The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-09-30
Joint Discussions,


The Democratic County Committee for
Amherst county, on the Goth, held meet
| ing for Reorganization, and elected w. G..
Loving, Chairman, and among other bus
mess transacted, the following is published
in the Neao Eru
ION motion it was resolved that we do
not think it advisable to hold any joint
| discussions in the present Congressional
canvass in this county,"
This is tantamount to a formal and Of
fetal declaration that the managers of the
Democratic party do not want the people
| to hear discussion of the important ques-
tion upon which they will be called upon to
vote on the I'd of November next. That
dodge will not satisfy the voters. The dis
satisfaction in and revolt from the Demo
cratic party going on all over the State, ARE
| the result of just such arbitratray orders.
The people are not all slaves yet to the
| mandates of the ring bosses, and are be-
coming less so every day. We ask for no
more effective argument against this mod
ern democratic party, than its efforts to
keep knowledge from the voters and to
vote them blindly as to questions directly
affecting their interests. We have the re-
suits of this policy in the condition of the
country o-day-the prostration oflbusiness,
the confusion and depression of everything
relating to State affairs, and the difficulty
the people have of getting the means for
their support. Look at Virginia to-day, as
the outcome of legislation enacted through
men elected by such means, We find the
State authorities arrayed against the Su-
preme Court of the United States-defy-
| ing the DEGREES of the Supreme Court of
the State, and teaching the people to dis
regard law and the duty they owe to re-
spect judicial determinations. Not only
this, but the public schools, so near and
dear to the masses Of the people and the
children who are to constitute the State in
the near future, and control in all public
affairs, are made to suffer because all the
great interests of the Commonwealth are
subordinated to partiZan necessities and
partizan domination. Surely the people will
not much longer allow themselves to be
deceived and wronged in this way. If ev-
er there was time when their manhood
should be asserted it is now. If ever there
was time when rebuke should BIZ ad-
ministered to ring rule and the despotic
methods of the scheming demagogues it
is now. They have the power to protect
themselves from such insults and wrongs.
and if they are true to themselves and
those who will come after them they will
do it. What impudence it is for three OF
four men calling themselves a committee
to assemble and order that the great ques-
tions involving the interests of the people
shall not be discussed in their presence =
that they shall not have access to argu-
ments and facts upon which to base their
judgment and determine for what their
ballots should be cast! In free country.
where every citizen is entitled to as many
rights as any other citizen and has as deep
and vital an interest in legislation and the
laws as any other-because his all is in.
volved-for little courthouse ring to is
sue its mandate that they must and shall
not hear matters duplicating their own
welfare and that of the Commonwealth and
country discussed and their minds enlight-
ened is the perfection of despotism, and
an insult that ought to be rebuked without
delay or hea Jon.