Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-02-19
A SINGULAR SPECTACLE.

The Humfliating Position That Virginia
Occupies in the United States Senate.
Virginia presents singular spectacle
in the United States Senate. She is the
only State without representative in
that body. OF thirty-eight States in
the Union some are represented In the
Senate entirely by Republicans; others
entirely by Democrats. In some cases
Republican and Democrat sit as col
leagues. Most of the Southern. States
are proud of their Senators; famong
them Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana,
Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Ken
lucky and Missouri The Southern
Senators are Democrats Most of
the Northern States are proud of their
Senators, majority of whom are Re-
publicans. Whether Republicans or
Democrats, they were elected by Legis-
latures chosen by the people. But
Virginia. the home of freemen, the
scene of progressive action, the field of
industrial enterprise, is the exception to
the rule. We look in the Senatorial
directory and find it is true, two names
under the head of Virginia. But they
no more represent this State than if
they hailed from the uttermost ends of
the earth. If questions of Importance
come before the Senate for discussion
Virginia has no voice in that discus
| sion. If matters of vital interest to this
State require attention in the Senate a
friendly Senator from neighboring
State has to take up our cause and
represent the sentiments of our people.
| The senior Senator credited to Vir-
ginia has been drawing his Senatorial
, pay for four years. His colleague has
been drawing pay for two years, having
| four more years to serve. But the one
| is known in this State as an Outcast-a
miserable marplot; while the other is
known as braggart and fraud.
''But were these men not chosen by
your Legislature, and are they not
therefore representing the popular party
in their State?" some one asks. Every
body familiar with the history of pol
itics in Virginia will quickly answer in
the negative, SO far as relates to the
latter clause of the question. Malone,
by demagogy and fraud, foisted himself
upon the public. By making political
issue of the State debt this INSCRIPTIONS
renegade succeeded in drawing to his
standard some well-meaning people;
and along with handful of respecta-
BILE people he carried the ignorant and
the vicious. This mongrel party tri-
umphed in several elections, and Ma
hone was sent to the Senate by his own
Legislature. But that Legislature did
not represent the people of Virginia,
| and had there been ''a free ballot and
fair count the result would have been
different. The same party, holding
power by the petty Boss trickery, two
years latter sent the Boss henchman to
the Senate as the colleague of Virginia's
arch enemy.
A year after the second outrage free
men arose in their might and over
| threw Malone. In 1888 fraud and in
timidation were made impossible. and
never did a would-be dictator receive
more crushing defeat. A ring of plum
derers gave place to the Democratic
party, and one by one the evils fastened
on the Commonwealth by the renegade
leader were uprooted One of the first
acts of the peoples Legislature was the
adoption of a joint resolution calling
| upon Malone to resign his seat in the
Senate, but the thick-skinned usurper
paid no heed to the sentiment of this
representative body. The resolution had
| the effect, however, of branding the Sc
| nior Senator from Virginia as an out
CdSi, anu du OuICdSb uc VIZ 0NSI IO1udil.
The desire of this man was to ruin
Virginia. He thought that by putting
his diabolical scheme into the hands of
| Senator Sherman he would succeed. A
street-fight in Danville was magnified
into political massacre and no South
hater in the btterest days of reconstruc-
ton, waved the bloody shirt more Wig
orously than this renegade, Malone.
But sectionalism was fast dying out,
and Sherman and Malone, try as they
| would, could not deceive the public by
their misrepresentation.
May Virginia never be placed in such
a disgraceful position again. Rich
nao7ad { Td.J State.