The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-08-22
More About that Honorable Com
promise

We assume that the Marion Times is
honest in its opinion about the political
situation in Virginia and that any harsh
reflections it may make upon those who
differ with it, is the result of ignorance
of facts. 1t alleges that the late so-called
compromise is an honorable compro-
mise We thought so, too, when we
first read it and the accompanying re-
marks of the members of the National
Executive Committee who signed it. vet
we had our misgivings. Had it been
carried out as the members of the com
mittee doubtless designed. it would have
had the effect to have brought about
harmony in the party. But we soon
learned that 1t was not the intention of
Gen. Malone to do anything of the
kind. Subsequent acts confirmed us in
this belief. Instead of observing the
terms of that agreement, it has been
violated in every essential PARTICULAR
Even more extreme and reckless action
has been taken under it than was ever
perpetrated before, and the purpose
Il
thorough and complete Malone organ:-
zation-his will and ambition perneat-
ing and dominating every interest and
every result-regardless of the will of the
Republicans of the State and Indifferent
to consequences. No one who is not
blinded by prejudice can fail to see this.
Concession on the part of those who
have opposed the present plan of organi-
Zation has been met by the most insolent
and domineering aggression on his part,
and disposition to respect the under
stood conditions of the compromise,
shown by those who have opposed his
arbitrary ways, has been treacherously
awaited of to subject the party to still
further indignities and tyrannies on his
part. The honorable compromise has
been fiagrantly broken by him, just as
he intended to do, when it was patched
up He has deceived the members of the
National Committee who signed it he
has deceived the administration which
thought it was what it purported to be,
and he has deceived the Republicans of
the State. Under his action the conven-
ton which will assemble to-day in Nor
folk will be in no sense representative
Republican body 1t will represent Gen.
Malone and his faction, and will be
binding upon no one who is a Repubii-
can from principle, if he should choose
to disregard the proceedings and their
result.
The first and absorbing thing with a
Mahonite is ''office.n He cannot Get
He thinks party was designed to confer
office His convictions of duty to the
State and country are guaged by the
prospect of office. With him it is office
ali the time, and believing that Malone
can get it for him, he follows him blindly
and obeys his orders implicitly. With
this distorted view of party duty and
the mission of party the first accusation
to make against those who will not do
likewise, is that they ''want the Offices
and because they cannot get them, they
''kick" against the organization. The
right to seek office belongs to every man.
1t is no crime to desire to serve the gov
eminent. The offices have to be filed.
and the first thing to be considered in
connection Herewith is the faithful and
efficient discharge of duty to the govern
ment and the next consideration is that
fidelity to party principles has been
maintained and observed. With Ma
hone and his select staff this is not the
motive or the object 1t is the degree Of
subserviency manifested to him the
amount of abuse and billingsgate that
have been belched out upon those who
believe the Republican party has high
er object than to dispense favors to those
who are Republicans for revenue only
and to crafty a lust for power to be used
to degrade the party with machine to
be worked in the interest of the selfish
ambition of one man. The exhibition
made at Washington during the first
months of Harrison's administration,
when Malone and a throng of his fol-
lowers blocked every avenue of the, de-
partments: packed every approach to
the Executive Mansion button-holed
every Republican who was presumed to
have influence, however slight, and slam
dered and villified every Republican who
did not swear by the BOSS, are fresh in
the public mind. 1t has all the elements
of audacity and all the insolence of DIES
peration for the apologists for such So
called Republicans to say word against
any one else as it regards Offices
1t is not our purpose, however, during
this canvass to be diverted from the
presentation of the true cause of
Republicanism, and the advocacy of its
principles, as means to better the
condition of Virginia, by insidious taunts
and malignant misrepresentation s. We
can afford to leave them to the discrimi-
mating judgment and verdict of an in
telligent public. We know we are right.
We are convinced that the only hope of
the Republican party of the State and
Nation is to frown upon and repudiate
boss methods in State and Nation-to
aspire to higher plane than that on
which the mere spoilsmen delights to
act and to seek to impress the popular
mind with the policies and princi-
Piles of the Republican party, as the
best means to promote the progress, I.
assure the prosperity, and augment
the political and material power Of
the old Commonwealth.
We know as well as that we have an
existence, that Mahone's methods will
wreck the Republican party of Virginia.
We know equally well that if they are
countenanced and adopted by the adj
ministration, they will wreck it, and
with equal certainty will wreck the Re
publican party of the Nation if they
are accepted as the agencies by which it
hopes to win and retain popular conf
dence. There is a deeper meaning than
the control of the offices in Virginia, in
Mahone's plans and plots. That is a step.
The plot looks to 1892 1t means the
control of the National Convention of
that year, and the nomination of
ticket, representative of boss methods |
and aims, and if successful, the wreck
and ruin of the Republican party of the
Nation. The impress of this plot is al /