Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-05-28
Mongrel Magnanimity.

lfit is a blessed thing to be born an Ameri
can citizen, it must be glorious to have lived in
these days to mans estate and to have the hon
or of being member of the Republican party.
The beautiful humanities that dignity and
adorn the labors Of that party are finely ex-
emplifed in its missionary operations in the
Southern States. At first those operations
were restricted to what might not Improperly
be styled mendicant missions for supplies; but
the mendicacy was of that sort which was illus
trated some years ago in France-or was it Ger
many? by the old soldier by the wayside, who
presented his carbine from the bushes at the
passing traveller and demanded aims in the
name of GoD. There is limit, however, to
cotton bales, pianos, pictures, libraries of books,
communion services and even to spoons, and
when due conveyance had been made of
these, one might have supposed the victims
would be secure from further molestation. But
the party of moral ideas has creed Of its
own in matters of this kind Its generous in
stincts teach it that true chivalry consists in
first putting your adversary at your mercy, next
plundering him, then pummeling him whilst he
is down, and finally winding up by lecturing him
on the Nervousness of his offences and his du-
ties to the North
This is what the Radicals call magnanimity
1t Is not exactly that sort Of fmagnanimity which
everybody used to admire 1t does not indi-
cate manliness and high and fearless spirit
1t has no touch of the chivalric about it-no
coloring of romance. 1t does not carry us back
even in imagination, to the golden age when
knights Grant went wandering into far coun-
tries either to succor the oppressed, or in joy
Gus spirit of adventure to challenge all corners
to break lance for love of fair lady or honora-
BILE fame. The generosity and chivairy of the
Radicals are illustrated after an entirely differ
ent fashion Their ideals of knights errant are
Senators Wilson and Congressman Kelly
| They, too, have gone forth into lands, strange
indeed to them. Not to pleasant joust or tour
ney, but to stab by side blows Not to unloose,
but to bind. Not for the purpose of inculca-
ting generous sentiments, but to foment social
and political antagonisms. Not to rebuild
where they have aided to destroy, but to en-
courage further desolation. Not to heal up
half clcatriZed wounds, but to tear them open
afresh. Not to atone for past wrongs, but to
menace additional injuries. Not to counsel all
classes of the population to live in harmony
with each other and work together for the COM
mon good; but, like Cadmus Of old, to SOW
Dragons teeth among them, in the hope that,
by breeding dlssenslons between the races, they
may end eventually in a murderous outbreak,
and so give further excuse for holding the
white people under military rule indefinitely
1t is mission entirely worthy Of the party
which concocted it and of the missionaries who
have been delegated to carry out its plans.-
Those plans, too, are SO entirely phllanthroplc
and so completely unselfsh, that if the whites
will only consent to disfranchise themselves and
the blacks to accept the leadership of the Rad
icals and become as ductile as potter's clay in
their hands, we may then hope to see-but not
till then-such a happy family as was never
congregated together before outside the cage In
Barnum's Museum.
But to drop irony What ineffable mean
ness do these political missions disclose What
sheer cowardice To first hedge people about
with bayonets and then canvass for votes iii
their midst may be smart, but it is not the less
grossly disreputable. These Radical mission
aries well know they have the whole field to
themselves. They took good care of that be-
fore they ventured on their errand They
know, too, that if any prominent Southern man
ventured to reply to their insolent assumptions
Of superiority, to refute their doctrine or to hold
up to public scorn their manifold tergiversa-
tons, their treachery and perfdy he would be
instantly denounced as disloyal and contuma-
cious, and his frankness Of speech would be
used as an argument for the further oppression
Of himself and his people. To muzzle men and
then berate them-to tie their hands and then
challenge them to defend themselves be
just, may also be generous and chivalric in the
Radical sense Of those terms, but such things
are scarcely in accordance with those teachings
| to which we were once accustomed, or with the
sentiments of the civilized world outside the
limits of the United States.-Boh. Gazette.
|