Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-11-19

/ claims to the future confidence of the people,
Its position to-day, tried by the standard of its
i own deliberate and reiterated commitals and de-
clarations Of principle, is one Of wholesale per-
| fdy and universal betrayal ofpublicly plighted
faith. In the history of political parties thro'-
out the world, we search in vain for parallel
tolthe audacious and brazen wickedness with
which. the Radical party has. cheated and de-
| frauded the American people out of the just
/ fruits of victory and the hopes which peace in
1 spired. n adr sEoz9tpx EaD II ese aeae.
| The leaders of this party will stand guilty be-
fore the tribunal of truthful history Of obtaining
the money and the blood of the country under
false pretences. By their present policy the
soldier at Shiloh and the Wilderness gave his
lite In cause to him then unknown. He was
| willing to die for the policy OF constitutional
Union Of the States as then proclaimed. Could
| he leave his narrow and naneless bed and re-
visit the earth, and the light revisit his rayless
and darkened eyes, would he behold the flag in
Its ancient splendor, each star blazing in all its
original beauty, and harmonious and prospe-
rous Union under its protecting folds? Would
this blessed vision greet him as the purchase of
his precious life? | ask the soldier who escap
ed death, though perhaps with deep scars,
whether he fought for the triumph of the prin-
ciple OF secession The Union is not restored.
States are declared to be out of the Union, and
In process of horrible preparation for read
mission. What Southern power and courage
under the lead of Jefferson Davis, failed to do,
| Northern Radcallsm, under the lead OF Thad-
deus Stevens, has done. Lee and jackson,
Beauregard and johnson led their devoted fol
lowers through four years of perpetual carnage,
| In the vain attempt to wrest one single State
from the embrace Of the Federal Government,
Or tear one single star from the bright embla
zonry of our national colors. They surrendered
in despair on the enriched and redeemed fields
OF Virginia. Open warfare against the Union
was at an end The willy arts, however, OF the
crafty and ambitious Jacobin immediately fol
lowed, and we to-day confronted delivered
Union, and, instead Of the golden fruits of
peace, we are tasting Dead Sea apples, filled
with the bitter ashes Of disappointment. For
this wretched condition Of public affairs, for
this cruel tritllng with generous people blood
and treasure, for this systematic and cowardly
deception and gigantic talsehood, the voice of
condemnation is now arising against the Radi-
cal party, and will continue to arise and swell
In volume and wrath as the years roll on. 1t
comes from the lips of the living, and bursts
forth from the tonlbs of the dead, until the very
air is filed with righteous maledictions against
the betrayers OF the people Accusing spirits
start from every battlefield, and shrek into the
shrinking ears of Radical ianaticism, False,
feetlng, and perured - Time, too, will but
deepen this awful verdict. There is no oblivion
for such atrocious pertdy. The people were
promised bread, ana have received a stone
they were promised Union, and have receiv-
ed disunlonr; and they have arisen in judgment
But let US more closely inspect the plan which
Radical Congress has adopted to reconstruct,
as they allege, a discovered Union, and let US
grasp Its revolving details. Let us approach
and look the present policy Of Congress fully in
the face. Never before in all the wide realms
of history did the citizens of republic gaze up
on such spectacle In their own midst. In all
the tide OF time no other government calling It.
self tree ever before In period OF profound
peace subjected one-thlrd OF its territory and
eight millions OF It's inhabitants to the absolute
control OF the bayonet. Such appalling crimes
against civil liberty and the hopes of mankind
have hitherto been solely the handlWOrk OF the
execrated despotlsms OF the earth In our
school books we learned to mourn over the cruel
fortunes of Poland, and to flame with indlgna
tlon against her great barbarian executloner
the funeral and walling shadow OF murdered
Hungary convulsed this continent few short
years ago, and made the name of Austria hate
tul to the ears OF the civilized world; the per-
turbed spirit OF Irish liberty walks the earth at
all hours IN all It's distant four quarters, adding
every disciple OF freedom III every chime beneath
the sun to her train OF followers, and pointing
to England as the odious assassin of a people
entitled to be free but at our own doors, under
the folds OF our own flag, a vast and magnlh-
cent portion OF the American Republic lays this
hour III a condition beside which Poland, Hun
gary, and ireland are the radiant homes OF hap
py treemen-it lays there victim to needless,
vengetul, and renl0rselesS tyranny, beside which
the worst tyrannies of the old world are liberal
and respectable forms OF government. Instead
OF ten States existing In their original beauty
and strength, as our fathers made them, we
have incorporated into the same work OF the
American Republic five military districts, en-
tirely unknown to the Constitution, and utterly
inconsistent with the first and plalnest prlncl-
pies on which our Government was founded
Not vestige Of civil liberty remains beneath
the shadow of this stupendous usurpatlon.-
The great muniments OF freedom-those high
and adanlantine walls of personal security for
whose erection generations have toiled with
bloody sweat, have all perished under the de-
structlve and reasonable assaults of Congress.
The right to the writ ofhabeas corpus re-
splendent right of freemen, by which the hand
of unlawful power can alone be restra1ned-noW
lies dead, powerless, and despised on the very
battle plains where its enjoyment was secured
by the surrender Of CORVALLIS to Washington.
Trial by jury is a mockery, deluslon, and
snare at Eutaw Springs, the Cowpens, and
Gullford Court house. Over the sunken graves
of the Revolution standing army at the be-
hests of Congress controls elections and dictates
the use of the elective franchise at the mouth
of the cannon and with levelled muskets. Aye,
the Southern sky of the American heavens is
shrouded In black. Once it was filled with
stars more radiant and lovely than Arcturus,
Orion, or the PIelades Our fathers OF immor-
tai memory planted them there They burned
with the light of liberty regulated by law. But
they burn no more. Rayless and quenched,
they wander in a dark and trackless void. The
baleful wrath OF Radlcalism, coming up thick
and poisonous as the ''dunnest smoke OF hell,
has extlngushed one third of the constellation
of American glory Who will question the fl
deity OF this picture Who so bold as to deny
that Congress has overturned every Institution
of tree government in those regions now held
by military power? And who dares to say that
he finds warrant for this action in the Consti
tuition which an oath requires him to support?
But the stale and miserable answer to this ter
ribe accusation is, that the people of the South
have been in rebellion, and deserve no better at
the hands of victorious power. Does this TACT,
even if it were so, justify revolution usurpatlOn,
broken oaths and deliberate treason on the part
OF Congress? Admit that the South attempted
to revoutionize the Government and destroy It's
institutions, does that mitigate the crime OF the
North in completing what the South labored
for in vain? No. Nor can this destructive
and despotic policy be pursued with impunity
to the North itself. While it is only your neigh
| bOr who Is nrOstrate bv the WavSlde bruised