Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-01-17
SENATORIAL ELECTION IN VIR
GINA,

Plain Thomas S. Martin, who was
only a private soldier at the age of six
teen years in the Confederate army dur
ing the last few months of the war, has
been elected United States Senator from
Virginia over the we'll known Major
General FitZhugh Lee, nephew of the
great General Robert E. Lee. AT this
result the old fashioned, blue blooded
fossils of Virginia are terribly angry.
They swore there was corruption in the
election and had a Legislative Commit
tee investigate it, with the result that
not a scintilla of proof was brought out
rejecting on either Senator elect Martin
or his friends, and Mr.. Martin and his
friends are thoroughly v~indicated. The
fact is old Virginia has done nothing
since the war so sensible as the election
Of plain Mister Martin over Major Gen.
eral Lee. Mr.. Martin is not an orator,
but he is a worker, a hustler, and for
that reason he has been elected. A
fatherless boy, at an early age, Mr..
Martin has taken care of himself and
supported a widowed mother, and sew
eral sisters. Already Virginia has a
great orator in the Senate in the person
of John w. Daniel, but the Virginians
complain that they can't get any work
out of him, and while his great oratory
delights the people in the Senate gal
leries at Washington it don't pan out
anything to them. Commenting on this
election the Chattanooga Democratic
Times says:
The eccentric Mr.. Daniels skyscrap-
ing eloquence will continue, at inter
walls, to r~everberate in the Senate cham
Der, and corruscate along the lofty cell
ing, and wend its flight through the
skylights and up past the colossal Maid
of Liberty, who stands on the dome,
for five years, from March 3, next, if
his able voice holds out so long.
The distress experienced in some quar-
bCio oNCl uhC law thdb "a pltDCldu, Il
mere lawyer and business man, a COM
non plodder, like Martin, should have
turned down a Lee, in a contest before
a Virginia Legislative is, in these pip
ing times of practicability ratherfunny
than impressive. = 4 4 \ /; but the
day of mere Family politics" in the
South is a past dav. The people want
no more of it, not even in the Old Do
minion, where it was all powerful for
nearly a hundred years.
Mr.. Martin has no family to speak of.
though he was undoubtedly born, and
that, too, of respectable parents. Il \
He has never before held official office,
but that is rather in his favor than
otherwise, His brain big, his learn
ing unquestioned, his business capacity
of the highest. 4 ~ Il \ Virginia
has not, in him, sent a second Riddle
berger to the Senate, nor matched the
ridiculous and not at all creditable
Ilby, of South Carolina.
We incline TO the opinion that the
break from tradition and family influ-
ence, is a hopeful sign for Virginia's
future. She will have one level headed
iuh ~ Nuh w puoiLCbb. lutSt
are practical times; and Mr.. Martin has
shown he has the very soundest and
best trained practical sense.
The people are everywhere finding
out that they need workers at Washing
ton and not chin music. Mr.. Daniels
''~skyscraping eloquence, which rever-
berates in the Senate chamber, and cor
ruscates along the lofty ceiling, and
wend its flight through the skylights,
and up past the colossal Maid of Lib
erty, who stands on the DOME" don t
butter any parsnips or bread of the
V%irginians. They have elected Martin
because they want a worker, a nan
who will attend to their business, one
who will work the Committees of Con-
gress and the Departments instead of
working his Jaw.