Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-08-03
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1905.
A POLITICAL MONSTROSITY.

ton known as the Virginia Democracy.
Its leaders, apparently, have reached
such degenerate condition as to have
lost all sense of shame and all rever-
ence for political morality. Upon the
stump and through the public prints
they make confession of political crimes
and expose the deformities of rivals in
their own ranks without seeming to
realize that by these confessions and
exposures they are proclaiming them
selves political degenerates and exhib-
iting their party as monstrOsity.
1t is pitiful to know that the deform-
ity of the Democratic leaders has been
so deeply impressed on the character of
a very large portion of the masses of
the party. This has been accomplished
by false teaching and by objectionable
appeals to the passions and prejudices
of the masses, instead of appealing to
intellect and moral sensibility.
When we study the record of the Vir-
GINA Democracy, made during the past
twenty years, it is not surprising to
find the party hideously abnormal, de-
formed and diseased in body and mind.
, It's chief, central and absorbing princi-
pie or policy has been based on an in
satiable thirst for office and an intense
desire for power, without regard for the
character of the methods and means it
employed. 1t has been shown to be a
cardinal doctrine of the party that its
voting strength should be maintained
even at the expense of its intellectual
and moral development. 1t cannot be
successfully disputed that whateveE
ability its leadership may have possess
ed has been almost entirely directed to
that end. Is it any wonder that states
manship has become an unknown guam
tity in Virginia, and political morality
has ceased to be looked upon as vir-
tue by so many of it's citizens? Is it
strange that so many persons within
our borders speak Of politics and cor
ruption as one and the same thing?
That these conditions have been Gre
ated by the Democratic leaders is suffi-
GENTLY proved by Democratic testi-
mony. We find one leader, candidate
for United States Senator, travelling
through the State and crying aloud that
his competitor for the Senatorship first
won his position of honor () by de-
bauching a Democratic Legislature.
The truthfulness Of this charge is be-
lieved and vouched for by the friends
and followers of the late Fitzhugh Lee
and is published in Democratic newspa-
pers by prominent Democratic CORE
spondents, who claim it is sustained by
the record of the investigation made at
the time the offence was committed. |
This same candidate for the Senator
ship [Mr. Montague) also declares in
his speeches that his own party organi-
zation is corrupt machine, dominated
and run by his unclean competitor, Sen
ator Martin One of the newspapers
supporting the candidacy of Mr.. Monta-
que says:
'"What the Devil do the friends of
Tom Martin care about the people if
they have the machinery" Ask his sup
porters. Well not much we are sure.
The State Central Committee is theirs,
the organization in various counties
will be dictated by the Central Com
mittee just as the date of the primary
was; the plan of the election will be
dictated by these, the results will very
nearly be so, if these gentlemen of the
organization can make them so, and if
there is not a great cry of fraud and |
corruption after the election is over, as
there was when Gen. Fitz Lee was de-
feated for Senate, we shall be sur
prised."
We heard a Democratic newspaper
man say few days ago that Montague
would certainly be nominated at the
coming Democratic primary, if the
election was not stolen from him. We
paralyzed that Democrat by asking him
who would do the stealing, supplement-
ing cur question with the remark that
the theft could only be committed by
Democrats connected with the Demo-
cratic organization.
A Democrat who is Disguised with
Montague's denunciatiOns of the ma
chine and machine methods has pub
Iished a communication in the Bristol
Herald in which he says:
81 notice in every speech Governor
Montague is making he is commenting
upon machine methods. Does he mean
to say he was not elected Attorney
General and then Governor by machine
methods? If SO what does he mean by
This in his speech at Halifax? II say
aimee we have laid aside the negro, let
ais talk like white men. Since we UNI
loaded the black body of death, the
white people of this State should turn
Aha;, focee To the 'front.'