The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-08-09
Public Sentiment in Virginia.

We have read with no little astonishment
the testimony before the Reconstruction Com
mittee of some of the Federal officers in Nir-
ginia concerning the sentiment of the people
of that State towards the General Government
and towards the people Of the North. If by
"the Government of the United States" these
officers mean the Radical majority in only one
of the departments of that Government: if by
the people of the North they mean only that
party in the North which seeks to degrade
and crush the South, then the military Off
GERS are undoubtedly right when they attri-
butte to Vnginians the most decided dislike
and aversion. But if the Executive and the
Supreme Court any portions of the Gov
eminent of the United States then they are
wrong, and 50 long as the Virginians mani
fest no hostility to two of the great depart
1nents of the Government, and, i'll fact, an
enthusiastic support of one of them, and their
hostility is only to dominant faction in the
third, we can conceive of nothing more I'M
Just than to accuse them of disloyalty and
hatred to "the Government Of the United
States. a .sHfa fH.f
The Nirgnians do not recognise Messrs.
Stevens and Summer as the government of
the United States" only members of one of
its branches, and their antipathy to these is
because that branch Of the government is not
organized in conformity with the Constitution,
and exerts its powers for the purposes of in
Justice and oppression. What other sent-
ments do they expect than dislike and animos-
{ ity, when for eight months they exert all
their ingenuity and power to Cypress and de-
grade the South, and to bring about state
of things which would involve it in war of
races, and deluge the whole land with blood
They must think that Southern human ma
ture is different from all other human nature;
that it is the nature of miserable spanieis, to
fawn upon the hand that lashes and torments
it, to give affection and confidence in exchange
for kicks and cuffs
Fair sir, you spit on III on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such day. another time
You called me--dog; and for these cour tesies,"
you expect love, respect and gratitude.
But Radical faction in the Congress of
the United States is not ''the Government"
There is still such Department, we suppose,
as the Executive, and we should have been
pleased to learn from the Federal officers in
Virginia, their opinion of the sentiments of
It's people towards the President They would
have had to testify that the most Hnbounded
enthusiasm and confidence are everywhere ex-
pressed towards the head of the nation, and
that if the majority in Congress had exhibited
towards the South the same spirit of eoncilia-
ton and justice, they would have enlisted the
sily ~ Love is tie olIsprng of
love; it is not born from the lOns of hatred
and persecution sat
But the most mischievous portion of this
military testimony is that which represents
the Southern people as indiscriminately hating
and despising all men of the North; and in
their PROSTATE condition, with their back to
the earth and their face to the sky looking
down upon the conquered Can any sensible
Northern man, whatever his prejudices, pos
sibly swallow such dose as that? 1t is like
ly enough that the South loathes and detests
men of the Phillips and Garrison stripe, and
The whole crew of negrophilists, who, not con-
tent with the abolition of slavery, would re-
duce them to territorial condition till they
have adopted negro suffrage, and whose ennis
saries are sowing broadcast the seeds of negro
instruction. But that any such feelings are
entertained towards that large body, nearly
half, OF the Northern people who have mani
tested at the polls their patriotic sentiments,
or, to that evident majority of the North who
have no sympathy whatever with the pur-
poses of a radical and fanatical section, is too
preposterous for grave denial. The publica-
don of such charges among the Northern peo-
passions against weak and PROSTATE people;
but we trust that their friends in the North
will never be led to believe that the South
confounds them for one moment with her enc
mics, or that she feels aught but the pro-
ioundcst gratitude and respect for their gen
erons, noble and heroic yndication of the
cause of the suffering and defenseless:
=.-----A---- o 4-----------.
Southern Feeling About the Riot
tia IN. Y. Times
Some of the dispatches which have been
published here, purpOrting to be from New
Orleans in the interest of the Conventionists
and the negro rioters, Rave represented the
Southern people as eXulting over the deplora-
bic occurrences TO those who knew the
origin of the disturbance, and the purposes of
the Conventional potters, the falsity of this
statement was apparent. The Southern mails,
since received, have brought positive evidence
of the baseness Of the libel, which was con-
cocted with the view of corroborating the ly-
ing versions of the riot, upon which journals
8 like the Tribune have traded during the past
week Irrespective of party, the New Or
leans press speaks with becoming moderation
and feeling of.the loss of life; and while ma
turally severe upon the Radical instigators of
the affair, they indulge in no i'll temper to-
ward the negroes. Outside of New Orleans,
the general feeling seems to be correctly ex-
pressed by the Mobile Advertiser, which SAYS:
'TWe deeply regret the whole affair--not
merely for Che blood spilled, but for the pre-
text it will probably afford for misrepresenta-
ton and further oppression of the South
The Pen Palsy