Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-01-02
Eloquent Tribute to the South.


Some very able articles, signed ssNIadison,
have recently appeared in the National Inteleigen
Ger in advocacy of the restoration policy of Presi
dent Johnson, and in favor Of the admission Of the
Southern Representatives into Congress. We
publish below the conclusion of the 9Th and last
number, and know that it will touch the hearts
of our readers as it did our own:
s.Far away in the South there lies beautiful
land, warmed by glowing suns, and famed by
cooling breezes from the sea- Its soil is fertile,
it's air is pure, and its productions rich and va
ried as those of the tropics. The bravery Of it's
sons has become proverbial, and its daughters,
fair as the danes of Caucasus, virtuous as
they are fair. This glowing cline has borne its
full part in all the perils of the country and con-
trbuted its full share of glory and Of fame to the
nation. It's heroic dead lie buried on all the bat
tie fields of the Republic. The fiery genius of its
sons has added to the parliamentary and forensic
glory of the land. It's morals, like its intellect,
are vigorous in type. It's social life is pure
Over this fair and abounding cline, in evil
hour the fell spirit of sectional diseord brought
| the sweep Of the hurricane breath or war. The
earthquake jar of contending hosts shook its hills
and it's plains ran red with the blood ofits saugb-
tered people. After the desolation had spread
far and near, the plague Of war was stayed. Its
smoke lifted from the battlefe of the strife,
and it was seen that the fair and fruitful land
which, four years BEFORE had entered the arena
Of the Conflict almost paradise OF logeliness and
plenty, was no more. There stood in its place a
charred and desolate land--a land riyen by the
bolts Of war, drenched in blood, and filed with
| dead mems bones. Myriads Of it's noblest sons
| had gone down to the red burial Of the brave on
the battle-fieds Of the strife, perished by the
varied casualties of war. Widowhood and orphan
age filed its habitations In every household
ccrloo boor iaf e., ol
blight had fallen upon all lis material interests
| and pursuits. It's fields were desolate its villa
! ges waste its proudesL cities in chains. al but
| the fragments of its wealth, the virtues Of its
| women, and the heroic resolve Of its men to bear
and to conquer an adverse fate, had perish ed
To this sorrowing and stricken land there came
| from benignant Government voices Of encourage
ment and words of cheer It's people were invi-
| ted to political resuscitation under new order
of things, and to seats III the family circle of the
| nation. Accepting the summons, they have beat
en- their swords into ploughshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. To every requistion Of the
Government they have yielded full and unre
served obedience. Acquiescing in all the results
of the war as final and conclusive upon them both
in honor and in fact, they have ratified the stern
est issues Of the struggle by pulling down their
social and industrial fabric, and laying its corner
stone the foundation Of Il new, and, to them,
an untried poity. They have modified their or
ganic laws and belred to modify the organic law
OF the nation, adapting them to the new order of
| things. They know no other purpose, they cher
| ish no other resolve than to be true ID their
plighted word with the nation, and henoeforlh
| loyal to it's flag and obedient 30 its laws. That
| their former relations with the Union of their
fathers might be restored, they have III c0mpli-
ance with express invitation from the national
authorities, reorganized their State governments
| and chosen representatives to both branches of
| orf
in this city. More of them were present in the
Capitol halls on the day the Congress opened its
session. They stood and knocked at the door CT
the family mansion Of the Republic, demanding,
as their family birthrigbt, admission to its fire
side and participation in the hospitaties Of its
board. The door has been shut in their faces
With a grief too deep for tears many Of them have
already gone, and soon all of them viii go back
to their wronged and trampled people to tell them
the tale Of the scornful rejection of the proered
hand Of family reunion. Upon the heart Of that
people, brave and noble as they are. will descend
a sorrow too deep for utterance- for their
desolate homes, sorrow for thei, waste,; land,
given over again, and for how long they are una
bic to know, to the ravages Of peace that is war
III all but the name. But their grief will be ac-
companied by no unmanly repinings. From it
there will spring no revolt in their outward alla.
glance, no appeal to the sword as the arenger Of
their wrong Their purpose III that regard is
nominated in the bond' Of their honor, and
that bond they will keep inYiolate for ever. But
| from the agents who merely holds the keys and
occupy By permission the family mansion Of the
nation, they will appeal to the principals of these
agents, to the real owners of the mansion-the
people, the whole people Of the United States Of
America. The decision which they will render
IN the case may be collected even now from their
antecedents and character. It comes in the pro-
phetic utterances Of the popular wish, which
| itv f,, nj ~, =
land. 1t is sylabled in voices from the pulpit and
the hustings. 1t is heraided by that portion of
| the press that is conservative in character and
national in spirit. It's solemn tones echo even
now along the Capitol Halls of the nation, thun-
dering in the ears of the representatives of the
people, if they would but hear them, the manda-
| tory words that the children of the national
household, erring even though they may have
been, but now reconciled and forgiven, must not
be shut out from the freside and the hosptalities
of the common family mansion.
! If, in obedience to this yet unpronounced but
sure-coming decision of the American people, or
upon the justice and the right of the case itself,
the doors Of that mansion shall yet be opened to
the representa- tives and the people Of the South,
it requires vision of the prophet to foresee that
a new era Of progress and good feeling will soon
begin to run its golden cycles in these occ dental
climes. From the summit Of the national Ararat,
on which the ark Of the Constitution, freighted
With the precious interests of the country, rested
on the subsistence of the bloody deluge of war,
reconoiled and mighty people will come down
and fiji all the borders of the land with the hum
Of industry and the activities of a busy and pros
porous national life. Arts and sciences will -four
ish under the patronage Of extended appreciat on
and abundant rewards. A thriving commerce
Will Whlten every with its canvass and visit
every port with its exchangeable values. Re-
vived manufactures and resuscitated agriculture
will pour ceaseless tide Of wealth into the lap
Of the nation. The of the North and the
men of the South, standing beneath the folds of
the same starry flag, will vindicate its honor and
maintain its supremacy every land and every
sea of the habtable globe. A nation, mightier
and more prosperous than any the sun looks
down on in its circuit through the heavens, will
I'LL the earth with the renown of its arts and its
arms, and prove, by the stability of order, the