Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-08-01


to lay before you my views Of the situation,
and to do SO I must state the facts which
are essential to its comprehension. In my
Judgment, the Generalization of the Dem
ocratic party goes far towards explaining
the triumph of the radicals, and it goes
far towards explaining the disorganization
of that party to recall to your recollection
the anomalous condition of things I have
depicted-a party attempting to rally to
the support of an Administration whilst the
whole weight and influence of that Admi-
nistration are e1erted to destroy it.
Nothing but this unnatural antagonism
could have prevented the triumph of the
Conservative party. The 100000 De-
mocrats who voted for Mcclellan, headed
by the Administration, must have triumph
ed. Hoffman would have been elected last
fall if he had received McClellan's vote
tle was defeated simply by the demoraliza-
ton [ have sketched, and the least consid-
GRAFTON will enable you to understand how
all-suficient that was for the purpose.
1t was the cause Of Constitutional Liber-
ty for which the fight was made, and the
Democracy was conjured to come up to the
polls for that cause, and the great body of
them responded. But even those who
came did not respond as they would have
done had their hearts welled up towards
their leaders.
IF Gen. Grant had been put in charge
of the War Department, and thus associa-
ted with the Administration and admitted
to its councils, Radicalism would have per-
ished, and refrigeration would have been
long since accomplished. His magnanim-
GUS course at the surrender Of Lee; his re-
port to the President in 1865 on the con-
dition of the South; his avowed opposition
to negro suffrage and the military bill; his
good sense, good heart, and high courage;
give the best assurance that he would have
given the Pre@ident the best advice, and
his popularity would have given strength
to the Administration.
[ still have hopes the President will take
the counsels Of his real friends and obey
the voice Of the nation, by putting Gen.
Grant in charge Of the work Of reintegra-
ton. The Radicals. comprehending the
intrigues at which [ have glanced, have
sought by their reconstruction measures
to antagonist him to the President, giving
him power over the military commanders
in the South which belongs, by the Con-
stitution, to the President. He would
flank them completely if he would dismiss
the intriguers by whom he is surrounded
and give Grant, as Secretary, the authori-
ty by law which they seek to give him in
defiance of law. He could then defy the
impeachers, turn the popularity Of Grant
(Which the Radicals are seeking to use to
sustain them in overthrowing the Govern
ment) to its support, undo in one hour the
Radical labor of years to SOW distrust of
him in the minds of honest people, which
has no other just foundation than the fact
that he has retained men in power in
whose patriotism no one Of any party con-
fdes.
The programme Of the Radicals is plain:
They mean to command the Government
by military power and corruption. They
will set up Brownlow and Fletcher govern
ments in the ten States now excluded from
Congress. These, with the Brownlow and
Fletcher votes, will give them twelve States
in the electoral college, in virtue of their
military power, They count up
on the tariff and use of the public money
and party machinery to secure sufficient
number of northern States, which added
to the votes cast by Brownlow, Fletcher,
Sickles, Pope, Sheridan, and other militia
ry satraps, will give them the control of
the Government. The fimsy veil of ne
gro suffrage, pretended as a protection of
the ballot from "cbief traitors" under
which is concealed the naked sword with
which the twelve States are to be ruled, is
too transparent to require to be stripped off,
Old Thad Stevens, the real master spirit
Of Radicalisln, long ago declared that mean
whites could be got at the South to organ
ize and lead the negroes in the interest of
those controlling the Government for the
sake of the patronage and the pecuniary
advantages they would receive. For con-
trolling the negroes they look to the anita
gonism of races-the Frcedmen's Bureau
promise of confscated lands. There is
not feature in the whole Radical system
to redeem it from adherence. It is sys-
tenn Of the foulest corruption: relying al
together on the basest and most mercenary
motives to receive support. There are a
few sentimentalists who urge negro suffrage
from better motives-who are anxious to
have their votes counted, in the idea that
in that way only they can be elevated in
the scale Of humanity and escape slavery
who construe the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, not as Jefferson, it's author, and
those who adopted it construed it, to mean
that men Of the same nation were of right
equals among themselves and in their own
nation, bat as abolishing and confounding
nationalities, and establishing universal
citizenship; so that Hottentots, Cannibals,
Coolies. Indians, Africans, if born in our
midst, are born to the same rights of citi-
zenship with those Of us whose fathers ac-
quired the country and gave it its govern
mcnt and laws, although those persons SO
born in our midst are the descendants of
those brought here as slaves, and are by
their nature utterly incapable Of discharg-
ing the duties or bearing the burdens Incl