Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-12-18
A Word i'm Season.

A Word i'm Season.
Hon. Alex. II. Stephens, OF Georgia, in a re-
cent letter to friend in New York, says:
"Revoutions are much easier started than
controlled and the men who begin them, even
for the best purposes aud Objects, seldom end
them. The American Revolution of 1776 was
one of the few exceptions to this remark that
the history of the world furnishes. Human pas
sions are like the winds; when aroused they
sweep everything before them in their fury
The wise and the good who attempt to control
them will themselves most likely become the
victims. This has been the history OF the down.
fall of all Republics. The selfish, the ambitious,
and the bad will generally take the lead When
the moderate men who are patriotic have gone
as far as they think right and proper, and pro-
pose to reconstruct, then will be found class
below them, governed by no principle but per-
sonsl objects. who will be for pushing matters
further and further, until those who sowed the
wind will find that they have reaped the Whlrl-
wind.
"These are my serious apprehensions. Ihey
are founded upon the experience OF the world
and the philosophy of human nature, and no
wise man should condemn them. 10 tear down
and build up again are very different Things;
and before tearing down even q bad Govern
ment We should first see a good prospect tor
| building up better"
How strange that men should need to be re-
minded of truths SO simple
! Bad as our government in the Union and I'M
der the Constitution is represented to be, 1t VIII
hardly be denied that it might be worse. In
deed it would be difficult to find any large num-
Der of persons concurrng as to the propriety OF
any proposed amendment to it. True, the ire
tired political philosopher" has given it as his
opinion that any dozen gentlemen casually as
sembled in Virginia parlor GOULD readily frame
better; bnt it may well be doubted whether it
would not have been safer for him to assert their
ability to make Dozen. e., one piece
If any of our readers have fallen into the COM
mon error of supposing that it is an easy matter
to improve upon the Constitution of the United
States, they could hardly engage in more in
structive occupation than would be afforded by
making the attempt. They .would soon learn
some OF the philosophy taught by discreet pas
tor who, on being pressed by his flock to pray
for rain consented to dc so on condition that bis
people would first agree when they would have
it. The story goes that after the most earnest
efforts to fix time, the congregation fell back
ic despair upon the time already appointed, and
improve.
J Revolutions have generally been sprung SC
suddenly upon communities as to afford but lit
tie opportunity for preparation, even it the gov
ernments to be assailed had been uniformly toll
Grant of such preliminaries, and it has usually
been necessary to meet the demands of the occa
sion by what is called provisional government
These temporary structures are generally fount
wholly unequal to the vicissitudes of reyolution
i ary fortune, and the chance is that the Govern
ment under which people emerge from revo
f luton will be one to which their assent would
, never have been given in advance. This uncer
tainty as to the outcome of even successful rev
olution is one of the most persuasive induce
ments to shear the ills we suffer-"
In this favored land of ours, however, there
is no necessity to ''precipitate revolution" un
less the purpose is to use the passions of men te
mislead their judgments. If a just cause of rev.
olution exists, there is no occasion tor provisional
or other temporary or imperfect machinery fol
carrying it on. There is no need OF secresy OF
of any of those other resorts which tyranny haf
80 often forced upon incipient revolution. On
the contrary, the extraordinary spectacle which
is now being enacted, establishes that States
may avail themselves of the protection OF the
very government which they design to subvert
that they may openly plan and carry into effect
all of the preliminaries of revolution and may do
and say what they please short of Selling by
force upon the property of the United States
while the Government, other States, and the
American people, look on and discuss the whole
affair with the calmness and deliberation of
spectators at play.
Surely revolution was never so favored.
! The new and enlarged privileges which revo-
luton enjoys in our happy land must in the ma
ture of things devolve new duties and response
bilities, and among these we recognize as one of
the chief and most important that of devising in
advancement provisional or temporary gov
ernment-but one under which, in peace or in
war, for veal or for woe, the people would be
willing to live.
Let those who would form the South into q
new and separate Oonfederacy, suggest for con-
sideration some well matured plan of Govern
ment. Let them give to practical and prudent
people the opportunity to choose with delibera-
ton and with discretion between the present
system, with its known defects, and the new,
with all of it's promises. Such a course as this
would manifest a calm confidence not only in
the justice of their cause, but in the practicabity
of improving our condition by the revolution to
which they invite us. At present the whole af-
fair wears the appearance of being suggested
by passion, which fears the ''sober second
thought" and of being conducted without a
plan and without any of that elaboration and
foresight which marks high craftsmanship.
Coercion Applied to Virginia.
The application Of coercion to keep State in
the Union would be bad enough, but to coerce or
drag State out of the Union would be thou.
sand fold worse. Yet this latter is what the lit
tie bantam State-South Cardinals trying to
do with Virginia, the ssmother of States and of
Statesmen This attempt of pigmy to drag
a colossus would be egregiOuSly ridiculous, were