justed the debt on an equitable basis, es-
| tahlished State credit, and administered
crushing rebuke to the Bourbon Democra-
cy because of it's infdelity to plighted
| faith and the best interests of the Com
| monwealth. In 1882 it again triumphed
| in the election of six members of Con-
gress, in sympathy with the Republican
National administration. In the mean
| time, between 1879 and 1882, two United
! States Senators were chosen by the same
political power, who have uniformly voted
on all political questions with the Republic
cans These several contests so confirmed
the antagonisms of the factions once COM
posing the Conservative party, that in
1883 the Bourbons, despairing of ever
again winning back the Readjusters to
their ranks, instituted the same methods
to defeat the Coalition that they had ap-
pealed to to overwhelm the Republicans in
1873 and 1876. They abandoned their own
position on all controverted State ques-
tions and with an effrontery without a
parallel in the history of parties. endorsed
everything they had before opposed and
what the Coalition had approved and
enacted into law, and went before the peo-
pie with brutal appeal to race prejudice,
even resorting to violence and bloodshed
to emphasize their desperation in order
once again to seize power. Bourbon meth
DDS in that canvass, eterna1ly settled every
Readjuster who participated in it in his
determination never again to support that
faction. Recognizing the purely national
character of the approaching contest, and
that there are but two national parties to
it, they are prepared to declare for the
Republican party, to support its measures,
and to fully identify themselves with it's
interests.
The approaches to these results have
been gradual and even imperceptible, at
times. 1t may not have been designed in
the outset to form such association, but
c0o SeANAl OoteUO Nnllf doO ClOOCQs hlld ulO LII
tolerance, the duplicity and utter absence
of sincerity and conviction in the Bourbon
faction, were exposed, it became neces-
sity of self-respect and asserted manhood
for the Readjusters to pronounce a final
and irrevocable separation from them, and
are thus prepared to unite with the Republi-
can party in final and determined struggle
to redeem theEState from Bourbon domi-
nation.
In shaping the influences which have
led to this conclusion, all the methods en-
ployed have not met with our approval or
that of other Republicans. nor have we at
all times been patient under what we
have considered unfriendly determinations
against those with whom we have been as
ISOLATED in fighting the battles of the Re-
publican party. A calm review of the events
and complications of the past five yearshow
ever, makes it plain that different policy
could not have been expected. The
growth of the arrangements between the
factions of the Democratic party had to be
encouraged by power as well as sentiment.