Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-09-16
Is this Leadership?

| la another column we publish circula
/ letter signed ''The State COMMITTEES, b.
Wiriam Malone, Chairman" which i
dated July 11th, 1891. Whether this is
n stake in date. or whether Gen. Mshoa,
| srOse and sent o4t the circular before tht
maaiag of has committee, VIII ch he style;
"Fhe State Committee, ws do not know
We do know, however, h he got his com
mittee together at his pri late residence il
Petersburg about the second week il
Angus. and made them endorse this plat
of surrender TO The Democratic party.
Ii was has plan and it was his commit
fee snd nf coufso Iie did what be cboss ~itb
both. From tte i ts iE inoxs as ,i the lit
tia Gsperal had -slsteh uut and promul
gated his orders TO ths KS; ics d of Vir
ginia evon before he cou,iesce1dsd to call
bis cum,n; tee together for he purpose c
going through With the fsrcczl perform.
aDcs Of an endarsemeu,. Ali we know is
that the orders from tho Boss for a sur.
render a:e ou5, and that it is probable the
Republicans will have no candidates this
fall.
We know that an overwhelming ma
jority of the Republicans OF the State-es-
peoislly those of the Valley and the South
west--wsre eager and anxious to make q
fight for their principles, aud to send to
the State Legislature men who would faith
fully and honestly represent those princi-
plea. Now, however, with ''the commit
tee" against them we do not know whether
or not it would bs good policy to nomiuate
candidates But we dc know that if the
committee (Gen. Mahone) had not intar-
fered with US here in Rockingham we
would have sent three good aud true Re.
publIcans to the Virginia Legislature; other
counties in the Valley apd Southwest would
have done the same thing, and 80 would
many counties in eastern Virginia.
1t has been the constant and urceasipp
brag of Gen. Mahone's especially admirers
that the Republican party under his leader
ship has continued to grow. At least this
was their contention up to 1888, at which
time the General had himself nominated
for Governor. All of this alleged growth
of the Republican party was accomplished
under the present election laws, which
Gen. Malone now makes the pretext for
his ignominious surrender. These election
laws have been in force ever since 1888 and
if it is useless now to nominate candidates
it has been 80 ever since that date, yet in
1888 Harrison was only beaten fifteen hun.
dred votes il the whole state of Virginia,
while the next year (1SS9) Gen. Malone
was beaten by forty-two Thousand majority.
If Gen. Malone knew so we'll that it was
useless, on account of the Virginia election
laws, to make any fight In Virginia why
did he insist upon nominating himself and
Republicans all over the country
to subscribe money to his campaign? Why
did he represent to the President and his
Cabinet that he would certainly be elected
if nominated? The same election laws ex.
i5f vscto ;v,
1888, 1889, and 1890.
In the very beginning of the address the
writer starts out by Dragging that last fall
in those congressional districts in which
Republican candidates were run they were
bsaten, but it negleots to state that in two
of these distriots-the ones which are over
Republican-Gen. Mahone's
influence was cast for the Democratic con-
gressional candidates, while in the First
and Ninth districts he and his committee
not only did not aid the Republican candi-
dates but actually "threw cold water" on
their efforts to attain SUCCESS. In view of
these well known facts it comes with very
bad grace for Gen. Malone to point to
those defeats as an evidence of his sagacity.
In conclusion we will call the attention
of our readers to the fact that now Gen.
Malone, by his circular letter, has ac-
knowledged what we have repeatedly
charged, and what facts have long ago
demonstrated, and that is that his boasted
leadership has every year since 1884 sunk
the party lower and lower, until now he
and his committee have actually advised
us not to attempt to make fight but to
leave the field to the Democratic party.
Beginning with 1000 majority for Came
ron, Lewis and Blair, Republicans, in 1881,
and winding up with 42, 900 majority for
Mckinney, Democrat, in 1883, Gen. Ma
hone has clearly demonstrated his capac
ity to lead party TO defeat, and now
since he has acknowledged by the circular,
which we print elsewhere, that he cannot
lead the party to victory why does he not
do as a man who loves his party should
do-that ia retire from leadership which
has for the last eight years brought moth
ing but disaster to his party.-Spirit of the
Val:ey.