Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-09-28

time required by the Constitution is
false. That provision of the Constitu-
ton was mandatory and as follows;
'The General Assembly shall pro-
vide by law at its first session under
this Constitution, uniform system, of
public free schools and for it's gradual,
equal and full introduction into all the
counties of the State by the year 1876,
or as much earlier as practicable.
The first General Assembly held un-
der the Underwood Constitution was
composed of Conservative Republicans
and Republicans; and they obeyed the
plain mandate of the Constitution be-
cause they found it was practicable to
make full introduction of the system,
and to have done otherwise would have
been violation of the Constitution and
violation of the oath of the members
of the General Assembly to support it.
That the Democratic party in Vir-
ginia has since 1870 by wise and eff
cient legislation been fostering the
schools is not true. Hon. A. F. Thomas,
Democrat and now member of the
State Senate, is a great friend of popu-
lar education. He recently published
an able pamphlet advocating the better
ment of the public schools in Virginia.
In that pamphlet he publishes every
Act of Democratic General Assemblies
having reference to the schools, and
the following are part of his adverse
comments thereon:
"1st. That the Constitution adopted
July 6, 1869, and the Act of July IL,
1870, were the only legal enactments in
Virginia that subscribed fully to the
free school system.
"2nd. That alllegislation since that
time has been unfriendly to the public
free school system required by the Con-
stitution, and the legislature has done
what it could to throttle and destroy
the system. "
Senior Thomas might haveSdded that
the Democratic members in the General
Assemblies of 1880 and 1882
fought every measure of relief intro
duced by the Readjusters for the pro-
lection and salvation of the free schools.
The journals of the two Houses will
show that this is true.
Mr. Swanson claims that the schools
were put upon a solid basis by Demo
cratic legislation enacted by the Legis-
lature at the session of 1890. Mr..
Thomas does not refer in his pamphlet
to any such legislation, because he
knows that the Readjusters controlled
that General Assembly as completely
as they did the Legislature of 1882;
and that it was at the session of 1880
that the Readjusters elected all the
county judges and the basement or
State officers, such as Auditor, etc. Of
course if the Readjusters had power to
do those things they controlled any leg
islation that was in the interest of the
public schools.
The Democrats in the Legislature of
1882 opposed the Riddleber bill, the
Grandstaff Act and the Act which pro-
vided for paying back to the free schools
the million and half dollars that had
been diverted from them by Democratic
legislation. Mr.. Swanson claims that
the money which had been so diverted
was restored by Democratic legislation.
This is not true, as it was paid back un-
der the Readjuster legislation and the
great bulk of it, if not all, prior to
1885, when the Democrats again took
charge of the schools.
Mr.. Swanson has been encouraged to
thus pervert the facts by the false
claims made by his party in its plat
forms of 1885, 1889, 1893 and 1897.
There is an old belief that man can
tell lie so often that he will believe it
to be truth; and these untruths have
been so often repeated by the Virginia
Democracy that they may believe them
to be the truth.
THE PUBLIC DEBT.
In his speech at Hanover Courthouse,
Mr.. Swanson went as greatly astray in
claiming that his party had settled the
public debt of Virginia as he did in as
serting that it was the founder of the
free schools. A conclusive way to de-
eide who settled the public debt is to
determine when it was settled. Does
Mr.. Swanson deny that it was settled
: by the enactment of the Riddleberger
bill that was passed by the Readjusters
at the session of the General Assembly
of 1882? Will he deny that every
Democratic member of that body voted
against the Riddleberger bill; and will
he deny that his party in 1888 recognized
the Riddleberger settlement as final
oYo Q IT, lyaaYD him from o0ain nnrvarf-