U.S. Senate Speech by William Mahone

The published text of a speech delivered in the U.S. Senate by William Mahone on March 28, 1881, is titled, "Attitude of the Readjusters of Virginia Concerning the State Debt, Free Schools, a Free Ballot, and a Fair Count." Mahone began serving as U.S. senator from Virginia in March 1881 as the leading voice of that state's Readjuster Party. The new party, an unlikely coalition of poor whites and African Americans, wanted to "readjust," or repudiate, a portion of the state debt in order to restore social services such as free public education.