Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1883 — THE COMING ISSUE. [ARTICLE]

THE COMING ISSUE.

Senator Mahone’s Address to the Public on Virginia Politics. The Results of the Recent Election - How They Were Brought About. A War of Races Inaugurated, and the Old Shotgun Policy Renewed. Senator Mahone addresses a letter to the Keadjuster party of Virginia, In which he sums up the results of the last election and reviews the history of the party of which he is the acknowledged leader. He recites the condition in which the people of Virginia stood at the time the Readjuster party catne into power, the Matus of the State debt, the embarrassment of the people in the way of taxation, the absence of schools and the 'violation of the laws, and says that the righting of these wrongs, the correction of these evils and resistance to the old Bourbon intolerance, made a new party in Virginia necessary. A GLANCE AT THE RECORD. This party in 1881 carried the State by a majority of 12,000, despite the grossest misrepresentation and the disqualification of a capitation tax. For two years this State administration has been in power and has been true to its pledges; the State debt has been settled without a taint of repudiation, and the State and the people saved from liability for $13,000,000 of falsely created principal and $35,000,000 of interest. When the Bourbons left the treasury there was $23,000 therein, with a floating debt of nearly $2,00J,0J0, of which $1,500,000 was due the public schools. The Readjusters, after two years of control, have extinguished the floating debt with the exception of $715,0(0, and now ba* a . million and a half in the treasuiy. The cost of maintaining the St*te Government has be?n reduced 30 per cent., and the burdens of the people have been lightened by the reduction of the rate of taxation from 50 to 40 per cent. Reforms have been made in the various branches of the State Government; the whipping-post has been abolished; the capitation tax, which prevented the exercise of the right of suffrage by poor people, has-been removed, and the laws of the State have been administered without discrimination. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. In the matter of public education the following statement exhibits facts which in ail time to come will reflect honor on the Readjuster party, and. what is still better, will advance the State in the general enlightenment which makes civilization possible: Comparing 1879 with 1871 the Funders by their unfriendly legislation uni administration, reduced the number of public schools from 3,017. of which 70J were colored, to 2,491, or which but 89 were eol< r. d. They reduced the pupils from 131,088, of whom 33,976 we e colored, to 108,074, of whom but 5,208 were colored. They reduced the teachers from 3,034, of whom 501 were colored, to 2,-; 504. of whom but 94 were colored. They reduced the expenditures Jrom $587,172 for theyear to $511,902. Now, compare the Readj ustcr ru e of last year with the last year of iiorbon rule, and the books show the Readjusiers have increased the number of schools from 2,491 to 5,587; the number of colored schools from 89 to 850; the pupils from 108,074 to 257;082; the colored pupils from 3,03 to 4,538; the teachers from 2,501 to 4.538; the colored teachers from 94 to 644. The expenditures, from $>11,902, were increased to $1,157,142. The establishment of the first State Normal school for colored teachers in the United Slates is another milestone planted by our party on the road of progress. The railwaw mileage in Virginia has been increased 43 per cent.; the increase in freight carriage has been 82 per cent.; the increase in the number of passengers carried 78 per cent., and the gross earnings of the railroads in the State have increased 88 per cent, within the last two years. This has been secured, Senator Mahone claims, by a liberal and honest policy of administration and by the encouragement of commerce in the State.

