Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-11-19
o+'1 80 --s -e@Si 9llii-S i8l
NUMBER ss,XI....

merce he has established? Where are the IN
ventlons IN behalf of industrial advancements?
Where are his ploughs. reapers, his steamboats,,
his railroads, and his talking cables around the
/ earth? He challenges the supremacy Of the
white race. throughout one third of the boundo
aries of the Republic, and the Congress of the
United States awards it to him. = Let the negro
islands ofthe West Indies proclaim the fate of
| the South. nWithered, oblighted, and blasted,
its resources will speedily perish The white
man will be driven North, or remain to grapple
in the most appalling and sangninary war OF
races the world ever saw. The negro, free to
follow. his native impulses, win soon appear the
primitive barbarian, as we find him wherever
the sustaining and civilizing influences of the
white man have been withdrawn, or have never
reached him. Am | told that he has not had
an equal chance with the other races in the
grand career of history and hence the utter blank
where his achievements should have been re-
corded? He has had all the eaz1hs before him
where to choose from the beginning. No one
has had more. ALI fields of action, of wealth
and renown have been alike open to him. The
same teeming fields which excited the toll of
other races likewise invited him to amass agri-
cultural stores and contribute to the granaries of
the world. The rivers and the oceans the COM
mon highways Of the earth, have for all the ages
since creation invited his ships of commerce. and
invited them In vain. The same continents
which other races now possess were open for
him to discover, conquer, people, and adorn with
Christian civilization But no step forward has
he taken, no history has he written. There lies
Africa to- day, as dark, forbidding, and dense in
its barbarism as it was in the twilight morning
of the world Even the combined benevolent
efforts of all the civilized nations have failed to
inspire her with life or motion. Nor does the
experiment of Liberia relieve the sombre night
which there prevails. A half of a century of at
tempted self-goVernment, upheld by all the
Christian powers of the earth, has borne not
single fruit, nor developed single element of
national greatness Is the reason of all this q
mystery in the philosophy of God creation? -
Is the inequality OF races new wonder of the
nineteenth century? No more than that He
who made the sun in its majestic strength and
splendor made also the lesser lights which move
in their subordinate spheres through the realms
of space. No more than that He who made the
lion, made also the creeping mole. No more
than that He who made the eagle to scale the
blue empyFeaR, also made the moping owl to
inhabit the darkened grove. While the Saxon
the Celtic, the TeutonIc races have bounded for
ward on all the great avenues ofhuman progress,
the African, the Malay, the Mongolian, and all
the various tribes and kindreds which crowd the
sufocated plains of the almost ilimitable East
have slept through thousands of years in state
OF torpid lethargy. To us has been given do
mlnlon and power, because to our race was given
the ten talents. We have founded empires, and
engrafted on them the science of free govern
ment We wrought out Magma Charta, achieved
the writ of habeas corpus, and accomplished the
revolution of l776. We have carried the cross
into the wilderness, the desert, and the far off
islands of the sea. We have poured the sun
light of civilization into the dark parts. of the
earth, and caused art literature, and science to
flourish like the graces in immortal beauty
These are some of the achevementsof' that race
which Congress says shall give way to the rule
and supremacy of the lowest link in the chain
of human being. Does hate inspire this policy
as punishment to the people of the South p
Pause, my fellow-c citizens, and answer me-
Whose country is this? Who fought to preserve
the Southern States to the Union? Virginia is
your State and mine. The Carolinas are ours,
and all the rest. Our country is not divided by
sections 1t is all ours to protect and save from
ruin. Can we permit our most fertile and pro-
ductlve patrimony to be dragged to perdition
and the hopeless depths of a horrible barbarism?
This is the question for the North to consider.
Will we suffer our country to be changed into
the likeness of Dahomey? Shallthis black and
stagnant border encircle all our Southern bound
aries whereon shall be written for every white
man and woman: whoever enters this doeful
realm leaves hope behind Shall Virginia,
our close neighbor, become ST. Domingo,
Georgia a Jamaica, and Louisiana q Hayti p
This is no mere Southern question 1t is local
to yourinterests as we'll, and is supremely ma
tional in all its bearings. ask the people of
New York to night what they will do with these
ten States that belong equally to you as we'll as
to all other American citizens. Shall their mex
haustible productiveness go to decay? / might
here deal in statistics of their agricultural wealth
before the war. | might show the mighty rev.,
enues which, in prosperity, they can contribute
to the national Golfers. Can commerce give up
the produce Of Southern soil? Can our fnan-l
cial condition afford to let richer mines than
those of gold and precious stones lie barren and
idle? When the Radical insanity of the hour,
makes the negro the ruler of the South it strikes
vital blow at trade and commerce, and poisonsI
forever one of the sweetest and most 7copious,
fountains of national wealth. Even now, what,
value attaches there to property, and who will
send means there for investment, to be at the
mercy of the African w-maker The events
of the last few weeks have placed a gulf
between Northern capital and the inviting
and prolific fields of the South. We stand
aghast and recol with horror from the fearful
apparition which has suddenly arisen in that af-,
ficted region. 1t seems no longer our country,
but given over to the orgies of the savage, and
the dominion of animal force and brutal lust. -
Shall we reclaim it r. Shall this priceless heri-
tage remain to US and our children accordingto
the devise of our fathers? Shall it be open to
the emigration and enterprise of your posterity,
there to live under the blessings of free govern
ment and civilization These are the great and
momentous questions of the day, and they now
demand your answer. Who can doubt the pop
ular verdict on such an issue? Better for that
section of our once happy country that fire from
Heaven had engulphed it with the cities of the
Plain than the fate with which political mad
ness ambition and vengeance have overwhelmed
it. Reach forth your hands to the rescue next
Tuesday. Let your voice arise, mingling with
the voices of Connecticut, Maine, California,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania, until all the borders
of the Republic are filed with the sound of its
deliverance. Ladies and gentlemen, there are
other themes which invite discussion butthere
are many distinguished gentlemen here to dis
cuss them. have dwelt upon but one, and
that | conceive to be of supreme Importance
The Immediate future, to my eye, is enveloped
in darkness and uncertainty. The approaching
Congress will mark an eventful era in American
history. One department alone of the Govern
ment seeks to withstand the Radical carnival of
destruction. The castle of the Executive tho
closely besieged, has not yet been stormed and
sacked. The President in the midst of perils,
and surrounded by treachery and deception,
has been true to principle; and upon the lofty
ability, purity, and soundness of his state pa
pers, he will enter the portals of history as the
peer of the wisest and truest who ever held his
high place before him. If for this unyield-