Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-11-20
What's the Use of It?

of Congress are to be elected next Spring in
this State. Why elect them? There is no
earthly probability that they will be admitted
to seats and it is a useless not to say foolish,
consumption of time, to go through the forms
of an election. No members of Congress will
be admitted until after the next Presidential
election, and we are therefore decidedly OPP
posed to an election for such officers, until we
have some assurance that we are not dong a
cain thing" We went through the farce once.
Let us not enact it again. Lexington Gazette
and Banner.
We do not concur with the Gazette and Ban
ner in its decided opposition to the election of
Representatives to Congress, and do not con-
slider that such an election would be the enact
ment of farce, or the preparation Of "a
vain thing" and think that the Gazette and
Banner has expressed such sentiment without
due reflection To refuse to elect Representa-
tives to Congress would be to yield seeming as
sent to the theory of Thad. Stevens and other
extreme Radicals that the Southern States have
forfeited the rights and lost the character of
States-that they are outside the pale of the
Union, and have not the rights of States an the
Union.
greatest difficulty to restoration of the Union
consisted in the fact that the Constitution did
not provide for requiring the States to elect
Representatives to Congress, and he supposed
the citizens of the Southern States mightrefu
contumaciously to elect Representatives, and
thus practically prevent restoration of the
Union.
He favored an amendment of the constitu-
ton to remedy this difficulty Had the citizens
of the South acted as he apprehended, they
would have been to blame. AS it is, the want
of restoration is due to the Radicals in Congress
who refuse to admit the Representatives chosen
by the South. The whole blame now rests with
them-none attaches to the people of the South
The South is anxious, and has been since the
surrender of its armies, for an immediate and
thorough restoration of the Union on the basis
Of equal constitutional rights, and should do
nothing which could by any possibility, be con
strued as being inconsistent with this position.
If the conservatives of the South should fail to
elect Representatives, all may rest assured that
the Southern Radicals would not fail to elect
misrepresentation On the 4th Thursday in
May elections for members of Congress will be
held, and if the Conservatives or true Union
men will not vote the Radical disunionists will,
and the result will be that Radicals Southern
Radicals worse than Wendell Phillips-will be
elected Shall this burning shame be inflicted
upon Virginia No. Virginia, God bless her,
Virginia will do her duty. She will elect good,
sound, pure representative men. She will not
enact farce" but will perform solemn
duty.
The past session Of Congress, with the Rep
resentatives from the South excluded, was not,
in the meaning and intent of the Constitution,
Congress at all. Congress is composed of the
Senate and House of Representatives, and the
Constitution says that, 1.-THE Senate of the Uni
ted States shall be composed of two Senators
from each State, and that mo State shall be
deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate,
and that, 1.-THE House Of Representatives shall
be composed of members chosen every second
year by the people of the several States"
The President would be justified, Indeed, it
would seem, acting in compliance with his duty,
under his sworn official obligations of fidelity to
the Constitution in refusing to acknowledge
that body, with the Representatives from
portion of the States excluded. as a Constitas-
t'onat Congress. He may, in the circumstances
surrounding, feel it his duty to do so, and, to
make it a Congress in the Constitutional sense,
may call together the Representatives elect of
all the States. What would then be the sad
predicament of the South, if she had failed to
elect Representatives, or worse, if she had al
lowed the few Radicals in the South to elect
such as would represent them tits important
not only to have an election, but to elect the
right KIND OF men. 1t is no time for the peo-
pie of the South to be sleeping upon their posts
when the enemy are at her gates Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty