The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-09-19
A Leaf from History.

Us we understand, that it was Zen. ma
lone who had the capitation restriction
IN the ballot removed and the whipping
post law repealed He took no account
Of the 81, 900 Republican voters who de-
handed their repeal, nor did he deign
to refer to the history of the constitu-
tional amendment that imposed the cap
itation tax. nor to the legislation which
established the whipping post. When
the amendment to the constitution was
adopted in 1876. providing for the pre-
payment of head tax of 81 as a pre-
requisite to the exercise of the elective
franchise, Gen. Malone was supreme |
in directing the policy of the Democratic
or Conservative party. Judge Nat.
Meade, now deceased, then editor OF
Mahones paper, the Richmond Whag, was
chairman of the Conservative State Elk
ecutive Committee. He it was who sent
out autographed tickets, on which were
engraved for the amendments" as the
only ballots that were to be used by the
Conservative voters. Not only Gen.
Malone. but Mr. Craig and Mr. Brown
Allen were clamorous for the adoption
of the amendments, while the VIRGIN
IAN was the only paper in the State
which opposed them and exposed the
injustice and outrage which it was pro-
posed to impose upon the poorer classes
of the State, both white and colored,
who bear their share of government and
contribute by their labor to the reve-
nues of the State The purpose then
was to restrict the ballot and especially
debar the colored man from the polls, to
make it more easy for the.party OF which
Gen. Malone was the acknowledged
master, and Messrs Craig and Allen
were lesser, but not less earnest lights,
to hold the State government
The whipping post law was established
by legislative act about the same time. 1t
was the penalty inflicted for the most
trivial offenses, sometimes real and some
times Matched up, as the lash once laid
on worked disfranchisement.
1t was to force a discussion of these
acts as well as the condition of the State
debt, at a time when the debt was grow
ing larger every year by 81 ,0O0,0 900 in de-
faulted interest. and the public school
system which was fast going into decay
| by reason of the inpoverishment occa-
stoned by diverting from it the constitu
tional appropriation for its support. that
| the VIRGINIAN advised that the Repub-
Leans place no ticket in the field in 1877.
That course was adopted. Gen. Malone
was a candidate for the Democratic or
Conservative nomination for Governor,
bnt was defeated in Convention and
Holiday selected. 1t was then, when
his party kicked against his power and
bolt from the party and organize a new
one. His Mozart plan was simply a
formulation of the positions the Republi-
cans maintained upon the public schools,
the capitation tax, and the whipping
post. He did not demand the removal
of the braZen wrongs which he had been
mainly instrumental in inficting until
he saw that he might make capital out
of them. He took advantage of his own
wrong-doing to win the support and
sympathy of the victims of his cruelty,
and awaited of their necessities to gain
their support for his new political rela-
tions. He was moved by no high motive
to atone for the injury he had inflicted
but was animated solely by selfish cor.
sideration and to crafty an inordinate
thirst for revenge and power. 1t was in
this way that the $4,000 to 100000 Re
publican voters assisted the few thous-
and boiling Conservatives he com
manded, to repeal the wicked legisla-
ton he had engineered to have enacted
Yet it is claimed by Mr.. Craig that Gen
Malone did it all. He never thought OF
it until the VIRGINIAN pointed the way
His campaign literature was made up OF
editorials from the VIRGINIAN discuss
ing these matters, which he had gath
cred into his scrap book.
But even if he had accomplished all
that is claimed for him, he was well paid
for it. The colored people owe him
nothing. They have made him what he
is politically, and it is not job they
should be proud Of He has used them for
his own exaltation and for his own selfish
purposes, and all the thanks they have re-
ceived is his contemptuous and some
times brutal treatment. The case of
Langston measures his respect for the
negro and the interest he feels in his
character and advancement. He uses
him when he has selfish end to effect.
and abuses him when he will not obey
his orders. He is harder task master
for them, with the light of freedom
beating upon them for a quarter of a
century, than they endured when the
shackles of slavery oppressed them. He
owes them everything. They owe him
nothing but strong, vigorous kick, as a
rebuke and punishment for his insidious
efforts to break up the Republican party
and build upon its ruins a Malone par
ty. This he will get, if all signs do not
fail, in November next, and his unseen
ly career as a political marplot and con-
spirator, be effectually ended.
~ h----