Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-09-24
Reaction I!


our hands more than passing notice The
wall of the distant pibrochs of the regiments of
Highlanders who were hurried, by forced
marches over arid sands and through pestilen-
tial jungles, to the relief of Lucknow, brought
no keener thrill of joy to the despairing hearts
Of the English garrison of the beseiged city,
than has the news from California to every pa
triot of this torn and distracted land
despite the earnest protestations of the
Northern Radicals, and of their demoralized
Southern allies and parasites, Conservative men
everywhere feel that upon the distant hills and
valleys of California the cloud has at last re-
vealed its silver lining and that from the golden
sands of the Pacific the tide of Radicalism is
ebbing never to return. The overwhelming de-
feat of the enemies of the Constitution in that
State cannot be explained away, nor its force
broken by Misrepresentation. 1t was no doubt
full or undecided victory, leaving broad mar
gin for future hope of Radical successes. In a
have been broken and their standard bearers
and leaders put to the sword. Smitten like the
proud, boastful and ungodly Assyrians, not
candidate for an important Office seems to have
been left to tell the tale Of the massacre. All
the heads of the hydra have been Topped off,
Candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
Congressmen, and State officers of all sorts,
from Attorney General to keeper of the Luna
tic Asylum, have been hurried off to Hades by
a lightning express train, which scarcely af
forded the dear departed time to announce
their coming by telegraph
''This splendid victory does not work a mere
accidental reverse in the fall campaign of Con
servatism against Radical diabolicalism 1t is
rout which means revolution of public senti-
ment the first sweep of great tornado which
all OF us felt would one day or other overwhelm
the monstrous despotism which sits enthroned
by rump Congress at Washington. No one
believed that cruel and remorseess faction
would be permitted by Providence to throttle
this great nation. No one thought that solid
and enduring political power could be built up
on the vllest passions of mob infuriated by
four long years Of civil war All knew, that
like all other revolutionary organizations, the
Radical party was noxious political weed,
rank, vile and poisonous, rapid in growth, but
destined to be speedily bighted and wited by
the frost of public indignation.
The people Of California form social, NOR
al and political mosaic which more fully than
any other reflects the intelligent public senti-
ment OF every section Of the Union. To It's
hardy, practical and energetic population every
State has contributed; the North, however, as
matter of course, being far more largely rep
resented than the South. Carefully noting the
most disastrous and prostrating effects of Rad
lcal madness upon the nation, this representa-
tive State has struck the first blow for the sal
h.,o Al IL. a1
filled the defeated party with terror, and re-
sounded from Maine to Walrussia. d Is
1.-The lawless desperadoes of the present Con-
gress now see that their position cannot long be
made tenable by any species of desperate legis-
latlon Public sentiment begins to act upon it,
as the rays OF the sun do upon the iceberg which
has drifted from its Arctic home into the Gulf
Stream. Connecticut, Kentucky and Califor-
MIA, States but yesterday deemed Radical have
broken their hideous idols to pieces and re-
turned to the faith of the Union and the Con-
stitution.
'The desperate expedient of Rump Con-
gress crushing a free people by merciess legis-
latlon, and by the exclusion by force of Conser-
vatlve Representatives, cannot long avail the
consprators. The moment the fact becomes
well established that the public sentiment of
the country does not sustain party which has
abored to annihilate civil liberty, Congress will
go by the board as speedily as that corrupt
Parliament went, which the bayonets of Crom-
well thrust into the streets of London. Let the
victory in California be followed by other great
signs of returning reason at the North, and the
whole of the diabolical machinery of the Radi-
cal party for our ensavement and the conver-
sion of the South into a vast Hayti of negro
power and license becomes as harmless as one
of the old instruments of torture which once
made the Inquisition the terror of the hereto.
I'VE give point and emphasis to the crush
ing defeat Of the Radical party in California,
because we would again admonish the South
ern people against corporation with that par
ty in any form and shape. We believe the
days OF the monster are numbered, and we do
not wish to see the South polluted by the dy-
ing touch of the wicked party which has sought
to dishonor and utterly degrade us.
I'VE believe the time is not far distant, and
we utter our convictions with prophetic faith
when the unhappy men and misguided journals
at the South who have cOunselled us to affiliate
with the vile men who have stripped US of all
the rights of q free people, will find the memory
of their detection and weakness a source of
more acute torture than the shirt of Nessus.-
We have no more doubt of the ultimate fate of
| these evil advisers than we have of our own ex-
istence. Repulsed and defeated in their prof
fers of political afiliation with the negroes, they
VIII Hue HO IGStii4S k)idCC VI COUutCuduCO kIOui
| the race which they deliberately deserted
They will be pointed at as the men who, at a
time of terrible peril to their section, sought to
embrace the enemies of the South, and who,
when Radicalsm sought to make the white
man the helot OF the negro, were clamorous for
| political fraternlzation with the enfranchised
| black. They will be pointed at, detested and
| Stunned as living illustrations that when the
| supremacy of the Caucasian race was threat
| ened, they were exceptions to the rule that
! blood is thicker than water. When the
States of the South, after long and terrible ag-
ony, return to their places in the Union, with
| honor unsullied and fame as radiant as that
of much-enduring and heroic Hungary, the
most vigiant watch and guard OF those inter-
ested in the prevention OF suicide will be found
necessary in the care of many of these unfortu-
mates. There will be upon the part of these
people tendency to the voluntary use of the
halter, the pistol and the razor, as relleffro m
the burdens of life which we fear the utmost
vigilance will not altogether prevent.
Riches are not easily acquired, and when ac-
auired, are, with extreme care, preserved; but
when death comes they are gone Be not there
| fore too anxious for wealth. The poisonous
tree of this world bears two fruits of exquisite
savor poetry, sweet as nectar, and the society
of the good.
| The vicious, notwithstanding the sweetness
of their words, and the honey of their tongues,
have whole storehouse of poison within their
hearts.