Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1904-08-18

/ Ing 10 VIII Jnc tcSiHIdhCc VI OiiO hOhi
delegates in support of the "Fundinl
Bill" the Funder Democrats concluded
to resort to contemplate trick to maxi
the Readjusters unpopular. They selected
for their accomplice in the performance
of the trick the crippled Confederate sol
der, Arthur Sullivan, from Montgomery
county. He had, at previous sessions o
the General Assembly, been holding {
certain position as one of the subordinate
officers of the House of Delegates, but the
Funders did not re.nominate him fol
that position. They determined to use
the poor, crippled Confederate soldier fol
political capital, and nominated him al
their candidate against the negro, George
W. Cook.
Was it wrong in Colonel Slemp and the
other Readjusters, nearly all of whom
we're Confederate soldiers and many o.
them afterwards honored and voted for at
candidates by the Democrats, to vote
against Sullivan under such circumstances
If it was improper for them to act that
way, it was mean, it was base for the Fun
der Democrats to persuade the crippled
Confederate soldier to allow the use of bis
name and person for the accomplishment
of such a questionable purpose. II the
crippled Confederate hero" who went
hmping through life, a mangled, be-
crutched, one-legged veteran" was
Inundated or wronged it Was occasloned
by his own political associates, the Fun
der Democrats, who showed their rever-
ence for the Confederate soldier in resor'
ting to a miserable deyice to defeat Read
justment by using the crippled soldier as
3 stool-pigeon.
We do not deny the fact that Colonel
Slemp voted against Arthur Sullivan and
for negro as doorkeeper of the house Of
Delegates in 1879. But We assert that the
Roanoke Times has been guilty of vicious
misrepresentation in trying to use that In
cident to the injury of Colonel Slemp and
the Republican party, by suppressing the
truth or by failing to correctly detail cir
eumstances cotemporaneous with the
transaction.
And further, the Readjuster members
of the General Assembly OF Virginia at the
session of 1879, including Colonel Slemp,
we're indicated by the results of the cam
paign of 1881, when the people Of this
State elected William E. Cameron as Gov
ernor and returned a majority of Read
iusters in both Houses of the General AS
sembly. In that campaign such men as
John Z. Massey, Abraham Fulkerson, w.
F. Rhea, Samuel H. Newberry and Others
were upon the stump upholding the
action of the Reaojusters in electing the
negro doorkeeper over Arthur Sullivan,
for the transaction was forced as an issue
into that campaign, just as the Roanoke
Times is now trying to force 1t. 1hese
men, including Governor Cameron, were
afterwards honored by the Democrats OF
Virginia, and some Of them repeatedly
made its candidates for exalted offices.
Colonel Slemp was indicated by the peo-
pie of his own county, Lee, lin being re-
turned as its representative in 1881 with
a majority of over six hundred, though he
had been elected in 1879 by less than two
hundred majority, The people Of the
Ninth District indicated Colonel Slemp
and the Readjuster party by electing a
solid delegation of Readjusters from the
counties of the district to the Legislature,
and by largely increased majorities in each
county.
With these unimpeachable facts brought
to its notice, further effort of the Roam
oke Times to use the Sullivan incident for
the purpose of iDjuring Colonel Slemp and
the Republican party will not only be
vicious but malicious Misrepresentation.
1t will also be an insult to the white Read
justers, many of whom in recent years
have been sssociating and voting with the
Democrats, to continue to talsify the facts.
For, every man who voted the Readjuster
ticket in 1881 was in possession of the
true facts, and voted to sustain the action
of the Readjuster members of the House
Of Delegates of 1879 in all they did at that
session to secure a readjustment of the
public debt of Virginia.
In his letter to us, which is published
in an other column, the editor of the
Times Says:
81, of course, recognize that l am fire.
quently liable to error-that mistakes are
no more foreign to my work than that of
my professional brethren. But if they
appear in the columns of the Roanoke
Times they are Internationally made and
will always be promptly and cheerfully