The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1867-03-13
SOLDIER.
Common Sense.

below
SOLDIER.
Common Sense.
The Charlottesville Chronicle talkssen-
sibly in the following article, and comes
straight to the point. ''Have we learned
nothing from the events Of the past six
years? Are we still in doubt as to the
character of the men and the party who
are directing the present revolution p
Have We forgotten West Virginia, and
Missouri, and Tennessee, and Maryland ?
and the passage Of the Louisiana bill by
two thirds vote in the late House Of
Representatives, and the approval given
to that measure by Wm. Cullen Bryant
and Horace Greeley, two of the most hui
name philosophers at the North? That
bill was generally endorsed by the entire
| Republican press of the North. Do we
not know that those people are as cold
and as hard as the finland that they
will put their foot upon six millions of
noble race with as little reflection as a
man in his morning walk will tread on a
nest of ants?
Have they not already done the deed?
Have they not in one moment enamel
pated three millions Of slaves, many of
whom know not their right hand from
their left? And have they not in another
moment, by parliamentary edict, confer
red on this race with no qualification Of
intelligence or property, without requir-
ing even the payment Of taxes, universal
suffrage?
But we are to lean on the Supreme
Court! AS if the people of La Vendee
had appealed to the civil tribunals against
the National Convention: as if the old
blind king Of Hanover should appeal to
the Prussian Courts to give him back his
crown. The position Of Congress is, that
reconstruction is political, and not a
legal question-and the courts have moth
ing to do with it-that it is an extra con-
stitutional question; and whether their
view be sound or unsound, they will act
on it.
viii the President help US ? Can we
live on his veto messages?
Will the Northern Democracy help us?
They make capital exhortations to other
people to fight, and when whipped to en-
due:
But honor is involved brave South
ern soldier is captured after desperate
fight and carried in chains to Point Look
out: it is the depth of winter. and the
prisoner is sick and weary: he is shown
to his quarters an apartment with two
beds, one in one corner for negro, the
other in another corner for him. He
shudders but must honor make him lie
out in the cold? The sentinel gives him
his choice-with an animation that if he
makes much difficulty, the negro may be
put to sleep acitb him. Who is dishonor-
ed here-the soldier who takes WHAT is
offered him-or the prison authorities
who force this 7? If you are given the al
tentative Of being hung or shots there
any dishonor in making choice?
/ We think the Southern people have
done enough in the way of honor it is
time now to get bread to cat, and shelter,
and rest
But to return : is there any hope that
this radical wave will ever ebb, as did
the French Revolution in sense? will
not the country come to its senses after a
while ? Perhaps SO, and then-J ace are
not ruined IN the mean time-we can cor
rect anything that has gone wrong. We
certainly make nothing by making our
selves more uncomfortable in the interval
Losing our property and having the State
governed by Fred. Douglass will not put
us in better position for welcoming the
incoming of that happy day.
! The trouble of our people is that they
cannot accept the inevitable. If negro
suffrage is determined fact, why strug-
gle against the fat of God? When the
pitcher is broken at the fountain, why
protract ones tears? Is there not silver
lining to the blacklist cloud? Nay it not
be that We do not take in the whole of
this business May it not be that there
is blessing hid in all these thunders p
May it not be that our colored friends
Will continue to be our friends, and that
thousands of them will seek the assistance
of their sold masters in throwing their
votes? May it not be that the whites
here will control the colored vote without
serious difficulty? And in Virginia have
we not nearly two hundred thousand
more whites than blacks? And will not
the white population be constantly in
creasing, and the black a constantly de-
creasing, number? Will there not in a
few years be three or four millions of
whites in Virginia-the blacks proper
tionally diminished? Above all, may not
God be working in this matter, we know
not how, to evolve result that will be
gratifying when the work is complete?
One thing is certain, He has hand in
all that is going on. And if we do our
duty, there is prosperous furture for us
in the womb of these events that is bound
to come to the birth. We understand
that some persons have had their faith
weakened in God, because we lost the
Southern Confederacy. Their faith was
small: Shall not the Judge Of all the
earth do right?
CLOSE UP THE RANKs.-In this, the
crisis of our fate, let us stand together.
Let there be 40 wrangling, no impugning
Of motive, no want Of charity, no refusal
of justice. IF we differ. let us endeyor
to pursuade-neve to ridicule or intimi-
date and when action is determined CD,
let that determination be concession to