Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-08-26
Mr.. Wise Not a fit Man for Governor.

Mr.. John s. Wise is not fit man to pc
Governor of Virginia. The Executive OF
the State should not be the Governor OF one
section, but OF every section OF the Com
monwealth. If he has any bitter anlmoslty
to one division then that fact disquallnes
him, for Governor should be impartial
and know only the whole people. There
are times when any one section may look
to the Governor for some special act OF jus,
tice, but if he has previously pronounced
judgment upon that section, can he hope as
Governor to have their confidence? A man
who has strong bias against the people OF
any locality in the State which he is to gov
ern is certainly disqualified for the place OF
their Governor.
Mr.. John S. Wise in his testimony before
the Danville Investigating Committee said:
"Danville and Pittsylvania county, to my
knowledge, is the most lawless and vlolent
community in Virginia, and the adjoining
county of Caswell. in the State Of North Caro-
lima. also, where the Ku Kux formerly resided
assert, and am prepared to prove, that no
community of that Com monWealth was so fit
| ted for this outbreak. have in my. possession
the evidence of well on to hundred murders,
hangings, and malmings committed in the
neighborhood of Danville within the last fifteen
years. 1 produce now the evidence of
where brother killed his own sister in Dan
vile in dsreputable place; where man kill
ed another in Pittsylvania county about pud-
mob. To show where man killed his son-in-
law at the breakfast table in presence of his
own daughter, the mans wife; where two
daughters cut off a fathers head with an axe;
where white man killed black man there
and put him in his store and set fire to it to get
his insurance on his own life. In speaking of
1t to leading citizen of Danville. his answer
was. we tried to make the negroes mob that
man and hang him. but the fools wouldn't do
1t! could name many other crimes equally
hideous'
IC hn ,o1i 1of,f ftS1n Of
John S. Wise against one Of the best Sec
tions of the Commonwealth. He calls its peo-
pie murderers in the hearing of the whole
country. He charges them with almost
every species of crime. He paints them as
monsters whose delight is to overthrow law
and order. He says he can ''prove mob af-
ter mob" Danville, Pittsylvania, Halifax
and Charlotte by good, law-abid-
ing citizens-are dragged before the public
gaze and falsely and maliciously advertised
as places in which life itself is held at the
mercy of marauding mobs. What is the
effect of such declaration upon the welfare
of the people of this large, important and
populous section of Virginia What CAPT
talist will put his money in communities
thus pictured by a so-called Virginian And
this State needs, and her Legislatures have
invited, immigration. How could John S.
Wise as Governor Of Virginia invite immi-
grafton? If he did, would he not be COM
PEELED to warn immigrants and capital away
from Danville, Pittsylvania, Henry, Char
lotte and Halifax, the domain embraced in
his sweeping and false charges? Could he
ask settlers to locate in the places he has
called rife with "a hundred murders, hang
ings and maimings ?" Could any citizen
of that maligned section look upon John S.
Wise as an impartial Governor? Surely no
one will call his speech which we have quot
ed impartial.
Mr.. Wise is not fit man for the high
place of Governor of Virginia. He has
shown himself IN Virginian wherever he
has spoken. Instead Of saying kind, loyal
word for this Commonwealth to strangers
he has maligned her to them. His aim
seems to have been to drag down her good
name wherever he could get hearing out
side of her borders. The Governor of Vir-
ginia should be the defender of Virginia.
When he defames one section of tha State
he defames the State J. S. Wise discrimi-
mates against one section of the State and
therefore is not qualified to be just Gov
ernor of the whole.
Selfrespect requires that every citizen of
that section of the State which Mr.. Wise so
shamefully maligned should show to the
world, by defeating him, that his utterances
are untrue. -Richmond State.