Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-01-25

North and South FoEley Virginidn.
.Sordid considerations When among
free people did the right to representa-
| tion in every department Of their National
government come to be a thing to be
characterized as a s'sordid considera-
tion 70 Is the high position of member
of the cabinet, which advises and often
! shapes the policy of the nation, sordld
consideration not to be tolerated in the
| the patriotic ambition of an American
citizen. Is the high position Of the re-
| preventative man sent abroad as minis
| ter with all the exaltation which 80 high
and grave trust makes becoming to the
holder, sordid consideration Can 1t be
| true that after ascending the ladder of
| fame from the bottom round, as any man
| has opportunity to do in this free Rfpub
| lie, the fortunate few can cluster around
the top round and denounce all those
| looking up asanimated by sordid consider
atlons2 No; there is nothing sortlid about
| the aspirations Of men for distinction
among their fellows. In America emf
nence is at the end Of a broad and fref
road. All may not reach it. but every man
| from every section has the right to turf
into the road and make the venture.
| Is when pol ticai party posts over the en-
trance to this road, mo place for men
South of the 39sh parallel 7" that it ce 4sas
| to be National and becomes Sectional. Blu
| why does our cotemporary tolerate 10 Ma
,i-cy hat fp,,t in Of q
organizations No journal more vigor-
| ously denounced the Coalition leaders who
| in giving prominence to those VITO had de-
feated the Virginia Democracy almost
wholly ignored the Republicans who bad
made it possible for them to do so. Or
the spoils gorging. queer. unhealthy
and since dead Coalition. it said that they
were:
| Totally insensible to the common decencies and
proprieties of political association and without
consideration for their past and future identity"
We hardly suppose that the division of
which our contemporary complained was
one of mere ''sordid considerations. L
complained, and justly. that the Republic
cans had not received the consideration,
the prominence, the Importance which vas
due them. The truth is that no political
party claiming to be national can ignore
any section Of the country or any class of
| its citizens. and when party only recog
nizes section of the country it does so at
| the sacrifice Of the decencies aid proprie
ties of its Nationalism. Our cotemppraIy
accounts for the absence of q single Re-
publican electoral vote South of the line
by this argument:
There are 30 free and fair elections In at least
! half dozen States. where it is wellknown the Re
| put licans have a majority. The South is thus
made sold, with but little hope of 1t bring broken,
| we admit There is no discussion national CUES
ions no verdict upon national policies Boui bon
| methods Will not admit of this. We have the EVIL
denee in the recent Virginia election that the dis
cusson of neither STATE nor National measures af-
fecting legislation. is tolerated in the 1t
! was race prejudice. as it Is in other Southern
states, but to greater extent there than ere"
| Our cot IN oorary kno VS. that as a N IT.
| er of fact tbs bitterness attending Sta t.
| matters was so great for the last four
years that national questions were over
| looked. Nevertheless the Congressional
and Presidential canvass of 1880 was
peacefully and quietly conducted. It was
only when it's own party in 1882 had up
| John s Wise for Congress Tat the fl 3,
| violent intolerance app cared. It was then
hat for the first time Virginia saw ar
Id man Of three score years, John E
| Massey mobbed and physically naltreased
IN different sections Of the State. simply
| because as Democrat, running for the
| position of Congressman-a large. he at
| tempting to exercise the right of free
/; speech. Infatuated whites and negroes
| urged around the old and feeble man on
| he hastings and beat him. That was the
| Coalition Republican "method'' Of tole-
| "ating free speech III National affairs.
! ration of free ballots grew into Demo
| :ratic negroes mnbbed. anathematiz d in,
| and communicated from negro churches
aud beaten for their political opinions by
| ,ther negroes. That was a still newer
| method of Republican liberation of politi-
cal freedom. 1t was worked with some
| uccess until they tried their hands at
| murder and got worsted.. Our neighbor
| thinks that it is different, as we should
| hope it was, at the North:
| In the North, it is different. Every man votes
| there as he thinks desires. The basis of repre-
stntatinn is recognized and the popular verdict
| mem 'arrassed and unm Tested. is recorded -
| Occasionally the Democracy get a few electoral
votes there, Ia proportion as ignoran aud vice
prevail as the preponderating influence. The weah
and Intelligence OF the North and West VOTE gen
orally. the Republican ticket, aud it is only where
Indifference is manifested or disposition to rebuke
improper practices in the Republican party that it
| is otherwise,
s'As ignorance and vice prevail !" We
| ion't think we have seen anything better
than that for long time. The Repubi.
can party which in the brief space of
fifteen years has presented to the Nation
| the Credit Mobilier. the Whiskey Ring
| Frauds and the Star Route cases;
National party the Secretary of whose
National Committee ian ex-U. S. Senatof)
for many months, lately, occupied
place in the prisoner box in Washing
| ton COURTS only defeated in a few cases
where ignorance and vice preponderate !!
Except in the disclosures in the French
government made at the Investigation
after the war with Germany in 1870, we
have never read of any modern govern
ment that was as thoroughly corrupt as
that of the United States, under the Re-
publican party, and whose members Of
congress, a Vice President, a Secretary Of
War and others of the most prominent
men of the party conducting the COVE rn-
ment were disgraced by exposure and
sent into private life. Ignorance and vice
| are not the characteristics of any body of
white voters of either party in this coun-