Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1867-07-09
IMPORTANT POLITICAL MOVE
MENT.

ture of public affairs, is regarded with the
deepest interest. Under these circumstances
the action of the citizens of Albemarle coun-
ty, Wa county where general intelligence
prevails-is Invested. with an importance
which does not attach to the action of ordi-
nary county meetings, in which speeches are
often made and resolutions adopted for the
mere qualification of SO called patriots, who
require periodical ventilation. This Abe
marie meeting is important because of its sim
gular conduct in seeking alliance with the
radical party-a party which Is responsible
for all the woes that have been inflicted upon
the South, and which nO4 holds her bound
to the car of military despOtiSm. What these
citizens of Albemarle hope to accomplish. by
their action, in the present crisis, it is im-
possible for US to discover, nor are we aware
of any grounds upon which their conduct eau
be defended. 1t is not a movement of those
republicans of the State, who by their treason
to the South, have made themselves odious
for time to come, and whose names will go
down to pOsterity, linked with the names of
Arnold and John Brown, but it is the action
of the people en- n,asse-ex-COnfederatesa and
Union MISUNDERSTANDING themselves at the
feet, and imploring favor of party which
has heaped every form of degradation upon
them.
We attach no blame to the people of Al
bemarle, or any other portion of the South,
!. PlisinclinatiOn to ally themselves with the
Northern democratic party at the present
me. There are reasons, good and sufi>
eient, based upon the action of that party du-
ing the war, why they should not. But is
ecessary that we should have any political
pee with any party in the North? We
( not, and it is therefore with deep re-
that We witness this precipitate and in>
Ate action Of the people Of one Of the
counties of Virginia. It gives the
tanCe of strong desire upon the part
OrtiOu of our Southern people to par
he in their own dishOnor, for the paltry
pensatiOn of restoration to a government
as now no existence save the tyrannical
party that has overthrown the Con-
and usurped all power conferred by
dac.instrument.
The actors in the Albemarle movement
have ignored the fact that the alliance which
they court is with party which is only held
together by the cohesive power of public
plumber" and that the Union to which they
seek restoration is Union sustained only by
the spoils which it affords to the dominant
party. No Union e3ists-no government
wields its power, that can ever command the
respect and confidence of those who reflect
upon the rights of society as guaranteed in
the form of government left as our inherit
ance by the men who framed the constitution,
and as adorned by the statesmen who upheld
it during the period of its early history. If
twas true in 1776, that ''all just governments
derive their power from the consent of the
governed" it is no less true to-day, and any
departure from this theory, saps the founda-
ton upon which our government has rested,
and crumbles the fabric in the dust This
departure We have witnessed in the action of
the radical party, which has fastened upon
ten States a military despotism, from which
they are only to be rescued through the doubt
full and dangerous channel of forced consent.
We regard it as fact then, that the radical
party is without the elements necessary to
continued existence, and that the forced
government which it is running, must inev-
itably fail, as the party which upholds it sinks
beneath the wave of popular Indignation
Any alliance with it by the people of the
South, only delays the day of its final disiu-
tegratiOn, and imparts but spasmodic influ-
ence upon its waning vitality. Let it alone,
and it will die of its own excuses, or like the
party in West Virginia, will accomplish its
own suicide by its insatiate thirst for plumber.
The Richmond Enquirer, generally dis
Greet in its political course, has the following
reference the Albemarle meetiuS:-
We publish with deep regret, certain pro-
ceedings of public meeting in Albemarle
county, of which an account also was sent by
telegraph to yesterdays Whiy. The politi-
cal movement which it announces is of calcu-
lation and not of conviction; of policy and
not of principle. Such expedients must in-
evitably fail. 1t Is impossible for the people
Of Virginia and the South sincerely to kiss
the hand that is ever shifting them 1t is
impossible for them to join fairly in the revo-
tiOn which is OverthrowiDg all constitutional
government, and reducing the political system
of the country into the mere arbitrary will
and pleasure of the Legislative department.
We could never gain credit for sincerity, if
We were to pretend to any such position.
Not only is this movement of calculation,
but it is characterization. The country is
surfeited Of Radical excuses. Every election
at the North for some time past, indicates
coming revolution in Northern opinion. Just
as the tide is thus turning-just as the North