Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-05-30
senator Malone and Read ustment.

" tHc 1<U'tV' VI wv S|'oPN'NN'
Please permit me to tender my ac-
acknowledgements to the Dispatch for the
adroit and successful manner in which
it has been following the trail of the
little red fox, Malone.
William Malone, take him altogether,
is rather curious mortal
HE wires In and wires out,
And leaves body still in doubt
Whether the snake that makes the track
Is going south or coming back"
When we revert to the history Of re-
adjustment in Virginia, it seems almost
incredible that Malone even, with all
his conceded superfuity Of cheek"
could SO far ignore the truth of this
history, as he does in his late letter to
"Wood-Pulp" Miller, as to claim that
the Democratic party, and not he and
his late followers, are the Simon-pure
regulators Of the State debt.
Wonders, we are told, will never
cease. Never, verify believe, as
long as William Malone lives.
The Democrats, he maintains in his
Miller letter, were the real regulators,
and he and his allies were the true and
genuine debt-psyers. And this, too,
in face of the fact that for four or five
long, wearisome years, the great and
leading issue in Virginia between the
Readiusters, with Malone as their
leader, and the Democrats, was whether
the State should pay all Of her debt,
minus the one-third assignment to West
Virginia, or only about two thirds of
the residue, as contended for by the Re-
adjusters.
This, say, was the issue between
the two parties. This issue was dis
cussed and rediscussed on every hust-
ings in Virginia. The thunders of Re-
sdjuster and Democratic eloquence
reverberated from every hilltop in the
old Commonwealth. In some three or
four hard-fought battles between the
two parties the Readjusters, backed by
President Arthur and the other Federal
authorities in Washington, vanquished
the Democrats, routed them, horse,
foot, and dragon, and thus declared
and redeclared that only about two
thirds of the original two thirds
of the State debt should be paid,
which idea was incorporated in the
Riddleberger bill, thus reducing the
debt from some thirty-two millions to
some twenty-one millions.
The Democrats having thus sustained
defeat after defeat on this issue, solemn
" resolved in their State Convention at
Lynchburg, in Difference to the popular
will, to acquiesce in the settlement
made by the Riddleberger bill and to do
whatever they legitimately could, as
soon as they obtained control OF the le-
gislation of the State, to carry out in
good faith the provisions of that now
famous bill. The Democrats being thus
coerced by the overwhelming opposition
of the Readjusters, backed by the whole
power and patronage Of the Arthur Adj
ministrstion, either to endorse the set
Element Of the debt made by them and
approved by very decided majority Of
the people, or to surrender the control
Of the State government indefinitely to
Malone and his party, wisely chose the
first alternative, and have since passed
various acts Of Assembly in aid of the
Riddleberger bill and the more effectu-
ally to carry its provisions into effect.
The connection Of the Democratic
party with the Riddleberger bill hath
this extent-no more.
Yet Malone, the father of reputation
in virginia-if that bastard has q ia
ther-with full knowledge Of all the
facts Of the case, has the unblushing
effrontery to say in his Miller letter
that the Democrats are the real repudi-
ators, and he and his friends the genuine
debt-payers.
sincerely hope and believe that at
the next November election the people
Of Virginia will so thoroughly repudiate
him and his political monstrosities that
in all time to come it will be matter
Of perfect indifference :" to the whole
world and the rest Of mankind " what
he thinks or what he says.
If q party ever did make an honest
and determined effort to carry measure
triumphantly through, that effort was
made by the Democratic party in their
endeavor to settle the State debt upon
fair and honorable terms. They re-
ceived neither countenance nor support
in their efforts TO do so from the Re-
publican Administration or the Repub-
! lican press Of the North. On the cou.