Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-03-20
ELOQUENT TRIBUTE.

ELOQUENT TRIBUTE.
ISpeech of Senator Don. Halsey, of Lynch
burg. on the confirmation of VIM. F. Rhea as
member of the State Corporation Commis-
SION ~ ~, Joint Assembly of Virginia. February
Mr.. Speaker:
1t has been said that "He never
made friend who feared to make a
toe." A man without enemies is a man
without friends. A man without enc
mics is man without force of charac-
ter. A man without enemies is always a
negligible quantity in the worlds af-
fairs. Especially is this true in public
life. 1t is impossible to take a bold
stand in politics and maintain it with
out fear unless the man who does it
thereby gains not only the approval and
admiration of friends but the criticism.
the hatred and the execration of those
whose plans he thwarts and whose
principles he opposes.
come tonight, without apology and
without fear of reproach, to speak a
word in behalf of one who, if it were
permitted to him to speak in his own
behalf, would need no other champion.
man who throughout long and hon
oraole career has fearlessly borne aloft
the standard of Democracy over the
iiercest fields of the fight, and who has
thereby incurred not only the love and
loyalty of those who have stood with
him in the battle line, but the bitter.
the unrelenting hate, of those who
have felt the temper Of his steel and
gone down before the ardor of his
charge.
When these charges against VIM. F.
Rhea were filed it was freely said that
they were the offspring of political
venom and malice; that they were
without foundation in fact, and were
inspired by the hope of making cam
paign material for the Republican party.
1t now seems clear that such was the
case, for. now after full, fair and inn
partial investigation, in which every
possible door was opened wide, it appears
that each and every possible charge has
fallen to the ground, and, therefore,.
those who hoped to gain political am
munition must bear instead the odium
of having brought false charges against
an innocent and upright man, and the
responsibility for having inferred most
seriously, at great expense and loss of
time to the State, with the work that
the General Assembly was sent here to |
perform.
From the committee report it appears
that not only were the sweeping |
charges brought against Judge Rhea |
met and confounded at every point, |
but that in those respects most mate
rial to the determination of the question |
OF his fitness or unfitness no charges
were even filed. isprivate life was
unassailed; his personal integrity was
unquestioned, his great ability was
conceded; his general reputation for |
truth and honor so high that it was
protected even from partisan attack.
Upon which ground, therefore, can it |
be said that his nomination should not |
be confirmed? We are answered now.
after every charge has been disproved,
with the pharisaical and platitudinous
precept, that upon such high tribunal
none should sit against whom even his
enemies could breath the breath of
suspicion. If such were the case, Mr..
Speaker, we should need to fill the
bench of the Corporation Commission
with angels and not men. Search the
political history of our country and you
will find that those whose names are
written highest upon the scroll of fame
and glory and honor are those who in
their lifetime were the objects of the
bitterest vituperations and the most
malignant hate. But yesterday were
we reminded in an editorial in one of the
afternoon papers that Washington, him
self, was not free from this character
of attack and that he was once COM
pared by a malevolent writer to Cata-
line and his name consigned to eternal
infamy along with that of that odious
character of old Rome. Jefferson has
not yet outlived the hatred of political
enemies, while Jackson, and Clay, and
Webster, and Calhoun, and Lincoln and
Tilden and many others of the great
and good men of all sections had their
lives embittered by the rancorous at
tacks of partisan enemies. 1t is sad
and deplorable fact that even now in
this era of good feeling, after the lapse
of years and the softening influence of
time, those names which we of the
South revere above all other mortal
names-the sacred names of Lee and
jackson and Davis, cannot be spoken
in some quarters without coupling them
with the epithet of rebel and traitor.
The brilliant lawyer who conducted the
prosecution saw fit to allude to himself
as a Democratic Cleveland Democrat,
if you please-and yet, he seems to
have forgotten, or else to have over
looked the fact, that Grover Cleveland