Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-10-16
James Barron Hope on Malone.

The State Republican closes an arti
laudatory of Mahoue as follows:
Gas James Barron Hope, Virginia's p
editor, said with poetic pen:
20, countrymep! when dust has gone to dus
| Still shall he live in story and In rhyme;
Then History's self shall multiply his buss,
And he defy the silent CouQuerOr, Time.
| NV song is sung: My prophecy is made
| The state will make IL good, Mahon
| Brigade"
Eyes, in this year of our Lord, 1889, C
State will make it good.'
Mahone's brigade is all right. Nobod
doubts that. But who will honestly av
that Mohone is all right. Many men ha
changed their opinion Of Malone, al
among them was James Barron Hope. s
years after writing the above poem NJ
Hope wrote as follows in sober prose:
"We do not exaggerate when we affiri
y 1t to-day the voters of Virginia will D
called on to settle the most momentous issu
ever submitted for their decision-an issu
of such magnitude that it 'beggars all dd
scription''-an issue which, briefly stated
is simply this: Shall we have government
of law administered for the benefit of thI
whole people, or the rule of one man for th{
benefit of one man and the profigate SUBJ
alterns who make his will their law.
In fewer words, the issue is between th4
people and General Malone This is true|
statement of the case; but it is difficult foj
many to realize the fact, for it is lament !
able truth that we have great numbers|
among us who heretofore have been shame
fully ignorant of the current history of theirj
State, aud criminally delinquent in the dis
charge of their public duties.
We say our statement of the case does
not go beyond the naked truth of the fact.
and that the issue is between ths people
and General Malone.
Unhsppily, however, for the peace and
welfare of the Commonwealth, the people
are not a unit, are not homogeneous, and
are divided for the most part into two camps,
one white and the other black, with ma
jority of the latter at the heels of their
shrewd and desperate master.
The real people of the State, who pos
sess the education, intelligence and wealth
of the community, are against the King Of
the Caucus, and with them stand the
Clergy and the Press.
Before reconstruction did its deadly
work Of planting the South full of political
Upas trees, such unanimity OF sentiment
among the real people OF Virginia was
never seen, unless on the appearance of
that proclamation by MIR. Lincoln, calling
for troops, which precipitated the late un-
happy war; and this unanimity is the
slow growth of the conviction that Virginia
is threatened by man as dangerous as a
Clodius or Catiline, Jack Cade or a
Danton, Wallenstein or a Pescara. or
the latter, it has been written that
s'He was proud beyond all measure, en-
vious, ungrateful, greedy, virulent and
cruel; without religion, without humanity; ;
he was born for the very destruction OF
Italy"
He has arrayed class against class, black
against white, and no man can say that he
has the apology of fanaticism, or the plea
of insanity. He is 2 strong, bold, ener-
getic man, drunk with power and bent on
self-aggrandizement at all hazards. His
lieutsnants are insignificant in comparison
with their master, and possess their vigor
simply as knifeblade rubbed on a magnet
acquires power.
We say that he has arrsyed class against
class, and the lamentable state of affairs in
Danviile is directly chargeable to him. He
loves power and ali that power leads to-
He has drunk of the stream to intoxica-
ton, and he is bent on tho perpetuatiou of
that power. His success means our ruin,
his defeat means our safety, the safety of
society, the safety of life and property, the
safety of whites and blacks; and every
honest, God-fearing man in this State
should do all that IN him lies this day to
rebuke the mad ambition of the man who
himself is the Coalition.
And what we do should be done with
the sober energy and uufalterlng courage
of our race. We have nearly three centu-
ries behind us in this country, and all of
the giories of England's struggles for free
dom are part of the heritage of the Vir-
ginia people, and it would be an ever
lasting shame to US it we failed to do our
duty"