Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-05-08
EM the .Qnectnt0r

AW "se SPoSG1eVTs
Messrs. Editors The world has never seen
such canvass before as that now waging for
the judicial election in this circuit, or rather in
Augusta county, for it would be unjust to the
other counties of the circuit to impicate them
in the outrages of this canvass. Letters and
other communications from sll the other coun-
ties, express unmingled astonishment at the
state of things here, and give undoubted assu
rance that here alone, if any where, is a stand
to be made by the unsparing and unscrupulous
viifers of an old and faithful public servant
Amherst Nelson, Rockbridge and Bath wash
their hands Of the iniquity, and stand 10 solid
columns on the side of him, against whom in
an arduous public service of man thirty years.
they had heard no breath of blame, until the
stress and necessity of desperate and selfish
opposition, have, on the eve of struggle for his
office, attempted to impale him. Will Augusta
stand alone on the side of this sudden, this
trumped up effort to destroy an honest, faithful
and pure oticers Will even the numerous fam
lily connections of Mr.. Fultz in this county, sus-
tain him in such a course2 think not. / will
venture to vouch it. | think l know the peo-
pie of Augusta to be magnanimous, generous and
just. Proud of their own character, they know
how to appreciate its value to others, and will
not suffer one who had labored among them and
for them, blameless, for more than quarter of
century, to be overwhelmed with slander
sprung upon him for the first time-not by the
people, but by office hunters backed by anony-
nous and unknown scribblers. | think know
the highly respectable and influential connection
of Mr.. Fultz sufficiently to say of them. that
while as body, they would feel great kindness
and charity for their kinsman, they are not the
men, who in serving him, would be guilty of
gross injustice and cruelty to others. These
worthy men will also think, be prompted by
their delicacy to the conclusion that even in a
contest where no character was involved. no
bitter accusation threatening to crush lono
tried and long honored gentlemen, it would hard.
ly be fair for them to force npon their fellow
citizens as Judge, their own kinsman, who. if
endowed with natural feelings, could not avoid
that partiality for them, which would endanger
justice In controversies between them and ont
siders. l am we'll persuaded, therefore. that
those who calculate on this element of power IN
crush out good man, and have their worthless
slander circulated to his prejudice or rendered
current, reckon grievously without their host
Yet the interminable ''Junius'' and the mud
splashing ghost of the dead ssCountryman,,
write on. As the election draws nearer. and as
their charges are refuted, they pour in new ao-
cusations, until the man in the moon, if he were
to visit the earth for the first time, and light in
"Old Augusta" would be astonished how wis
dom and purity, aud truth and dignity" could
have slept till 'Junius" was born, and ''Oouptrv-
man" died-how the representatives of an in
telligent and free people even dared to elect so
idle and untaithful man as Judge Thompson
to the Bench-how, long afterwards, they ven
tured by unanimous resolution of the Lecisla
ture to bestow upon him the highest compli-
ment that any Judge of the State has ever ra.
celved-how the people themselves, immediately
after the olrth OF perfected freedom, under the
new constitution of 1852, which the inimtahls
"Junius" looks upon as afording the first and
only taste OF liberty and true dignity in America
how such people under such circumstances
could have stultitied themselves by electlnQ him
without opposition for the first term, though