The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-09-16
Duty of the Present.

In the several speeches which Capt
Bumgardner has made in this district
since. his nomination for Congress b. the
Lexington Convention. he has made prom
inent the reconstruction measures and the
Underwood Constitution. At Covingtun
of his sixty minutes speech forty -eight
minutes were devoted To the discussion
of the events and transpirancies of iw-l.ty
years ago, while twelve minutes were de.
voted to the great present, live questions
of Tariff and Public Education. Liter
ally in sight of the furnace fires of Low
moor and Longdale and Callie, and with
in reach of the Stack Iron mines. where
altogether there are not less than fifteen
hundred men employed as the result of the
protective policy of the Republican party,
Capt. Bumgardner announ ced policy, OF
his leaning to policy, which, put into
operation in the economy of the govern
ment, would stop the furnace fires and the
mining operations, or compel the proprie-
tors to reduce the wages of the laborers
to correspond with the reduced rate of
protection to American industries that
the Morrison bill would have imposed. To
have voted for the consideration of the
Morrison bill, would have been a vote, as
understood in Congress at the time. in
favor of the policy it contemp plated At
the present rate of duties paid upon the
importation of foreign ores and pig metal,
our ports are already being burdened with
cargoes of these productions from pauper
labor. largely affecting the operations and
productions Of the iron interests of this
country, and it is as much as our furnaces
can do to live at the prices now ruling for
their outputs. The developing mineral
interests of this district and this State are
directly in conflict with the policy of the
Democratic party as understood in the
vote on the Morrison bill, and it would not
have been reflection of the prevailing
public sentiment to have adopted that
measure. It was the position Mr. Tucker
maintained, and which caused such dissat-
isfaction among his party friends, that he
found he would have to either surrender
his convictions or his seat in Congress,
and this latter he manfully did. It is no
improvement, so far as the sentiment of
the two gentlemen is concerned, that an
other nomination is made, for one can see
but little and really no substantial differ
ence between them in the views they en-
terrain and express. If Mr.. Tucker was
not in sympathy with his constituency as
to the principle involved in the tariff ques-
| tion, nor with that enunciated in the Blair
Educational bill, neither is Capt. Bum
gardner, for while he says he Will, If
elected, vote for the Blair bill or some
better measure, the declaration is coupled
with such expressions as to show that it
is not from belief that there is constitu-
tional warrant for that legislation, but TO
get rid of any surplus in the Treasury by
distributing it for educational purposes
among the States, not according to the H.
lsteracy that prevails but according to
population giving to the Northera and
Western States, whose school privileges
and facilities have been secured through
donations of public lands, which Virginia,
under Democratic rule, refused, in the
same proportion as to the Southern States,
where a large number of colored children,
in addition to the white children, have to
be provided for. The people are concerned
more about these vital, practical questions
Of to-day, than they are about the legis-
lation growing out of the passions and
prejudices of war enacted twenty years
ago, but which time and returning fra
ternalssentiment, have caused to be modi-
| fed. Az to the Underwood Constitution,
it should not be forgotten that Republi-
can President and a Republican Congress,
eliminated from that instrument it's two
most offensive features, and by so doing
gave to Virginians the control Of the State
government and to Virginia wise Con-
stitution, embracing two Statutory proyi-
sions which tenfold atone for any defects
it may contain-the clause making man
tatory tile establishment OF the Pub
lie Free School System and the clause in
hibiting the State from contracting debts
for public improvements or anything else,
except to carry ON the State government.
These enlightened provisions have the full
endorsement of the people, and were orig
inally incorporated in what is termed the
| Underwood constitution. Had the Dem
ocratic party, headed by Withers, been
permitted to have it's way and the obstruc-
tive policy then outlined become a prac-
tical reality, Virginia reconstruction would
have been a different thing to what it was
| under the auspices of such men as John
F. Lewis, VIM. Malone and others who
are now cooperating with the Republican
party. But it is waste Of time to refer
to or discuss such matters which belong
to the past. 1t would be as Apostle to
refer to the Democratic law which branded
as pauper the poor child which was COM
PEELED to avail of the public school fund to
get the rudiments of an education. before
it could receive the benefit of it; or to
the Democratic enactment which cast in
to prison the poor man who could not pay
his debts, there to rot, if needs be, to sat-
isfy an inhuman law. We live in the liy-
ing present, and have to deal with living
AoouOO' L lOtCCelOu w iloluO lCo olu
home labor, the unbOsoming of the riches
of our mountains and valleys. the educa-
ton of the children Of the State, through
The assistance of the national government,
as a just compensation for the burdens
which have been thrown upon the South
ern States by reason of emancipation, are
interests which come home directly to
every citizen and appeal to the enlightened
judgment and American instincts of all
the people. We have to deal with the live
things of to-day-with matters which ad-
dress themselves to present conditions
which look to the future and the growth
and prosperity Of the country and the en-
lightenment and happiness of those who
may come after US, and not to the fossils
and lava beds OF twenty years ago, Vir-
ginia, under Democratic teachings, threw
away her portion of the proceeds of the
public lands, instead of accepting and ap-
propriating them for the education of the
State while the Western and Northern
States gladly awaited of the governmental
policy VIII ich recognized the necessity of
popular education as safe defence for our