Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-04-24
Iron the Examiner. |

One tear dropped by the North over the grave
of SToNEwALL JACKSON would do more to con-
| quer the Southern heart than sea of blood and
a thousand gibbets One spark of genuine feel
ing, manifested towards a crushed and suffering
people, would more effectually secure their 10y
atty than a garrison in every Southern house
hold. Sympathy kindness, the consolation oil
| friends and brothers, are what we need to win
us back. We have been mourning in unspeak-
| able anguish over ruined hopes and broken for
| tunes. Have the sanctity and the dignity Of
our grief and suffering been respected? Will ii
win us to heap odlum upon our lost cause,
Or to withhold that honour due to our dead he
roes which all the rest of Christendom has cla-
mourously accorded? Are we to be made good
and loyal citizens by branding alike the living
and the dead with such terms as treason" and
rebellion? Will the world sustain him who
shall write traitor upon the tomb of Jackson
Or Albert Sidney Johnston? Who will violate
the common sentiment of mankind by such an
act? We believe there is not a man at the
North who would do so, unless he be crazed in
intellect and rotten in heart
We will tell the North how to grapple us ia
them with bands stronger than hooks of steel ;
how to cement this Union till its adamantine
foundations shall defy commissions and the hand
OF time. 1t Is to honour the dead and ziriao
0dcocdtes OF that lost cause, which we mourn
over with grief not inconsistent or incompati-
BILE with our loyalty to the Federal Government.
Like widowed wife, who has married the Sec
ond time, the South can still cherish in her
memory, as sacred sorrow, the recollections of
her buried love, while she fllfills every VOW and
obligation to her second spouse. But if the
second husband hurls abuse and damnation at
the grave and memory of the first, will he be
likely to gain the love of his wife, or to recon-
mend himself to the respect and good oninion
of the world? Scarcely.
Let us further Illustrate SupDose q resolu-
ton like the following should appear in to-mor-
row mornings papers-what would be its eff.
feet? ~ ~
"Resolred, By the Senate and House of Rep-
,',resentatires Of the United States, in Gonqress
assembled, That the sum of - thousand
dollars be appropriated to erect a suitable
monument over the grave of Thomas J. Jack
'sple of these United States and their represen-
'''tatives for his virtues as Christian. his va
''lour as soldier, his purity as a patriot and
his fame as great warrior"
What, think you, would be the effect of such
resolution? Why, an act of that magnani-
nifty and sublime generosity would thrill the
heart OF the South with grateful and loyal emo
tons, and would command the unqualified ad-
miration Of this and all future ages 1t would
cover Congress with glory which it can never
achieve while vindictiye radicalism urges it to
continue ignobly in striking fallen, PROSTATE
foe. Oh, that the wisdom, virtue and patriot
ism of the North would soar to the height of
this great argument, and gaze beyond the clouds
and barriers which hate and faction have inter-
posed between our people, IF the immortal
spirits of the good and great men who built this
Union in all its pride and strength can now look
down from their abodes and see, alas how
changed their work-how torn and mutilated |!
what must be their grief and sorrow? May
not the spirit odfGeorge Washington be grieving
over the fate of his Virginia, and the eloquent
soul Of Patrick Henry at this moment be pour
ing out itself to Omnip otence in a fervent pray
er for the bleeding land of his nativity.