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The Commoner.
VOLUME 11, NUMBER 33
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The Senatorial Campaign in Virginia---Primaries September
Let Every Democrat in the Old Dominion Attend These Primaries
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The senatorial campaign in Virginia Is grow
ing more and more Interesting. The democratic
primary will be held September 5. Congress
man William A. Jones is the candidate against
Senator Thomas Martin.
Inasmuch, it is chaTged J.hat Senator Martin
was and is the candidate of the special interests
the details of the Virginia contest will be in
teresting to democrats everywhere. The follow
ing is from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot:
Manassas, Va., Aug. 7. (Special) "I will
now introduce a document which I think will
convince any doubting Thomas and put to rest
forever every denial that railroad money was
used, and used directly by the agents of the
railroads to elect members of the legislature,
who could bo relied upon to stand by tho rail
roads. The letter, which I now read, was writ
ten by this same Mr. Barbour Thompson. It
waB written on October 10, 1891, which was
prior to the election, and it establishes beyond
all question or cavil or doubt that Mr. Thomp
son and his agents did not aid democratic can
didates, notwithstanding their professed interest
in our Anglo-Saxon civilization, unless they felt
thoroughly satisfied as to their position."
This statement was made by Congressman
William A. Jones today in a speech here, in
which he again reiterated his charges relating
to the "yellow dog" fund against Senator Martin.
The letter, Mr. Jones referred to in the foregoing
statement, is addressed to C. G. Holland, of
Danville, Va., said by Mr. Jones to bo a railroad
man. The letter is as follows:
$ HBRE IS THE LETTER
' October 0, 1891. Mr. C. G. Holland, Dan
ville, Va. Dear Mr. Holland: Your several
favors of October 5 and 6 at hand, and I have
been delayed until today in answering them.
I have taken great pleasure in writing by this
mall to Col. Marye, as well as to Gen. Payne,
asking them to communicate with the governor,
with a view of securing for you the appointment
to represent the tobacco interests of Virginia at
the coming exposition at Chicago, and I have
made both of them thorough suggestions as to
how they might help you in the matter.
I return herewith the letter of the 5th instant.
If I see any other way of aiding in this matter,
I shall certainly take advantage of the oppor
tunity. ' I note your remarks in regard to Messrs. Hurt
and Hatcher. I enclose herein a letter which I
have received from Mr. Hatcher, which shows
very clearly that he is looking to us for assis
tance. I will write him today advising him that
I have asked you to see what could be done. Of
course, he will come to see you, and you must
satisfy yourself very thoroughly as to his posi
tion. I hand you my check for one thousand dollars,
five hundred of which you can use at your dis
cretion in helping Hurt, and five hundred hold
in reserve, with which to help Hatcher. Of
course, if either of these men require further
assistance, and you are satisfied as to their posi
tion, we will have to arrange to help them
further.
I have written again to Mr. Bullitt, and hope
to have a satisfactory reply in a day or so, when
I will communicate with you.
Be sure to return me Mr. Hatcher's letter.
I Bhall be in Virginia during the week com
mencing October 19, and hope to see you. Yours
truly, (Signed) J. S. B. THOMPSON.
B. & O. CONTRIBUTED
Mr. Jones read another Thompson letter also
today. In the course of his speech he answered
tho statement given out by John S. Barbour
Thompson in New York upon his return from
Europe Saturday, he declared that the Thomp
son statement contradicts State Chairman Elly
son. He also challenged Senator Martin to ex
plain the Thompson letters, and' said the issue
now before the Virginia people is plainly one of
veracity and integrity between himself and Sena
tor Martin. Mr. Jones also denied that Virginia
was in any danger of being dominated by negroes
as a result of the legislative election of 1891.
Tho other Thompson letter Mr. Jones read is
as follows:
November . 23, 1891. (Personal): Mr
Charles R. Hooff, Cashier, First Nat'l. Bank,
0
DON'T REPEAT THE MISTAKE
VIRGINIANS
Editorial in Richmond (Virginia)
News-Leader: "Mr. Martin had shown
himself an able and aggressive defender
of the railroads; their friend; their sup
porter; their counsellor; so, when the
railroads secured a firm grip upon the
legislature, having paid the piper, they
called the tune, and Mr. Martin was
elected. He could not have thought that
he was elected by the people of Virginia;
he knew that he was unknown in many
counties. The railroads could not have
thought that he was elected for the honor
and welfare of the state, because they
overlooked Gen. Eppa Hunton, Gen. Fitz
hugh Lee, Hon. John Goode, Hon.
Holmes Conrad, Col. Archer Anderson,
Governor P. W. McKInney, all of whom
were candidates.
"At best Mr. Martin can only claim
that he was the unwilling recipient of,
honors thrust upon him by the railroads'
because he was a railroad friend.
"There is no need to call names, or to
hurl epithets, and equally is it unwise and
futile to deny the plain facts of 1891 and
1893 that Thomas S. Maftin was a rail-
road man, and as such was chosen and
elected by the railroads to represent
them."
Alexandria, Va. Dear Sir: Enclosed please find
check of Mr. W. H. Yams, treasurer, B. & R. R.
R., on tho Citizens' National Bank of Baltimore,
Md., for $2.00 which please place to my credit.
Kindly acknowledge receipt. Yours truly,
(Signed) J. S. B. THOMPSON.
