Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-11-30
THURSDAY, NOV. 80, 1905.
A SIMPLE EXPLANATION.

The Old Dominion Sun says that the
Republicans conducted a clean cam
paign, and confesses to surprise and
disappointment at the result of the cleo
ton. Perhaps some light will shine up
on our contemporaries darkness If it
will read and ponder. the following sig
nificant paragraph from the Tazewell
Republican:
1.-THE Goddess of Liberty, who is sup
posed to preside over the destin.es OF
Virginia, will hang her head with shame
the day Claude A. Swanson is inaugu-
rated Governor of the Commonwealth;
and she will cast aside her sword and
call for scavenger's tools when Taylor
Ellyson is sworn in as president OF the
State Senate.
The newspaper which thus proclaims
as far as its circulation extends that the
men chosen by the people of Virginia to
occupy the highest offices of govern
ment are indecent is a representative
Republican newspaper. Its Islander is
uttered not in the heat of apolitical
campaign, but deliberately and mali
ciously, and the statement goes out as
the sentiment of the party it represents.
1t is a fair sample of RepubGcanism.
That party has always been a sort OF
Ishmaelite in Virginia. 1t has never
been in accord with the dominant senti-
ment of this State. Its hand has ever
been lifted against those who fought
for Virginia's rights in war and pre-
served her traditions in peace. 1t is
party of aliens, and it should be no sur
prise to the Old Dominion Sun or to any
man who knows the situation that the
people refuse to commit the affairs OF
government to the party of nihilism.
Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The above "simple explanation" from
the Dispatch is simple I'M
truth, and is Enthusiastically Demo-
cratic. 1t is another pharisacal effort on
the part of our Richmond contemporary
to escape the odium which attached to 1t
as the persistent slanderer of Judge
Lewis during the late campaign, and it
thinks it can do this by charging anoth-
or with being slanderer.
Slander of the kind now under con-
siderahon is the uttering Of something
that is untrue about the parties in ques-
ton. If what we have said of Mr..
Swanson is untrue, we have been lead
into the error by his record as a machine
politician and through the exposures
made by members of his own political
household during the late primary cam
paign, in which he was a contestant for
the nomination of his party for Gov
ernor. During that campaign he was
not only assaulted in the Democratic
newspapers, but good, honorable men,
Democrats in all sections of the State,
were heard to say that he was too small
and was unfit to be Governor of this
State. We offer the following to show
that we have not slandered Mr.. Swan
son:
He was a part of the political ma
chine that controlled this State for
many years by all manner of frauds at
elections. lie was beneficiary of those
frauds and accepted seat in Congress
more than one time that was tainted
with fraud. Judge Witt, in his charge
to the grand jury that investigated the
frauds at the primary in Richmond, de-
clared that no honest man could afford
to accept an Office to which he was not
honestly elected. Even the Democratic
papers now confess that all the elections
in Virginia for twenty years prior to
the making of the new constitution were
fraudulently conducted, and that the
negro votes were stolen. That was
done in the Fifth District when Mr..
Swanson was first elected to Congress.
Then, Mr.. Swanson was charged with
being untrue to Mr.. Montague after the
latter had defeated him for The nomina-
ton for Governor in 1901. The returns
from the Fifth District for the cleo
ton of 1901 show conclusively that this
accusation is true. Every county in the
district gave majority for Hampton
Hoge, the Republican candidate for
Governor. Mr. Swanson had either been
carrying the district by fraudulent
methods or he did not use his influence
there for Mr.. Montague.
Again, Mr.. Swanson was connected
with the scandals in the postoffice de-
partment. He was exposed in that
matter by Democrats, and no reason
able explanation has ever been given Of
his conduct in connection with the scan
dals. If he was blameless, why was he
taken from the Postofice Committee Of
the House of Representatives
This is not all. 1t has been charged,
and we have not seen it denied, that
Mr.. Swanson had secret understand
ing with the liquor men and that they
gave him their support at the primary
election.