Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-04-24
The So-CaIled Union Party.

The Radicals affect the name of Union party.
AS an aarttul, but not unusual strategy, they as
sumo the name just at sthe moment that they
abandon N the policy indicated by it. What sort
OF Union are they in favor of? Not the Union
as 1t existed before the war; not the Union
contemplated by the Constitution. If in flavor
OF any union OF the Southern with the Northern
states, which we seriously doubt, it is union
Dased upon conditions not contained in that in
strument, and not recognized by the other two
coordinate branches of the Government. the
executive and the judiciary It is union based
upon conditions so manifestly repugnant to the
CONSTITUTION and common justice, to the rights
OF the States and the sentiments and tastes of
the people OF the South, that no President
from from WASHINGTON down to LINCOLN, would
IOr moment have given his sanction to them.
There IS not one Of our former Presidents who
similarly situated, would not have frowned, as
President JOHNSON does upon any attempt to
make such union, upon such conditions.
!hey talk about demonstrating the Union"
which, being interpreted, means that the North
ern States are to be left as they all along have
been left, to do as they choose with their do
nestle internal affairs, but that the Federal
power must be invoked to change, to reconstruct
the Southern States so as to assimilate them to
the tastes and interests of the inhabitants ofthe
Northern States. That is. the Northern peonle
must not only control their own State affairs,
and manage and monopoize the Federal Gov.
eminent, but must also determine the stains.
and regulate the domestic concerns of the sew
eral Southern States. Without regard to the
wishes, or CONSENT interests of the latter, the
former are to reconstruct, mould and shape
them as they shall think fit Until this is done
they are to be held as colonial dependencies.
When accomplished, they are, it is given out,
to be allowed to come into the Union as equal
States.'
Bad as these terms are we do not believe that
the Radical leaders would accord even them
They cannot, without driving off many of their
supporters proclaim before the world that they
are opposed, under any and all circumstances,
to the return OF the Southern States to the
Union. The masses of the North are too proud
of the Union ever to consent to it's permanent
disruption; nor would they long support any
party that advocated permanent separation
Hence these leaders hold out to them the idea
Of ultimate restoration, while, at every step
they take, they impose conditions that cripple
and humiliate the Southern States. The pres
ent generation of Radicals feel that between
them and the Southern people there is deep
guilt: The leaders all aspire to the Presidency
or Vice-Presidency. If they can maintain the
ascendancy of their party by excluding the
South from the Union, they hope to consum-
mate their ambitious projects Admitted to
representation in Congress, the whole Southern
strength would be added to the Conservative
vote admitted to suffrage, the whole Southern
vote would be cast against Radical Presidential
candidates. These leaders are, therefore, de-
termined to keep the South out of the Union
as long as possible. But, anticipating the time
when the Southern States mast be restored,
they are endeavoring to create conditions by
which the white vote Of the South will be neu-
tralized by the negro VOTE To Africanize the
South is to reconstruct it and to reconstruct it
is to obliterate every vestige of the States as
they stood ante belluna, SO that if w AsH1NGToN,
JEFFERSON, MADISON, MONROE and their great
contemporaries were permitted to revisit the
glimpses of the MOON they would not be able
to identify the State that they so fondly loved.
Rich Win