Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-06-14

PROUD, SAD heaft 1elt no fear, and her sword
was never sheathed, it fell broken by her
side, when overwhelmed and exhausted by
the increasing odds Of her ferocious enc
mics, she fell PROSTATE before her unsullied
and beloved capital. What memories cluster
about her! What jewels blaze in her crown !!
Disarmed and enchained though she be now,
amid the throng which crowds the pathway
of Time, there walks no statelier figure ar
rayed in more glorious garments than Vir-
Eginia, upon whose banner is engraved every
battle from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, every
battle Of the second war for Independence,
the foreign fields Of Mexico, and under them
Bulls Run, and the innumerable fields upon
which she met and punished her invading
enemies in whose hand is the scrolls upon
which are written the Declaration, the Con-
stitution, the bills for Religious Freedom
and her contribution to true Republican
Freedom upon whose phylacteries blaze the
names of Washington, Jefferson, Henry,
Wythe, the Lees, Marshall, Madison, Ran
dolph, Clay. Scott, Harrison, Lee, jackson,
Ashby, Stuart, Hill and the almost innu-
merable host she has given to the cause of
civil liberty; and upon whose brow is now
placed the crown Of thorns. Alas no lon
ger is she Virginia, but Military District
No. /. No more do the descendants Of her
imperial race control her destinies, but a
military despot and an ignorant negro popu-
lation. Her house of Burgesses, where
Henry Numbered, is dead the sword
Washington and Lee flashed in the eyes Of
all history is broken her courts are closed.
A foreign soldiery lords if over her bounda-
ries, and negro mob takes possession OF
her capital. Let us once get just idea OF
Virginia of the olden time, and then of Hor-
ace Greeley and Gerritt Smith, backed by
armed soldiers, addressing negro mob in
Richmond, and we may have some concep-
ton of the present condition Of affairs. But
let us draw nearer and hear what these
strange speakers are saying to that dusky
and passionate mob gathered in sight of the
old capitol and in easy view of the bronze
statues Of that group Of Revolutionary I'M
mortals. Hear Horace Greeley urging the
speedy reimbursement Of the whites as nee
essary to the great principle Of universal
suffrage; and Gerritt Smith urging the ne
groes ''to petition Congress to give the fran
chise to the late rebels All! that is it, is
it? Horace Greeley and Gerritt Smith
begging the negroes Of Virginia to make
Robert g. Lee and Joseph 3. Johnston the
heirs Of Washington and the kindred of
Clay, their political equals What Ian
guage can better describe the humiliation OF
the South-the consummate cruelty of the
Radical party, the unutterable infamy of the
late Reconstruction acts. But one more
word caps the climax. It is the generous
and liberal spirit shown by these two white
men. The South has been trayersed by nu-
merous Northern men Of their political faith,
who have preached confscation, disfranchise-
ment, hatred and war No words Of peace
or kindness or Cancellation have been ut
tered. Under cover Of military protection,
with great parade over free speech, they
have with a cowardice equalled only by
their malignity, insulted and lied upon a
helpless and voiceless people But these
veteran Abolitionists come to Richmond, as
sist in releasing the imprisoned chief
tain of the conquered: and then preach to
the enfranchised negro moderation, concilia-
ton and harmony. We realize somewhat
more clear the unspeakable cruelty Of the
Radicals, when Horace Greeley and Gerritt
Smith protest against it, and become the de-
Tenders and protectors of Southern whites.
Alas! for Virginia sadder yet, alas for
| Liberty.