The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1867-10-16
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The Late Elections,

~ ~ "SAAt'oA Jul, Co01u0sn PSoPio3 W ~
perfectly cool and not 'shalloo before they are
out Of the woods" The late elections have
decided much for the future but do not help
us now. The Baltimore Sun well says: THAT
great reaction of public sentiment, upon
broader issues than that Of personal or To-
cal character, has been exhibited by recent
elections it is impossible for any but the most
demented partisans to question. Diminished
radical majorities in New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, West Virginia and Maine a conserva-
tive triumphin Connecticut, an extraordina-
ry political revolution in the same direction
in California, have now been followed by a
decided democratic triumph in Pennsyyaia.
large losses to radicalism in Ohio, and most
significant condemnation in that State of the
cardinal principle relating to suffrage, togeth-
er indicating most clearly that the people of
this country are alarmed by the mad expert
mcpts in government and the wild abuses OF
power, which haves signalized the course Of
the -ultraist leaders. These election results,
however, need not be- claimed as indicating a
mere party reaction, and still less do they
csince disposition net to abide BY the le-
ultimate consequences IF the late war. They
are an expression. TO our minds, of the disap
pointment which is naturally felt by the
American people Of their reasonable expecta
tions and deepaseated desire Of a revival and
Welding together of their old sympa4hies and
SOCIAL and business relations, and of their
moral and material welfare, which they had
a right to. expect would be accomplished by
the legislation Of misrepresentation. The
elections indieatethe popular dissatisfaction
and condemnation Of the policy which has
| frustrated these rational and patriotic hopes,
and under which there has been no regard to
that economy in public expenditures which
wonld tighten their present burthens or af-
ford them the prospect Of relief in the fu-
| ture, or the hope Of any satisfactory solution
of the disturbing questions which perplex
and Cypress the public mind.
The excuses, begotten by overwhelming
political power, are almost always followed by
reactions like those we now witness, but that
is lesson Of history which the radical party,
like most parties in their hour OF triumph,
have failed to remember. In their policy of
reconstruction, they have converted once free
and fourshing States Of the American Union
into such lifeess ana almost hopeless provin-
cial dependencies that the common sympathies
of humanity with its kind, in extremity,
have been aroused in the North. Nor has
the admonition been UNDECIDED, which such
events cannot fail to suggest, Of the dangers
to all of like calamity which the South is
suffering, when the principle is once admit
ted that Congress may act outside the con-
stitution in its treatment Of any Of the States
of the Union. Only the most profound con-
victions of the public danger could have
produced SO extraordinary achange as the re-
cent elections have developed, and inspired to
such efforts as those which have been sue
cessful against powerful and compact organ
ization. backed by the vast patronage Of the
dominant party. Every patriotic heart must
rejoice in those cheering signs Of more
healthful state of5public sentiment, and which
cannot be without their influence on future
political action" !