The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-12-03
A POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
The Virginia Election Long to BE Remem
bered as Historical Event.


bered as a Historical Event.
The great Democratic victory in Viz
| ginia was a result of the elections for
which every honest and decent man,
North and South, no matter what his
political associations, has good reason
to give thanks.
Malone was backed by the whole
power of the Republican party, whose
leaders were so deeply interested in mis-
success that they went about drum
ming up money to help him along. 1t
was currently reported that one of the
objects of Logan'S visit to New York
late in the canvass was to raise more
funds for that restless plotter, and
Sherman and Foraker, both greedy for
the next Republican nomination for
President, went down to Virginia to
lend him their aid. They knew that
the cOlOred vote was at stake there and
that its loss meant ruin for their party
Malone, accordingly, devised his
most deviliSh schemes to intiame the
race prejudices OF the negroes, and his
agents sent to Northern newspapers re-
ports that a systematic attempt would
be made to brighten them from voting
for Wise. On his own part, he spared
no effort to caiole and bully them into
supporting his candidates, and through
out he conducted his canvass with
marvellous energy. audacity, method
and artfulneSS, all the time boastin9
that his success was inevitable.
But what was the result? General
Lee is made Governor of Virginia by
this very negro vote. which also elected
a Legislature that will turn Mahone
out of the United States Senate and
substitute for him 4 Democrat who
will fifty represent the honor and dig
nifty of that great State.
The counties in Virginia where the
colored vote is strongest, and where
Republican majorities have been great
est, went over to the Democratic side,
and no one, not even Malone himself,
dares pretend that the political revolu-
ton was due to anything except
change of sentiment among the ne
grOeS, or that the election was not re-
markable for its fairness. Mr.. Wise,
the Republican candidate, acknowl-
edges that the coloreG voters freely ex-
pressed their will at the ballot box,
that no obstacles were put in the way
of their voting, and that the count was
honest.
The colored people of Virginia have
found that instead of harming them
the election of a Democratic President
has been for their benefit. They see,
{tn -
that their Republican leaders hura-
plugged them when they drove them to
the polls TO vote the Republican ticket
on the ground that Democratic as
tendency meant danger to their rights.
They have discovered that their Dem
ocratic white neighbors have no hos
tility to them as race, and are really
their most trustworthy friends, whom
they alienated only because they them
selves insisted on Il political separation
based on a color line, and timidly fol-
lowed leaders dangerous to both races.
Hence they have now voted, in large
part, with the men to whose Judgment
in other matters than political they are
glad to defer. and for whom they have
an attachment which not even carpet
bag dema@Ogery was able to shake.
They have learned that even more than
he whites they are interested in oblit-
Grating the color line in politics.
This action of the colored citizens of
Virginia more than anything they have
done since their emancipation, v;ndi-
Gates their capacity to exercise suffrage
with intelligence, and places them on
footing with the whites which assures
their rights and brightens their future.
" Y SaL1l