He then passes onto the recent outbreak between the races, and says that when the Bourbon convention assembled at Lynchburg, In July last,, the adoption of the color line was openly favored, and that such a plank would be introduced into the platform seemed probable until the last moment. The Chairman of the convention addressed himself to the white people of Virginia, and the . newspapers recommended the platform adopted as a white man's platform. They made the race issue the only one of the campaign, and brought to the support of the Democratic party all the white Republicans who were prejudiced against negro advancement. In September the leading editor of the Bourbon party announced that the Democratic plan of campaign was “to buy all the voters they could and bully the remainder.” This plan was carried out. As one of the prominent speakers explained, “By the gods, this is a white man's country, and white men shall rule or the rivers will run blood.” Everything was done to arouse and inflame race prejudice, and it became necessary, as the excitement grew intense, to carry out what h#d been intended and intimidate the blacks. The Senator then says: Arms began to pour into the south side regions, the supply of small arms in our larger cities was exhausted, and the demand extended as far as Baltimore, until one Democratic headquarters within twenty miles of Richmond had forty stands of muskets and the Danville region was a walking arsenal. 'Tire er.p }ha4*"whlfe>»»n shoul4riile or die;’’ the announcement that a war of races was upon us, swelled in volume and ferocity. Threats of the lives of our leaders became more common than any other argument. Murder in cold blood began in Madison county. Days before it was repeated in Danville, rumors of the shipment of arms filled the air, and, during the fair week at. Richmond —iong before any outbreak occurred —the knowing ones were heard to whisper and mysteriously predict what might be expected at the proper time. In due time it came. With what premeditation and design it came, let any impartial man who read the Bourbon press and heard the preparations made for it judge for himself. Who provoked it? Who perpetrated it? Let the Bourbon journals themselves testify. With what purpose it was perpetrated let the thousands of lalse circulars turning it to political account, spread broadcast by the Bourbons almost before it occurred, and the effect they produced, speak as no argument can. The in Danville is dignified by Bourbonism with the name of riot. The facts, as gathered from ail sources, are that upon Saturday evening pwceding the election, just after the Danvi le negroes had received their weekly pay and were buying their Sunday supplies in a crowded market-place, a white man appeared, had an altercation with a negro and whipped him. The fight was ended, and no other negroes came to the rescue of the punished man. But the programme was interrupted by this circumstance. An armed guttering of the “best people” of the “best and bravest” was convenivnily near, and in a moment a murderous throi* poured out Of the building where they were assembled, opening a murderous fire u<x>n the unarmed, defenseless, and flying negroes. How many were killed no one knows, and no one will probably learn the truth, for the oondit.on of things st>ll in Danville is such that the truth cannot be learned. That they were sitoe in the backs like dogs while run ning away; that no pistol shot was flred by a blaek man: that no white man was injured, save by his own friends; that for days the poor victims were found dead in alleys, in warehouses, and under houses, like poisoned rats that had crawled away to die; that the negroes fled to the woods, to the State of North Caro Una, to the four winds of heaven; these are a few* of the facts of this bloody, wholesale murder, which was telegraphed far and near by Bourbons as an insolent uprising of the blacks against the whites. = Simultaneously with these bccurrences the crack of the Bourbon weapon 'engaged in political murder resounded, and the Bourbon knife sunk deep in the counties of Charles

City, Halifax. Hanover. f r ./U, K •• and elyewhcio. in ngilnix with Sab tat th day sympathies from the BOufbcn capital, and the race cry whs shouted with Liual ferocity intense enough to make Virginia t»« rival of any Southern State in her record oi bteo»bAed and lawk s->ne*s. These, fpllow-elti tens, were th'- >»oans resorted to. The effects wete al) that rhe bulldozers <ould have ho; cd for. Murders, deliberately p putted undent outed with remorseless mulignttv, were jo the- remote and ignoiant whi’es of the valley and f buth west as the unavoidable selfdefense of these wolves against rh'drlamb assailants. Without the means of informing themselves of rhe batenesa of thete falsehoods. thoiisitu is of otjr pa“ty, deluded and deceived, y eded to an Impulse of generosity so foully placed upiri, and flu the region whore these felonies were pettnljfcd, the murderer,! thcmMlvet ps-adtd the streets, armed to the taeth, unde: rhe pretense of preserving o:der, until, in the city of Danville. who. e 4 ameron received in 1384 votes numbering 7)9, und Wi e in 18)3 received 841 votes, an 1 where 1,879 Readjuster votes were enrolled, but twenty-six votes were cast for the coalition candidate, whose life was threatened, und whose coffin it is sail had been actually made and paid for by the party of honor and intelligence. In the counties of Halifax and Charlotte, adjacent to Pittsylvania, the policy of purchase as well as rioting prevailed, and while the methods were a little less violent, they were none the less corrupt. Thus it was that Halifax, with a colored voting population of 3,814. against 3.054 whites, afie<- giving John S. Wise 548 majority in 1882, gave the Hour-, bous 250 majority in 1883. Ar.d Char’otte,: with a black voting population of 2.055, and a' w hi to population of 1,398, after giving John 8. Wise 762 ma'ority in 1889, gave a Bourbon majority of 800 in 1883. That these majorities were honest no sone man will imagine. How _thuy wvrf‘ brought iifcout will in diw tiroo bo made apparent. * The above are ouly samples of the methods resorted to by the Bourbons. Bribery and corruption appear to have been the order of proceeding generally throughout the .Rate. In the h'story of polities in this Stat : the recent campaign is, thank God, without precedent, and to the forbearance and longsuffering of the Readjustors—to this alone—is due the fact that this State is not now bathed In blood. In summing up the results Of the campaign, Senator Mahone says: That the reaction will come, and that swiftly and completely, is nbt a matter cf doubt. It is true that Bourbonism has gained a triumph upon a campaign of falsehood and deception, by apjeais to p.tsslon and by a barlarous resolve to shed as much innocent blood as was necessary to its success. It Is true that by fair means and by foul it has proon cd a temporary majority. And’ yet it is equally true that the majority of our people are conservative ut heart and abhor tab ehood and violenc?. In conclusion I;e siys: The. scope of the Readjustee party has enlarged with its age anti growth. It originated In an issue local, and to some extent improper. With time, and the changing issues whic.i time brings, it has widened its sphere, and whilp Its original Object has become less prominent, issues of nations ism. of human rights, of liberty, of peace, of manhood, r-f republican government, have been forced u|X>n it by the fierce arc broad enough to be national, and it has the sympathy of every man in the n itiou who loves liberty and abhors the prOK-rfpt on and bigotry of caste, class and race prejudice which is the life of Bourbonism. lor myself, ns your Chairman from !be outset of th,s struggle, I have conceived that the true duty imposed ujon pie by the spirit of bur party was to wage undying war upon Bourbonism; not only as it onposed the debt settlement; not only as it is the enemy of education; not only as it is imbecile, hoartle-s ai d wasteful in admlnis r ition: not only as it is the enemy of fi ee t u rt. e: but as it is ■tie enemy of tl at trie Dembcracg which means that the Lumble and weak shall participate in and be protected by the administration of the government as well as the powerful and s ring. In the effort to perpetuate caste, class, and race ruin by crushing out by force, irat d or otherwise, the weak and unprotected in this State, the Bour! ois have mode a gulf -between ihemselv.s and the Readjuster party which shall yawn forever, for tbeycinnot brlJge it, and we will not. Let the fight proceed. If we are to be in the minority in the future, it Is a minority struggling for principles as strong and holy as when they were backed by a majority. The manhood which sustains them in defeat proves a sincerity and devotion which in due time must and will be crowned with triumph. But whether future triumphs come or not the blessings we have secured for Virginia are fixed and indestructible- Our enemies stand before us. We, know that they arour foes and the f< es of the Commonwealth: that they have in' the past paralyzed her energies, robbed her' treasury, defrauded and dwarfed her free Schoo's, strangled her suffrage, brought national hate upon her, adhered to no jrlnctpie, and made terms with any renegade or prostitute who would aid them. And that they have at lasl triumphed by murder and bloodshed that have disgraced the Btate. We know that we-have asked for and given no quarter in the past, that we will accept none, and promise none now. We Know that with Bourbonism before us we have an enemy to fight, powerful and dangerous to tfie interests of the State. We know that, masquerading in the stolen livery of Democracy, it is no true representative of Democracy, either In principle 6r personnel, and I believe the Readjuster party will, when it next meets in council, unite cordially and thoroughly with our friends, State and national, and make common cause with them against the Bourbons, their aiders, counsellors and abettors, State and national, by. whatsoever name they mav be designated. I repeat, therefore, that .the struggle against Bourbonism is to be renewed forthwith, and fz> fli?: death, and, as your Chairman. I call upon every loyal Readjuster In. Virginia to rally to the standard and reform to fight a new battle against their old Bourbon foe in the national campaign of 1834. Bearing In mind the ’ old watchword of a free ballot and a fair count, we have a right, to demand and. expect support from the State, and if need be from the Federal Government, in behalf of the rights of man, guaranteed by both fjpvernmente, and put at? stake to procure the ascendency of an unscrupulous party that sticks at nothing to acquire power. • William Mahone, Chairman, Peteksbl-ko, Nov. 14, 1883.