Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-02-08
FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 5, 1861.

appointment Of What was miscalled, the g Re-
construction Committed Of Congress, has
hitherto driven the nation further and fur
shcr from the prospect of quiet and concilia-
submitted by that Committee to the country,
every movement Of theirs has tended, if it
was not designed to widen the breach be-
tween the North and South, and render final
reconstruction more hopeless to foment Sec
tional discord, and especially to intensity the
already cmbittered feelings Of the Northern
people, against the crushed and desolatcd
South. Both Houses of Congress seem to
have placed themselves under the leadership
of men, such as Sumner and Stevens, whose
private griefs, and not The public interest,
had rendered furious, and entirely un-
suited for calm and patriotic statesman
ship Thus has the example inaugurated by
President Lincoln, and attempted to be car
ricd out by President johnson, been frustra-
ted. Thus have the Southern States, eager
to return to the Union, for the attempt to
withdraw from which, they had been 50 ter
ribly chastised, been driven back from the
door Of Congress, and compelled by Northern
power into secession. Why should these
things be so? Cumbcred, as we are, by an
enormous public debt, is it not the manifest
interest of the whole nation, that her resour-
ccs should be fostered, Nortls and South
that the industry Of all her citizens should be
encouraged and stimulated to the uttermost,
instead Of being crippled by petty malignty,
in order that our great Indebtedness shall be
discharged at the earliest period, and with the
least oppression upon ali !? What blessing
it would be at this time to the Northern peo-
pie, if the great resources Of the South, in
stead of being sacrificed to an unworthy ha-
tired, and dissipated by that continual turmoil
and incertitude, which the present unsettled
condition of things produces, we're, by a
grand and statesmanlike policy, brought in
to help them in the payment Of national
debts--if every farm and plantation and work
shop South of Mason and Dixon's line were
animated by calm and hopeful and energetic
industry instead of being paralyzed, as they
are, by terrible fears of change and of ruin
to be brought about by the vindctive policy
of the Radica! party?
A 10 oloco &c III IL, 49,. 4Iyo ut IL
South was utterly exhausted, both in men
and means, disappointed in the movement
she had attempted, and disheartened in eve
ry way. She sought the old Union almost
with ayidity, as refuge and place Of rest
from her troubles, and had she been met in
a kind and friendly spirit by her Northern
brethren-had her conqueress manifested by
their conduct, what they had all along pre-
viously profcsscd, that the whole object of
the war had been to save the Union from dis
solution-had the policy of Abraham Lin
coin, Andrew johnson, Gen. Grant, &C.,
been fostered and co-operatcd in by Con-
gress-thc Union would this day have been
indissolublc, and such generosity on the
part of our conquerors, would have bound
the hearts of the Southern and Northern peo-
plo together with feelings almost of brother
ly love, which have never existed before
since the glorious days Of the first revolution
The readiness and unaninity with which the
South surrendered the great cause of our
quarrel-African Slavery-the great efforts
she has made in her extreme poverty, to pay
the heavy federal taxes-her ready suhmis-
sion to everything that has been required Of
her, short Of degradation, proves the SINGER
ity of her desire for Reconstruction. What
glorious nation this then would have been
AL cause of jealousy and quarrel removed,
the people every where in the full enjoyment
Of freedom and equal rights, united in the
bonds Of mutual prosperous and hap
py. What an example would they have set
to the other nations Of the earth, of the sta
biiity Of Republican government! What a
terror to our enemies abroad
We of the South appeal to the honest and
yirtuous masses of the North to come to our
aid, and arrest the wild career of partizan
passion and hatred, which seems to bear
sway in Washington. We appeal to their
ancient aHections-to the kindred blood that
flows il their veins, and the many bonds of
common interest that should bind us togeth-
er. We appeal to their magnanimity, as
brave conquerors dealing with a brave but
PROSTATE foe. We appeal to their self-inter-
est. We must be one people. However
divided by feuds and factions, our interests,
our laws must be the same There is no
longer any difference in our insttutions-all
the presidents made to operate harshly on us
must at some time be quoted with the same
crushing influence on them. They cannot
strike US in this hour of party madness, but
that the blow will fall upon their own heads.
If the safeguards Of liberty thrown around
us by the Constitution are assaiied and bro