The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-03-22

be filled by men selected by the Judge
of the circuit, who is himself an an
pointee Of the Governor, and who. when
Il candidate, was signally rejected by
the people. Must the people of that cir
cult be always governed by the pro-con-
suls YOU may send them? You took
them into the State without their con-
sent-if you govern you are bound to
pre- tcct them. Is it thus you govern a
people whom it is your duty to protect?
II you become the tyrants of others your
own liberty cannot be secure. The
same men who prosecute and Cypress
them, will prosecute and Cypress YOU, if
they can obtain the power to do so.
The great rebellion has been over
thrown. Those who We're engaged in it
arele our enemies, but the war is ended.
1T IS our duty now to support the policy
ct the President in restoring peace and
harmony to the land. Our own interests
require it. Shall we sacrifice the pros
perity of our State to the spirit of perse-
eutioh and revenge? We cannot prose-
cute and punish whole people for a
crime, however great the crime may he.
Though they may have been enemies.
Waging war against us, we must "hod
them as we hold the rest of mankind,
enemies in WARM peace, friends The
recent addresses Of President johnson
show the spirit which should govern us,
and it will be we'll for us, in setting aside
the counse)s of vindictive men, weapply
his principles in West Virginia. " If
you, and /, and Others" said the Presi-
dent in his address to the Baltimore
committee, {" have been employed for
four years in resisting separation of
the Union, and now have reached a
point when rebellion has ceased-if we
can be instrumental in conciliating and
bringing all the people back to an
honest, loyal and thorough support of
the Government, it seems to me that
we are doing a good deed, and accom-
plishing the work we undertook. 1t
happens sometimes in the best of fami-
lies, that there are differences and feuds,
but when the differences are understood
and arranged, and when the feuds sub
side, the parties can approach each other,
'feeling more kindly towards thos from
whom they had been estranged than
they did before.o We can never bring
back these people to a loyal support of
the Government by prosecuting them,
and the welfare Of our new State depends
upon allowing these feuds to subside in
West Virginia.
The radical and extreme party claim
to be the only Union men. And yet in
our own State, in Congress, and through
out the country, they are the only men
who are resisting the restoration of har-
mony and Union. Their devotion to
the Union consists constantly in prating
about rebels aid rebel sympathizers,
while they are indulging their own
spirit of vindictiveness and persecution.
They are continually repeating to us,
that the State Government ought be i'll
the hands of loyal men, and that they
themselves are the only loyal men; that
it should be in the hands of the friends
of the new Stale, and they are them
selves the only friends of the new State;
that disloyal men ought not to vote or
hold office, and that everybody who is
opposed to them is disloyal. By their
fruits, fellow-citizens, We shall know
them. Let them be judged by the
measures which they have adopted
Have they regarded the constitution
which they have sworn to support ?
Have they not violated the principles of
free republican government, and of natu-
raj right and justice, in the laws they
have enacted: Are their measures calcu-
lated to secure good government in West
Virginia, and promote the welfare and
prosperity of the State? If you can
answer these questions in their favor,
then give credit to the loud professions
they make. Their chieftain in theSenate
of the United States, Charles Sumner,
of Massachusetts, a man whose counsels
in the end have always been followed by
the radical party, has told us that long
probation will be needed before those
who were our enemies, can be admitted
to their former fellowship-that the
state of outlawry is their present con-
ditiOn, and that state must not be hastily
relaxed. Who can say" he asks,
" that thirty years will not be needed to
mature the conditions of permanent
peace? Who can say that Il generation
must not elapse before the rebel COM
munities have been SO far changed so as
to become safe associates in a common
government ?" 1t is manifest that Mr..
sumner does not contemplate the resto-
ration of the Union in our day and
generation, if he can prevent it. The
principles he has thus announced are
the same upon which the radical party
in this State have been acting. They,
too, tell us that the state of outlaWry is
the proper condition of those who once
Il