Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-09-08
RHEA and WALKER MEET IN
JOINT DEBATE.
They First Cross Swords at Lebanon

One. Republicans Have The Crowd
And Walker More Than a Match
For Rhea.
For several weeks much interest had
been felt throughout the district at the
probability of Judge Rhea and General
Walker meeting at Lebanon and having
Joint discussion on the 9th inst. Ihey
both had appointments there for that day.
that of General Walker being the first pub
lished. The friends Of Rhsa had been
very bosstful and confident of the result OF
such discussion being favorable to their
candidate, it having been frequently as
serted by the Democrats that they had at
lGht found candidate who would be more
-fhan a match for Walker. The candidates
both arrived at Lebanon on the afternoon
of the 5th, and very soon correspondence
was opened between the county chalrmen
of the respective parties for the purpose OF
arranging a Joint debate. The correspond
ence did not reach conclusion until about
lO:l5 o'clock q. m. on the 9th and the dis
cussion began at IL o'clock. The arrange
ment was for Rhea to open in 8 speech OF
one hour and fifty minutes, Walker to iol-
low with speech Of one hour and nifty
minutes and each to have reJolnder OF
twenty minutes.
Early in the morning the citizens of Rus
sell were seen pouring into Lebanon from
all sections Of the county, and by the time
the discussion began there were, perhaps,
from eight hundred to one thousand men
on the streets or congregated ABOUT the
court house. AS soon as county court ad-
iourned the people began to rush into the
court room, and very soon the MAN noor
ar 3the gallery we're crowded with an eager
au14xpectant throng, numbering at least
siF hundred persons. The rival canol-
dates walked upon the judges stand, from
which they were to speak, and shooK
hands for the first time since they had
been placed in the attitude OF rivals Tor the
suffrage of the voters of the Ninth District:
Judge Rhea did not appear to be IN g0od
trim for the battle. His cheeks were hol'
lowi Lis eyes sunken and be had the lean,
lanSNand hungry look of man who was IN
search Of something he was afraid he would
not get. He WAS introduced to the audi
ence by B. 7. Wilson, county chairman OF
the Democratic party, in the very original
style of "let me introduce to you the next
Congressman" etc. 1t was very soon ap.
parent that Mr.. Rhea was going to commit
the folly of devoting his time to the con-
sideration of the political record OF Gen.
Walker rather than to manly and states
manlike discussion of the issues upon
which the two great national parties dl-
vide. In the early part of his remarks
Judge Rhea began to address himself dl-
rectly to Gen. Walker instead OF the audi
ence in manner which was not agreeable
to the general, and the old veteran said:
"Judge Rhea, please direct your remarks
to the audience and not to me-" To which
Judge Rhea replied 81 will direct my re-
marks to whom l please" Gen. Walker
then said: Direct your remarks to the
audience, it is offensive for you to direct
them to me and will not permit II"
Rhea said: "If it is offensive to you will
stop and direct my remarks TO the audi
ence." He then went back more than
twenty wears to review the generals record
as Democrat, telling his auditors what
every one knew before, and the same old
story that was related with greater force by
Judge Williams two years ago, but to no
purpose, except to court defeat. Perhaps
IF Rhea had known that Walker had no
cancealments to make in connection with
= b;s record he might have saved time and
the useless expenditure OF breath, but,
fhen. he would have been unable to en-
nloy what he considered his most formida-
ble weapons. So Rhea went along and oc-
cupled more than three-fourths Of his time
in telling the people that Walker had once
snd for many years been Democrat, that
he had changed bis views on the silver
question and had made bad record as
our representative in Congress. Rhea had
evidently been loading on Walkers record
in Congress, but he got his load badly
mixed and had better said nothing about
If. as the subsequent results showed. he
charged that General Walker had not been
a capable representative. In that he had
failed to stop the pension frauds and
nledped that if he should be elected to
Con9ress he would undertake to do what
Walker. Daniel, Martin and all the other
Conpressmen from Virginia had not tried
to do. He asserted that Gen. Walker had
made no speeches in Congress, except In
contested election cases, and that the gen.
eral had in every instance voted to seat
Republicans who contested the seats o1
Democrats. He made an assault upon
General Walkers vote on the war revenue
measures, and again got himself entangled
by exposing his ignorance Of the actual
provisions of the war revenue bill. de
made the foolish declaration that that bill
provided for the issuance of one hundred
million dollars of time certificates that
were not to be used to cover the expendl-
tures of the government arising in conse-
ouence of the war but to supply def
cheney created by the failure of the Ding
leTbill to raise enough revenue to meet
tie ordinary expenses of the government
II WAS plain that he had not read the Law
as il Was passed by congress or he Woulo
have known that the time certlhcates were
tn be issued for precisely the opposite use
to what he declared. be was also lgno
ront of the fact that the war revenue bill
provided for the coinage OF the silver Dul
lion held by the government as senior
age" The first part OF Judge Rhea
speech was delivered with spirit thai
would have led one to suppose that Wher
he reached q consideration Of the policies
of the two parties he would display some
force in their discussion. But the las
thirty minutes, which he devoted to the prlr
ciples of the two parties, was SO weak tha
his remarks were vapory. lie draggec
along as if weary Of his work and seem I
ingly at a loss for something to say. Ih'
friends of free silver must have beer
ashamed of his feeble defense OF the white
metal. 1t was nothing more than Il an m
for the free and unlimited coinage OF sll
yer'' with no arguments to support hi
When Rhea declared that the promised
nrosperity had not come, as promised un
der RepubicanIrule, smiles OF derision wer'
seen @ on thefaces of Republicans and doub
and disbelief on the faces OF the Demo
Gratis. His assertion that the Dlngley. oil
was failure as revenue producer la Il
the teeth of the statistics Of the govern
ment. He closed his speech with an at
tempt to defend the Virginia election iav
without giving single argument IN It's de
80. Ge.oral Walker Mas then introduced t