The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-10-30
A Parallel in SANDER.

Hon. Ed. PherSon, ESecretary OF the
Republican Congressional Committee. has
written a..reply to the publication of Mr..
Fl. G. Lea, who poses as the chairman of
what is called the Independents of Penn
sylvania. After discussing the differences
between the two great parties of the coun-
try and the question of principle which
should decide independents, he says
Your personal assault upon Mr.. Blaine
is substantially a copy of the Democratic
personal assault upon Mr.. Clay in the
campaign of 1874, which had, up to 1884,
surpassed all campaigns in yillificati0n. 1t
was then charged that Mr.. Clay had de-
| liberately bartered the votes of his friends
in the House of Representatives on the
presidency for official place for himself :;
and the cry of bargain and sale" was
heard on every Democratic h0usetOp IN
proof of Clay's personal perfldy. Besides,
he was pilloried as a corruptionist, as
| backlog, as a murderer. as Sabbath
breaker, as guilty of varied forms OF gross
crimes, as, in short, a moral monster. Inc
! devilish tactics succeeded. An unnamed
and misled people sacrificed him. when,
eight years later, he died, the country re-
stored to its right mind reviewed and re-
AAS~e~@O
| by common consent high on the roll OF
our worthiest. His great name lives, and
| is a moving force in our public life, and
his maligners are all forgotten, or pitied II
remembered.
| Mr.. Blaine, as speaker, never made an
| improper ruling or used his authority 1or
| q questionable purpose. AS representative
or senator he never promoted the passage
| of an improper bill. AS secretary OF state
he never lowered the flag of his country
or trailed his own honor in the DUST
| During the six years of his speakerShip
he was barred from active participation In
| the business of the floor, yet all the great
measures of that period bear the impress
of his rare genius and skill. In your lgh0-
rance you twit him with not having his
name prominently connected with single
| well.deyised act of craftsmanship. For
| the facts I refer you to his colleagues in
the Congresses in which he served, and to
those familiar with the great parliamentary
struggles of the last twenty years. Some
of them have already publicly testified.
and against you.
SANDER did it's work with Mr.. Clay forty
years ago. But the country has pr0fited
by that one experience. Besides, it has
grown in intelligence, in self-respect, in
intellectual independence. 1t thinks for
IGSolI. Ii refuses u dccepG, WlGliOuI Clear
proof, the cunning suggestions or imagin-
ingS of those who think only evil of their
fellows and revel in it. On the other hand,
it is willing, indeed prefers, TO see the
good. The country does, if you do not,
know Mr.. Blaine's real character. 1t &C.
cepts the distinguishing facts of his career
as they are, not as you and others like you
dist0rt them. 1t admires, and has a just
pride in, the powers which mark him as
the first intellect in America, and which
place him beside the two master-minds of
Europe-their equal in force, in grasp, in
capacity for affairs. It pours forth its
sympathy, under unparalleled attacks upon
his good name-the sympathy which a
great and generous people unstintingly
gives to gifted and faithful son, hunted
and bounded by libelers of every degree.
1t refused to sanction that exclusion from
public life which has come to him as re-
suit of assassination and it proposes to
give him higher place than he would
have had but for the murder of his chief.
You cannot prevent this act Of justice and
of wisdom, however much you may be-
moan it. The country is, as I write,
stretching forth its hands to the leader
whose face is always to the foes of his
country or of his party. and who never
stabs in the back.