Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-12-31
To-day ends the old year-to-morrow begins

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again. To others more competent, and witt
higher right, we leave those moral teachings an
admonitions, which the occasion suggests. Tn,
faults. the follies and the misfortunes of the pas
belong to those whose business il is to offer TO
proof or consolation. The batter resolution
and brighter hopes of the future are for each I.
practice and indulge. as strength may be givei
him. Our task turns us to the contemplation o
subjects less inviting it may be, but not of les,
import to us and our posterity. Within the yea
which is ending, much has occurred to fasten th,
attention of those accustomed to watch the pro
gress and study the consequences Of political
events. Leaving out Of view the incidents them
selves, and looking to their effects, we have seen
almost a complete revolution in the objects, the
organization and the very names of parties
Never, since the government commenced, have
the elements Of danger and destruction given such
fearful evidence of increasing and widening in
fluence. within SO short a period. These may be
summed up under the heads Foreignism, Ro-
manism. and Abolitionism. In furtherance of,
or resistance to, these terrible agencies Of mis-
chief and ruin, parties are now organized. and
exerting all their power. On the one side arc
those who strive TO maintain party nscendancy,
end CRAFTY their own greed for place and power,
reckless of means, and regardless of tho cost to
the country while on the other are those who
yet cling TO the liberties and institutions that our
government from the malign and fatal Influences
that surround 1t. Sectionalism and foreipnism,
led on by dema yogues. are seeking TO tramplo
the constitution into the dust, and are stfaining
TO their Utmost tension the bonds by which the
union is held together. Men born in other lands,
and driven to this by oppression, want or crime
men utterly ignorant ofthe principles of our gov
eminent, and many of them wholly needless of
its fate, have banded together to constitute n
political power of themselves, to control our cleo
tons, direct our policy, aud make or break our
laws at their own pleasure. These men we have
seen caressed and bonofed by one of the parties
which have heretofore governed the country, un.
nj they have become insolent, revolutionary and
lawless-stopping not at frnud, or perjury, or even
mob violence to control elections. Another divis.
ion Of men, born, most of them. we blush to say, np.
on the soil that was sanotified by the footprints ana
the blood of the revolution. besotted with fnnati.
Clsm IL uTeu Will ine insane zeal oil mallnpii.
have waged an underwriting warfare of insult.
robbery, and aggression upon the Southern sec
lion of the oonfederacy until actual collision seem
ed inevitable, and we have, only within the present
month seen a catastrophe avoided in the distant
West, which would, in all human probability,
have deluged the land in gore. AT this very
time, growing out ofthe agencies to which we
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after a months trial, unable TO organize-and
presenting the spectacle to the world of cub
lican government at u halt. and almost resolved
into anarchy and chaos. Through the whole of
this troubled and ominous era, we have seen
posts OF public trust and honor dealt out AS
rewards to unrrincipled politicians and venal
fiatterers-ihf interests of the people sacrificed
to personal ambition, und the elections, instead
Of being the expression of the popular Judgment,
degenerated into mere scrambles for place and
plumber. No wonder that the true men of the
country, the enlightened, conservative, republi.
can spirits Of the land, should have become A.
harmed at the evil auguries of the times! No
wonder that a feeling of insecurity, of dread. al
most of despair should have seized upon the
"hh NoiiSNlthllbiS DUI ZION III
our people, and that they should have %determin.
ed to make one united effort to save the Repub.
lie! Like their sires of76 Ito use the language
of a contemporary, they have determined to save
their country from fast coming and irreparable
ruin; they met together in secret to avoid the re-
lentless prosecutions and calumnies of their op-
pressors, and they pledged their lives. their for
tunes. and their sacred honor, to bring back to
the Government those pure fundamental princi-
Piles upon which the Republic was first founded.
and to redress all existing evils. by giving the
administration of its affairs to the people, to the
native. born of the country, instead of TO u com.
bination Of factions, guided and controlled by the
mercenary influence efforeign masses. The sons
OF the soil every where became imbued with this
spirit OF true patriotism. 1t spread from breast
to breast, from man to man, until it burst upon
the country like a glorious illumination extending
over the whole land. The American party was
inauguratsd; strong in its nationality, bold in the
truth and justice of its principles and in the pa
triotism of its purposes. to the terror and dismay
Of the ruling factions and anprineipled political
tricksters. it stood revealed to the world a party
composed of native born patriots, who had sworn
upon the altar of their common country to form
II phalanx of brave hearts around the Union and
the Constitution, to protect them alike from do
mestic dissensions and from foreign corruption.
The people are tired of being ruled only by lea
.ders of factions. They shrink from the conse-
quences of a mere sectional issue. They have be-
come alarmed at the swaggering insolence of for
eignism, and they have determined that Ameri-
cans shall ruleAmerica, that the people themselves
shall once more be sovereign, and that all former
political distinctions shall be forgotten. all sec
tional mejudices shall be laid aside. that foreign