The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1867-04-03
A Virginia Soldiers opinion Of the Sen.
ate and its TraducerS.
BALTIMORE. Nd. March %. '67.

4HeSsrS. Editors In some OF your ex-
changes, you no doubt have seen it strong
~ intinated that certain Senators Of the
Virginia Assembly are about to resign, in
huenced to that action by what they in
sinuate to be the compromise Of imam
hood" by that body. Now, l an no poll
tician, and by the blessing Of God, never
will be; but when | see men from whose
mouths the word manhood" comes forth
tainted with the poison Of cowardice, dare
to take upon themselves to rebuke body
composed of the wisdom and chivalry Of
Virginia, the pen that otherwise would
never have INSCRIBED their names, becomes
animated with the desire to mete them
their merited rebuke. Men, whose ante
cedents considered, strangely enough, from
members Of the Virginia Assembly. essay
now to pass Judgment upon their nobler
colleagues; upon men who il they did not
during the war, carry arms in battle, at
least gave their hearty support in aid Of
our struggle, and better STILL do not labor
under the diseraceful charge Of national
duplicity. Men, who intrepid in the
knowledg e of unblenished Innocence, treat
with dignifed loathing the pratings Of
peaceful warriors. These are the sages
who may now expect the tongue lashings
OF fawning demagogues.
AudAcity sometimes reaches an eleya-
ton which draws from noble spirits un-
conscious praise Such is the feeling we
have When we read the atrocious sugges~
lions OF that abandoned old man in Con-
gress. With such emotions are our bo
sons stirred when we look back to the
scenes Of revolutionary yiolencein France
But the innate smallness of the men l
speak of. forever precludes them from the
possibility of thus ascending, and binds
them down to subyersve weapons, to car
ping and cavilling. Men who during the
war never snapped a cap, and who had an
unheard of aversion to our honored grey !;
who. like the Irishman worshipped the
Virgin one day and the Devil the next,
according as the fuctuating tide Of war
swept over their homes, thereby hoping
(and successfully to propltiate the con
sIitutHto tAuo tCnpCCtsSOiJ iCPi CSOueCu. "ho
| who were wont to ensconce themselves in
comfortable homes, with hearts at rest save
about their individual selves. now turn
nen, statesmen. acarriors, and lift their
puny voices in opposition to the action of
bold and wise majority.
| Before their twaddle should thus be
heard. let them remove the leprous stigma
| which attaches to their names. Let them
| first in peaceful pursuits. convince dissent
ing fellow citizens, that other causes than
those imputed, blotted their escutcheons
with what posterity will call cowardly tur-
pitude. Let the debt incurred by absence
from our bloody fields, be partially paid
by whole sou!ed co operation for the bcne
| fit Of our people.
Our law giving power is virtually dead
Let those aspiring champions Of ''manly
| resistance" with the motto de mortuis
nil nisi bonis" inscribed on their phylac-
terics, retire to their comfortable home
steads' and despised and rejected by their
acquaintance, at heart. let them brood
over their degradation, their selfforfeited
claim to unimpeachable courage, if ever
| hereafter to be received in the circle of
suffering patriots, to come, wiser and sad
der, better and Drawer men.
| Truly. &C.. r. B,