The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-12-31
The Senate and the Appointments.

nave peen referred to appropriate commit
tees. After the holidays. due considera-
ton will be given them, and final action
on their confirmation or rejection he taken.
Various statements have teen given out
as to the probable rule that will govern
the Republicans in the Senate, in the con-
siderati0n Of these nominations, but as no
line of policy, it is mere speculation as
to what VIII be done. While we entertain
no personal ill-wiIl to any appointment
the President has made, and have no CON-
think it entirely proper that the attention
Of Senator's should be especially called to
the Virginia cases.
Before Mr. Cleveland 8 Inauguration.
and after that event. it was publicly stated
that Virginia was to be made an eXeep-
ton to any general rule tie President
might adopt in regard to suspensions or
removals. and this exception was to be
based upon and justified by the unlitness.
personally and officially. Of every officer in
the service Of the government by Repub-
lican appointment. 1t was claimed that
these appointments were the result of a
corrupt bargain between President Az
thur and Gen. Malone. and this added TO
the assumed unsavory character of the Of
ficera themselves, was to constitute the
reason for the suspension Of every Fed
era! officer in Virginia. With'a few hon
0rable exceptions, the Bourbon pfess Of
the State supplemented these ISLANDERS by
the most insane clamor for wholesale re-
moYalS, re CARELESS Of law or public policy,
and in obedience to the demand thus made
the guillOtine was set in motion with an
energy and tiercenss that would have done
credit to the days of the Inquisition. Upon
exparte statements. the President and
heads Of departments were relentless in
the endorsement of The ISLANDERS and swift
in the execution Of the partiZan demands of
INSCRIPTIONS politicians, who had no
higher sense of public duty than the pos
session of the spoils Of Office The man
ner in which suspensions were made was
both indecent and insulting. The COM
m0nest courtesy between officials was not
observed. Faithful officers, who had elf
GENTLY and honestly served the govern
ment, and against whose official conduct
no complaint could be truthfully lodged.
were unceremoniously kicked out, without
the formality of line Immediately adj
dressed to them. Their notifications that
they had been suspended came through
the new appointees, the delivery of which
had to be witnessed by a third party, Sc
lected for that purpose, as though the Of
ficer displaced could not be trusted with
communication from his superiors, af-
fecting his official relations to the depart
ment in which he had served 1t had been
an inYariable rule of the several depart
ments, until this Reform Administration
came in, that the utmost CONVERSATIONAL
be observed between the superior and SUI
coordinate officers "a rule that always ob.
tainS among gentlemen-but in the cases
of the officers in Virginia, it was not ad-
missable with this administration that
any direct communication should be made
to the appointees Of the previous admin
istration.
This method of ordering suspensions
| was in consonance with the assumption
that the officers suspended were neither
gentlemen nor honest officials. There
was coarseness, an. arbitrary assertion of
power, in defiance Of law, that would not
have obtained with men of refinement and
proper sense Of official duty, and was
only consistent with the predicate that
they were dealing with set of rascals.
Against this outlawinS, the Republic
cans of Virginia respectfully protest, and
appeal to their fellow Republicans Of the
L. S. Senate to vindicate them in the re-
lection of every nomination made to take
he place of suspended officer, removed
without such cause as ought to be ac-
cepted by coordinate power, under the
law, equally responsible for and whose con-
sent is essential to the creation Of an
officer. 1t is not that the suspended Off
Ger expects to receive official recognition
from the administration or in any way be
personally benefited, But rebuke ought
TO be given the low partiZan spirit and
diSeourteous methods, which have char
acterized the treatment Of public officers
and there is no other way to administer
this except through the rejection Of the
nominations the President has sent in to
take the place Of suspended officers.
We do not believe the President has the
legal right to order suspensions in the way
he has done. To accept his action as cor
rect would be for the Senate to surrender
its constitutional prer0gatives, and make
itself party to a fragrant wrong. But
this phase of it we do not propose to dis
cuss as each Senator knows the law and his
duty, and should have the courage tC
maintain the one and discharge the other.
There is a phase of this matter in which
the Republicans of Virginia and the en-
tire South feel keenly interested. 1t is
whether they are to be outlaWed by a
Democratic administration, and Repub-
lican Senate tamely acquiesce in the brand
that has been placed upon them. They
have no other way of redress except
through the action Of the Senate, and it is
for the Republican members of that body
to say whether they intend to make COM
mon cause with Bourbon maligners and
SANDERS in the approval of the President g
action. The Republicans of Virginia and
the South have been true to their convic-
lions, under many disadvantages and dis
couragements. They have maintained
the symmetry and integrity of Republican
national organization in the face of wrongs
and outrages which it required no ordinary
courage to encounter. They have shrunk
from no danger ana counted no odds
against them but have bravely met every
issue and every opposition which have
confronted them, and upheld the princi-
pies of the party with an intrepidity and
determination that deserved success, if it
were not achieved. Why they have not
been successful, is as well known to Sena-
tors as it is to them, but failure against
the world, the flesh and the devil,
ought not 10 be justification for the Re-
nI,h1;ooD1 of tho North 0nd {Voct fo 1ooort