Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1850-03-04
COMMUNICATIONS.
FoR THE VINDIcATeR.

meet the issue so fairly and courleously rendered
them by the Card of DR.. Stribling, it is needless
to occupy your valuable space longer i'll discus
sion with so desperate a squad.
Ifany doubted before, it must be manifest to
all, now, that the object of this faction is net TO
elicit truth or attain Justice, but 10 agitate-not
to relieve the people from nntaithtul officers,
but to libel those " HON they know to be faith
full and then shrink back into The dark when the
only means of fair investigation are offered. A
trial before the Court of Directors is rejected, on
the allegation that that body is implicated in
the corruption and improperly charged. That
Court who are better known to the people than
their anonymous accusers, are, without distinc-
ton of persons, pronounced unworthy to sit up
on the affairs of the Institution. There is. then,
but one other legitimate tribunal left-the Leg
i%slature. But fhat is rejected, because the learn
ell s:Fox" says ''lhe province of the Legislature
:" is to carry cat the behests Of public opinion
< whenever public opinion has decided the cues
i" ton. then is the time for that body TO act.''
The Legislature, in the enlightened judgment Of
this second Daniel. is not competent to sit as
Judge, bet must be content with the humber
office of Hang,nan to The "Olapodites !w This
worthy should be united with the enterprising
Independence" in his work Of Reform. Be
tween them they would frame Il noble c%onstitu-
ton, the first article of which would provide that
whenever any citizen shall hereafter be Put on
his trial for any accusation, the said Vox and In
dependence shall be a self-constituted commit
tee to belabour him five or six weeks through
the columns OF the neutral Messenger, where
upon, if they report, as doubtless, they will,
that public opinion is against the culprlt, the
court and jury shall have the privilege, not OF
trying, but OF hanging him.
This simple provision will constitute their l-
liciary system, and will owe its paternity to the
illustrious "Vox Po7uli." But "lndependence''
is great on the Right Of Suffrage, and as he has
already pointed out with his "sharp sticko in his
first number on "Reform," (the fruit, no doubt,
of long & anxious cogitation on Popular Rights
he will insist spon it, as the second clause in the
fundamental law: That every man, though the
gray-headed father of a family-though the sue.
cessful cultivator Of hi. own farm-though he
has battled for his oountry's rights and become
old in sustaining the principles of liberty, shall
be kicked away from The polls, and with the
convicted felon, denied the right of voting, I'M
less he can read off IA chapter in Webster Spell
ing book to please the taste of these notable re-
formers. Oh what piping times we shall have
under the benign laws Of these modern Solons.
The Free School system will be i'll full bloom
the people will be taxed 10 the tune OF $4,000
r year and the commissions on that sum at 5 Or
6 per cent. will give ''aid and c~oulforto to sun
dry promising Superintendent of Schools. No
man will be allowed the management of his
W children in his own way, but the Common
wealth and the School Commissioners will take
possession of them, and when it comes 10 cleo
ton days, the criminals and those who cannot
read, viii be pat together into a bag and driven
from the Hastings. Has it never occurred to
these enlightened Legislators that
IA little learning is a dangerous thingfa
But ii is in vain 10 make suggestions to gentle
men so profound. Public opinion, they say, is
on their side, and "Vo1 Popult' uo1 Del is the
word. Well. We are told that the custody of
Roman liberty was once committed TO Geese,
and our Republic being SO much younger than
Rome, why should it net be entrusted to Goslinasi2
MIR. Editor, it would be cruel not to take
notice Of the bantling which Madam Voy
with a mothers fondness, has twice ex-
hibited at full length before the public gaze, and
which ''lndependence'' with a fathers pride,
has pronounced Incompatible. ! refer, OF course,
to the argument now twice printed at full length
in he nc,:tral Hiessenger-a production which
must have taxed 10 the uttermost the creative
powers of both father and mother, to say uothing
of The able Doctor who was present and assist
ing at its launching forth into the world-that
conclusive argument TO prove corruption and ia
vouritism on the Court OF Directors and Superin-
tendent. The argument was really so feeble,
and founded so entirely on the supposed igno-
rance ofthe public as to the plan and pollty Of
the %I.uuatic Asylum, that had it not been put
forth again with all the insolence and defiance
of triumph, I should have deemed it unworthy
of notice. 1t assumes as its groundwork that a
physician elected as an Assistant at the Luna
tic Asylum must undergo a p~upilage before he
is capable Of rendering service in his Office, and
therefore, that the best interests OF the lnstitu-
ton require his appointment to be permanent !
This being assumed as so, these "learned The
bans" draw their deduction that the late ap-
pointment of a gentleman to that Office, for only
one year, was a corrupt appropriation OF his sal
AIRY 10 private uses, without reserviug any G.
Equivalent to the State which pays the Salary
that 1t was equivalent to paying that gentleman
a sa lary for his tuition, instead of asking COM
pensation.
1t is always fair 10 presume, that those who
write for the edification of the public, are i'll
formed on the subjects they write about-and
yet here is a case in which it is necessary, Ell
Their to take for granted the profound ignorance
of the writer, Or to decide that he has Knowing
ly drawn false conclusions, deeply prejudicial to
the character and motives of honorable men.
This is an ugly dilemma-but on one Of its
horns "Vox Populi" and his hacker "Indepen-
dence" must hang.
Everybody knows, or should know, that the
Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum has been
entrusted by the Court of Directors, for years,
with the whole physical and moral treatment
OF the patients-that he is there every day and
all day, with a devotion to his charge which
has excited the highest commentator from all
but the Ola1od tribe-that his system for the
physical and moral treatment of the insane, are
subject alone to the supervision and sanction of
the Court, and that the Assistant Physicians are
entirely under the direction of the Superinten-
dent, placed there to act not on systems of their
own, but in obedience to instructions which he
is always there ready to give. Every good ply
sician isskilled in the treatment Of physical dis
eases, which, in %lunatics, are very much the
sam as in other people. He is also presumed
TO have studied the diseases of the mind to a
great extent. Ifa patient is sick he can admin
lister medicine, having the advantage, if neces-
sary, of the aid and direction of the Superinten-
dent. If a course ofmoral or mental Treatment
is to be adopted, his duty is to consultth Super
intendent, and follow implicitly his instructions;
,~t ~ ,~% -,-J a.-x.