Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-02-12
Position and Trials of Conservatives.

In times of great sectional excitement how no
BILE and grandly sublime is the position of the
patriotic and horoic conservative who, discard
ing all sectional prejudices, embraces the WHOLE
country in the loving clasp of his affections, and
who pursues with bold and manly step the 'seven
tenor of his way unseduced by fattery and
unawed by opposition. His position is one
which sstries the souls of men, and which re-
uuires good degree of moral irmness to main
tain it with fidelity and persistency. He is
mariner who, taking the Constitution as his chart
and the Union as his polar star, tries to direct
the ship of State in the middle way of safety be-
tween the rocks OF Scyla on the one hand, and
the whirlpool of Charybdis on the other. He
keeps the prov of the noble vessel directed
straight towards the haven of peace, though the
hot sirocco blast of secession beat upon it from
the South or the furious storm of fanaticism as
sail it from the North. His patriotic purpose is
based upon a firm foundation, and, like the house
of the wise man built upon rock, it will stand
unmoved, though the rain descend and the floods
come, and the winds blow and beat upon it
His patriotism is broad, expansive and compre-
hensiye, and rises in moral sublimity far above
the vale of sectionalism obscured by the mists OF
passion and the fogs of prejudice. He scars far
above the conceptions of the contracted and big
oted sectionalist,
GAS some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread
Eternal sunshine settles on its head"
He occupies a position in which he may expect
to be assailed by extremists of both sections for
he pursues course which is Objectionable to
extremists wherever found. If his sentiments
are of the proper, healthy, national temperature.
they will be charged with being too hot by one
class of extremists and too cold by the other
If he lives in the South, his sentiments will be
denounced as too cold, partaking too much Of
the temperature Of the North, and if he lives in
the North the extremists of that section will
charge them with being entirely too hot, parta
king too much of the temperature of the South
In the former case, he will be mercilessly de-
nounced as Black Republican, false to his Sec
ton and in the latter case, ne will be secuted
as dough-faced pro-slavery man, cooperating
with the slave-breeders and slaye-drivers of the
South, and false to his section. Such is the fate
of such national and patriotic conservatives as
Fillmore, Cass, Everett, Dickinson, Winthrop.
Dauglas, Voorhees,, and others of the North, and
Rives, Millson, Crittenden, and others of the
South. If man be born, reared and educated
in the South, and own many slaves, if he be ma
tional and conservative, the extremists will say
that he cannot be trusted on the negro question
but a man who never owned a Negroes toe-nail
and never will, if he makes loud PROFESSIONS OF
devotion to the sspeculiar institution is classed
with those who are perfectly reliable and worthy
of the most unlimited confidence. These Sec
tional pharisees scowl with distrust upon the
patriotic conservative if they would say, stand
aside, we are holier than thou, and with sancti-
monlous hypocrisy thank their God that they are
not as the poor publican conservative. The con-
demnation of such extremists is the highest
praise. We would avoid their commentator as
we would the smallpox.