The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-06-11
Legislative Incapacity

party. For twenty years the democracy
has been laggardly following in the wake
of the Republicans, without the capacity
to invent Or suggest anything practical or
to propose any measure or policy whose
pra ctical operation would meet public !
and supply public wants. 1t
accepted in 1868 Mr.. Pendleton'S green |
back idea and urged that the pubic debt
should be discharged in irredeemable pa
per issues, when the Republicans had
brayely taken the position that every dollar
of the war debt should be paid in the re-
cognized currency Of the world and the
credit of the government vindicateG at
every hazard. 1t opposed the enactment OF
the Law in 1875 for the resumption OF spe-
Gle payment, and in its national platform
of 1876 demanded the repeal of the re-
sumption act. 1t opposed the legislation
creating the national banking system, and
has shown persistent hostility to the ma
tional banks from that time to this. Ii
opposed the enactment of the law giving
to actual settlers homestead. and only
ceased its opposition when public sentl-
mept was so pronounced and firmly settled
that to have continued its hostility would
have been fatality itself. 1t has been ar
rayed in opposition to every measure that
/! has contributed to national prosperity, for
the past twenty years, and only changed
| it's position when. consummated results
would have demonstrated the idiocy OF
further antagonism.
The Democracy of Virginia has been III
singular and significant sympathy and &C
cord with this obstructive policy. ltop-
posed the adoption of the thirteenth
amendment to the constitution, and did
not have the scales knocked from us
ewes until not only the thirteenth. but the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were
thrust down its throat. Acquiring power
| in 1870 under false. pretense, it no sooner
felt free to act than it restricted the ballot.
established the whipping-post and paral-
wed the public schools. Not until the
aroused manhood of the Commonwealth
broke through party restraint ana ihdig-
nantlv rebuked the faithlessness and treach'
cry of that party to plighted duty and con-
stitutional mandates, did it surrender It's
open hostility to an unrestricted ballot and
lsimulate friendship for popular education.
1t opposed at every step an equitable ad-
tiustment of the public debt and supported
/ a policy that led directly to reputation.
In no instance, in considering this sub
II iect. did it dare regard the condition ct
the people of the Commonwealth or lnves-
tigate the facts to ascertain the real opll'
!, cations which in honor they should meet
1t accepted the conditions and schemes OF
Eheartless stock jobbers and spectators
who had no sympathy or interest in com
mon with the people. as the rule OF Its &C
ton. and appeared as the mouth-plece ano
facile tool of the gamblers who were trad
/ ing in the life-blood of the Commonwealth
| What measures they invented and proposed
: the Democracy sustained as to the public
debt, when the people were crushed under
! the weight of private debt. with desola
ton staring them in the face from one enc
of our domain to the other. The Riddle
berger bill, which presented the debt Of
| the State in its true light, as the measure
of both the duty and the ability of the
people to pay, was opposed III its lncep
/, ton and consummation and denounced il
every form that the violence of language
could conceive. Not until the PEG
pie had given it their sanction did the
Democratic party pretend dcquiescence II
it. and simulate an approval, which u
judge from subsequent acts, was for the
| purpose of destroying it.
: We are not surprised, therefore, thai
) our neighbor of the indicator, as {
, faithful organ of the faithless Demo
cracy, should array itself as the cham
pion of the Riddleberger bill. and pro
claim it to the world that the creditors
, must accept that ''or nothing 1t is con
sistent with the record of its party to ap-
propriate everything that the Republicans
have devised, constructed and adopted
Acqaiescence in an unrestricted ballot, th'
repeal of the whipping-post law, in th'
Iprotection and support of the pubic
schools, the fostering care of the charitable
institutions, after they had been accom-
plished through the struggles and labor
of the Republicans, corresponds with thu
! new found zeal of the Democratic part.
for the Riddleberger bill, which was anathe
mixed as the sum Of all vlllainies and TIN
i essence of fraud and reputation
Our neighbor not only claims that TIN
Republicans failed to settle the debt queS
| ton on the basis of that measure, but tina
settlement can only be effected by en-
| trusting it to the keeping and care OF it
enemies. 1t points to the fact that tn
7 Republicans carried the State, had all thu
3 departments of government under its con
t troll, and yet failed to secure final dis
position of the vexed question.
This is an unfortunate allusion. 1t il
known of all men, who are acquainted
with the recent political history OF th'
State, that the Riddleberger bill and 1T
enforcing acts would have constituted ;
definite settlement of the question, hat
not the Democrats gotten possession O.
the Legislative branch of the government
in 1888, by means and agencies that no fail
man can or will defend. With maJorlt.
of that body secured, regardless OF law
and the constitution, the purpose was de
clared to have two-thirds majority, Sc
that the executive arm of the government
could not arrest any of the revolutionary
acts in contemplation. This was also Sc
cured. With this power the Democrat
proceeded to tinker and tamper with aques
ton which not one of them understood
and in charity we will assume that it was
through ignorance rather than design that
! the legislation which had been prac-
tically sanctioned by the courts was
so mutilated and impaired as to ex-
pose it to judicial condemnation
That the Democratic legislation of 1884
defeated the Riddleberger settlement there
can be no question. We have the admis
sion to this effect not only of the Demo
cratic attorneys for the foreign bondhold-
ers, but of Judge Bond in the Parsons case,
and the Supreme Court of the United
States in Poindexter VS.. Greenhow.
| The Penuhlican Tepislatnre of 1880