Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1866-11-08
sTHE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH,

tne natlon-acqut escence in the results that are
inevitable and lrrevisible. Why should they con-
tinue to KICK against the pricks %
Such is the language Of the radical pa
per published in Harrisonburg. We re-
Ter to it for the double purpose of giving
our readers an illustration of the degrading
influence Of republical principles upon a
few of the degenerate sons of the South,
and for the purpose of exposing the falsity
OF the charge contained in it against the
Southern people of disobedience to law.
What law do they resist?
We venture to say that history does not
furnish an example in which any people,
whose political and social relations were
SO suddenly and radically changed, have
submitted to the ssdecrees of fate'' with a
better grace than have the Southern peo-
pie. Their example, in this respect, ex-
hibited the noblest and Hottest fortitude,
resignation and patriotism. If the dolui-
nant party at the North had met the con-
quered and desolated South in the same
spirit of magnanimity and forbearance, we
should not to-day have to mourn over
dismemberel and distracted country.
We say the Southern people fought for
their rights under the constitution, and
when pverpowered by brute force and the
flaming torch of Sherman and Sheridan,
and pilaging of Butler, Hunter and Mil
roy, thy submitted to the mandates, not
only ofall the laws of Congress relative to
their altered condition, but to the procla-
mationof the President abolishing slavery
Nay, lore: they have passed all laws ne
cesar. for the protection of the negroes
libcratd by the proclamation.
If, aen, the Southern people have done
all tn; was required of them as conditions
preceent to the reorganization of their
respstive State Governments, what other
s'la,' would this sapient editor have them
ODE? All, we have the explanation,
beteen two portentous dashes, in the Sc
cor line of the above quotation sub
nssion to the expressed aciU Of the nation
--scqaaesce,ece in results that are ineyitable
td srreuisiUe." The new claw" then,
(which it is ''the plain duty Of the Sou
lern people" to yield obedience" is not
o be found On the national statute-book,
aor yet in proclamation of the President,
but in the expressed will Of the nation. ;"
Now, it is important to know rhat that
"wilP' is and hoao it has been 'sexpressed, ;"
that its mandates should be obeyed by the
Southern people
Our radical neighbor evidently means
that the Southern people should adopt the
constitutional amendment recommended
by the joint committee and adopted by
Congress at its last session, by which they
would choose between negro suffrage and
virtual disfranchisement for themselves. -
The "will of the nation" relative to this
abominable offspring of puritanic fanati-
cism. was expressed" first, by Congress,
secondly, by the Philadelphia Radical
Convention, of which the editor was a
member, and in which Fred. Douglass, and
John Minor Bolts, and Anna Dickinson,
and Brownlow, and others of that ilk, fgu-
ed conspicuously, and thirdly, at the late
elections at the North and West. This is
the Flaw" that we are required by the
radical editor at Harrisonburg and his IA
natical colaborers at the North to obes.
We deny that this proposed amendment
comes to the Southern people with the
force and obligation Of law" in the re-
hottest sense. On the contrary, it is per-
fectly legitimate for them to accept it or
reject it, at their option
We deny that the proposed amendment
is "the expressed will of the nation" until
it shall have been ia.iied by three ourths
of all the States constituting the nation. !"
The editor must know that this has not
yet been done; and until it shall be
SO adopted, and the South shall resist it
after it shall have been incorporated in the
constitution, it is supererogatory in the ed
itor to preach obedience to law" to the
South His pious concern for US might
be more properly and legtimately trans
ferred to his brethren at the North, who
seem to be utterly regardless of the law
and the peace and harmony of the country
when they stand in the way of the success
of their party.
If the Southern people constitute part
of 1.-THE nation" we deny that the late cleo
tions Indicate IFS sswilln rnlot;uo RI tbo