NOT EQUAL TO EMERGENCY
In the course of his speech, Mr. Jones said
all the letters read show that Mr. Thompson
marshalled the forces of the railroads to Rich
mond and put Mr. Martin in command over
them In 1891. The speaker then added:
"Both Martin and Ellyson, in their desperate
efforts to extricate themselves from the meshes
into which these letters have thrown them, have
sought to create the impression that the work
set for them by Mr. Thompson was merely to
elect a democratic legislature in order to avert
negro domination and to preserve our Anglo
Saxon civilization, notwithstanding that each and
every one of the four letters were written twenty
days after the election had taken place, and ob
viously related to matters which it was appre
hended would come before the legislature.
"The 'cock-and-bull story manufactured for
the occasion is not equal to the emergency. No
sane man can believe that the representatives
of the four or more railroads contributing the
immense sums which went Into the hands of
Messrs. Thompson and Martin, to say nothing of
those which may have been received by the
chairman of the party, were employed for the
sole purpose of electing democratic members to
tho legislature.
HE ANSWERS WITH FIGURES
"It is a fact, I believe, that of tho one hundred
democratic nominees for tho house of delegates
of the general assembly of 1891-2, thirty-seven
had no opposition of any description and others
had no republican opposition. This means that
out of a house composed of 100 members it was
only necessary to defeat fourteen republican
candidates to give the democrats a clear majority
in that body.
"As to tho senate, tho case is even stronger.
Of the forty members of that body, twenty were
holdover senators and every one of them was a
democrat, so that the democrats had half of
that body before the election was hold. It is not
thinkable that this potent fact was unknown to
Messrs. Thompson and Martin and thoso for
whom they acted In at least four of the
twenty districts'-whero there wore elections there
was no republican or other opposition to tho
democratic candidates. One of these was my
own senatorial district where Col. R. J. Wash
ington received 3,855 votes as against less than
20 scattered among a half dozen persons who
were not candidates. -
"These facts demonstrate the utter absurdity
of the claim that the railroads suffered great
agony over any imaginary apprehension that the
republicans would capture the legislature of
Virginia and destroy our white supremacy. When
I tell you that the republicans and their allies
only elected two members of the house and one
member of the senate a grand total of three
out of 140 you will the better be able to appre
ciate the weight of the argument which it re
quired the skill and ability of three men of
acknowledged intelligence and astuteness to
frame.
OTHER EXPLANATIONS ANSWERED
"It has been asserted by some of Senator
Martin's special pleaders that the railroads could
have had no other purpose in making their large
contributions through Messrs. Thompson and
Martin that the preservation of our Anglo-Saxon
civilization, since they knew that the Kent bill,
having for its object the proper control and regu
lation' of railroad corporation, was unconstitu
tional, and therefore, perfectly harmless.
"This argument is merely in keeping with
the other pleas which have been entered in behalf
of Senator Martin. As a matter of fact, I am
informed that when the legislature of 1891-2
met, there was a majority of twenty-six in that
body favorable to the passage of the Kent bill.
It was testified in the Lee-Martin investigation
that Senator Martin declared that the railroads
controlled that legislature and that they would
have none of the Kent bill. At any rate, both
Mr. Thompson and Senator Martin, it is alleged,
spent the months of December and January in
Richmond and the Kent bill met its Waterloo
at the hands of the railroads."
MARTIN'S REPLY INADEQUATE
Mr. Jones then charged that Senator Martin
has not replied -to the letters in; a satisfactory
manner. In this connection and in reply to
John S. Barbour Thompson's explanation of the
letters, the speaker said:
"Senator Martin has not replied. It is not
possible for him to do so satisfactorily; but the
Virginia papers of yesterday contain a state
ment purporting to have been given out in New
York by Mr. J. S. Barbour Thompson bearing
upon the six now famous letters written by him.
This statement in part conforms closely to and
dovetails nicely into those made by Senator Mar
tin and Mr. Ellyson, but it throws no new light
upon the subject, and, standing alone as it does,
in no wise strengthens their denials In most
important particulars, however, it does not tally
with one statement which Mr. Ellyson has made.
"Mr. Thompson asserts that the claim that
these letters show that a 'yellow dog' fund had
been provided by the railroads and that Senator
Martin was one of the agents for the disburse
ment of it is false.
"Being asked, 'Who is intended by us' in his
letter-to General Logan, Mr. Thompson replied,
'I would construe us as meaning the railroads.'
HERE IS A CONTRADICTION
"Mr. Thompson's statement that the funds
contributed by the railroads 'were always dis
tributed in the aid of tho democratic party and
its candidates either directly by the state chair
man or, if any case the money did not physically
pass through his hands, it was disposed of for
democratic purposes in accordance with his
direction or authority, is directly in the teeth
of a statement made by Mr. Ellyson in a letter
written by him to Mr. C. V. Meredith on the 30th
of November, 1893, and introduced as evidence
in the Martin-Lee investigation. In that letter,
it is stated that 'it is unquestionably true that
he (Mr. Thompson) did distribute funds with
out my previous knowledge.' Mr. Thompson now
flatly contradicts this assertion. This raises a
question of veracity between those gentlemen
with which I have no personal concern; but I
do not hesitate to express the opinion that all
the evidence and circumstances surrounding this
subject indicate to my mind that Mr. Ellyson
did not depart very far from the truth when he
alleged that it was unquestionably true that Mr.
Thompson distributed funds without his previous
knowledge.
"Mr. Thompson denounces as false the claim
that the letters I have read to you show that a
yellow dog' fund had been provided by tho rail-
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