The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-11-25

Republicans were. ] satisfied myself that
he was at heart a thorough paced Demo
GRAFT with no inclinations whatever TO The
Republican party and only bent ell secur-
ing their votes if possible. So salts,
! fled, / resolved to go TO the convention and
to favor nominating Republican unless
he gave proper pledges and assurances. |
was selected from my ward. although he
had his own way IN the selection of dele
| gates throughout the city and secured DEL
egates favorable to him from four of tie
/ six wards.
Before the convention met, however, |
| had another interview with him. | told
him / would favor d Republican nomina-
tion. but that if our convention endorsed
him would support him heartily. 'sBut, Z
| added, ''Mr. Mullen, if you are net en-
dorsed by the Republicans do you intend
to remain in the field 20 To this he re
piled most emphatically that he would run
no matter what the Republicans did. add
ing that there was not money enough in
both parties to buy him off | protested
against any insinuation Of that sort, and
added !: (" Ii you will remain in The field, If
4 you are not endorsed, you will be badly
| beaten but it will show that you are act
4 ing in good faith and whether the Repub
/ licans win or lose the fight, it will put you
/ in position for the future that will re-
pair all the laundering you have done and
ensure your power for future combina-
lions. He said he saw and knew that as
well as did, and that | might as firmly
rely on his remaining in the field until
| election day as upon the arrival of that
day. This assurance was given by every
i friend he had and even on the morning of
| the day he Withdrew his paper appeared
| with a double loaded editorial paragraph
saying:
ssTeN every man ar7to says that Mr. Mullen
arill, or can be induced to acitl,dratu, that he
| hes. -
/ With such solemn and reiterated assur-
| ance Of MHllen's good faith and purpose
to remain in the field | saw my way much
more clearly as a Republican. | did not
believe it possible to elect him even if he
was endorsed by our convention. His
1 whole strength was with the Knights of
Labor, and they were confined to Rich
mond and divided there and besides the
usual struggling among Republicans from
/ Independents. MANY OF our party both by
recent bitter experiences. and from mis-
/ trust of him personally. were opposed to
| him. Ii OH HE other hand, we nominated.
! / felt certain we would elecs our can
didate with him in the field Our last
| vote in the district had been Democratic
1 1874. Republican, 1880, and allowing
| him one-half the vote Of Deinoeratic ante
cedents that he claimed eur victory was
| certain.
1 In due time the conventions met It was
a convention honestly and formally chosen.
| There was but one c. infested delegation
| and that was given to GInllen's friends.
He had every possible chance to secure
/ friends in the delegations. The conven-
tion was respectable sober body of men,
/ They wanted to do what was best Null
len opened a headquarters near the place
of meeting and htought all the influence
in hls,poatf 10 bear iii his favor. The
| question ct endorsing him WAS freely and
fully debated. He permitted bis name to
be submitted to the convention. After
long elaboration the convention deter
mined to nominate by a vote of 90 to 81
and, proceeding to nominate. Judge Wad-
dill was chosen by a vote of 81 to 24-and
| his nomination was made unanimous.
From the moment of the nomination
Mullen seems to have lost not only his
| head, if he had any, but all sense of de-
| cency and truthfulnesS besides.
The next issue OF his paper charged that
the convention was packed that 1t was
| bribed and that {, whole delegation was
offered to him fora price. This was not
only Wanton falsehood. but an insult to
every Republican in the district for it told
them that their chosen best men were
/ iuClt pUlltlCdI IlICSSteIS. L liz tIl6Ct DIS
rendering any compromise impossible you
will readily understand.
| went TO work and raised a small cam
paign fund with which to organize our
party, and we began the good work in ear
| nest. 1t was necessary to counterfeit the
insidious work that Mullen was doing in
the Knights of Labor assemblies. He soon
saw and felt the effects of our organiza-
ton, and in order to injure us he deliber-
ately charged i'll his paper that Judge
| Waddill. Mr.. Southland and myself had
been paid money by the Democratic Com
mittee to run the Republican campaign to
elect Geo. D. WISE his charge was
spread far and wide by Mullen and his fol-
| lowers without any scruple as to it's gross
ness or foul falsehood. With the ignorant
it had more OF less effect. But whether
it did or not l think there can be no
/ question that it was our duty to denounce
promptly and Indignantly q charge of such
brutality from a man who pretended to be
a candidate for Cor gress. Our own rep
utatinn required us to do so.
| This brought us to within week of the
election and | can truly say that with the
| close, vigorous work We had done work
such as had never been done in this dis
trict before, | have never seen the Re
| publican party here in such splendid fight
| Ing trim. That we were we'll organized is
best proved by the vote cast In Rich
| mond we polled a larger vote than | re-
ceiyed in the gubernatorial contest last
| year notwithstanding the assertions among
white Republicans who followed Mullen.
The Democratic majority in the district
| is smaller than ever Before. If Mullen
had remained in the field Waddill would
have been elected by a large majority If
Mullen had never been III the field Wad
dill would have defeated Geo. D.. Wise If
1 Mullen had retired week before the cleo
tion Waddill would have been elected, and
! if Mullen had retired without delivering
| his Democratic and Republican vote to
the Democrats Waddill would have been
elected.
We failed to win, simply because at the
| last moment Mullen retired in favor of
! Geo. d. Wise after having denounced him
that very morning in bis paper Ike o pick.
pocket. and after having said in the same
| issue that his election would be a disgrace
| to the district. We failed to fuse or
coalesce with Mullen and his followers
because they never gave us any opportu-,
of self-respect. And. although our can
didate was not elected | can truly assert
| that the Republican party of this district
| is better organized. in better spirits, and
more full of fight than | have ever seen
/ it, and it occupies higher ground.
We are in every way better off than
| ever before. We have no quarrels with
ANY one and stand in Il position for the
future to make our vote avail something.
By adhering TO our principles and organi-
Zatien we have gained the respect Of Dem
ocrats aid lseformers alike. Nothing we
have done can justly prevent any member
of the Reform party, except Mullen, from
standing with us III future. and we have
no complaint against the rank and file of
that party. for they were as much cha
grined and Disguised at him as we were.
| However we may have differed as to the
| propriety of our course his action on the
eve of election sets that question at rest.
| We preferred to test Mullen's sincerity.
The failure to elect Wa6dill was only a
disappointment. The election of Mullen,
| had such thing been possible, as his own
duplicity has proved, would have, ere this,
been modification and disappointment
combined. Our betrayal last spring was
| after the election. We took care this fall
| that if any betrayal occurred it should be
before the election. It was Mullen who said
| last spring that the men who combined
with the Democrats we're traitors worse
| than Judas IscariOt.
| was not opposed to coalition. On the
contrary have been in the past the advo-
cate and the beneficiary of coalitions, and