Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-03-03
From the Petersburg Index
MIGHT VS. Right.

From the Petersburg Index.]
Might VS.. Right
The whole record of human affairs sadly illu-
strates and repeats the old fable of the wolf and
the lamb
In Christian and in Pagan countries-in the
past and in the present, the history of nations
is but practical assertion of the maxim that
might is right.
Whether inflicted by force of arms or through
forms of law-whether by the sword or by ma
iorities-it has been the invariable practice OF
the powerful to Cypress the weak 1t needs
but the fimsiest pretext and the pretext is new
er wanting.
We are sometimes inclined to think that the
world, like men, grows worse as 1t grows oloeI;
The Indian who scalps his enemy does not add
to the cruelty of the deed, the hypocritical pre-
tence of brotherly love. When he subjects his
captiye to the process of slow torture he does
not profess to be doing it for the sufferers
good.
II remained for civilized, humanized and
christianized nations to add to the ruin and de-
struction of their victims the insolence OF as
sumed moral superiority and the evaporation
of pretended charity.
If there be one thing which more than an
other can tempt a man to curse his better an
gel from his side, it is when the providence of
God has delivered him into the hands OF sanity
tormentors.
OF who, protesting to be executing the
behests of the most high, commit deeds Of hate
which might be prompted by the worst spirit
of the pit.
''Let it, they cried from the Northern pull
pit, ''let it be long war;" and let it, they now
cry, be slow peace-prolong the torture as
long as the victim has one nerve which qulvers
to the pincers that tear or the iron that perces.
IL. L. Il 80 al
sleep with broken faith and stretch him upon
the rack of uncertainty until callous at outrage
and of wrong he no longer has power to mourn
or wish to murmur.
Break his heart and break his spirit-taunt
him amid his suffering and regale yourselves
with the music of his groans Is he not man
and a brother for whom Christ died? Where
fore, then, should he not be entitled to the ten
der mercies of the rack by which we seek to re-
form him?
Such is the spirit of the people into whose
hands we have been delivered.
We do not join with many of our cotempora-
ries in their advice to the Southern whites not
to trouble themselves about politics-to neglect
all nobler cares and devote themselves solely to
money-making.
We do not hesitate to call this mean and sor-
did advice. Money-making Yes. We may
make money and at the same time make our
selves base and compliant slaves whose souls are
| fitted to their station.
We tell our readers that never will we get re-
dress until we are feared-never will the reins
of power be taken from the present hands until
the whole nation breads and trembles at dan
ger which threatens it.
Can we expect, if we ourselves assume no at
titude of resistance to wrong and injustice, that
others will come to our help.
For private griefs it is we'll enough to suffer
them in silence-silence, that eloquence of suffer
| ing.
| But national wrongs must find utterance,
sooner or later, in words and deeds.
| Upon a people who have suffered an intoler-
able wrong rests the obligation Of eternal hate
to the oppressor until he repent and redress the
wrong so far as it is possible.
| The man who forgives the enemy of his coun-
try while yet exulting in the preparation OF
spoliation and oppression, is traitor to truth,
and traitor to God, and a traitor to humanity,
of whose most sacred rights every christian is
ex oficio guardian and defender.
To us the dealing of Providence with the
| Southern people is a problem as dark and dis
tressing as the origin Of evil
This cursed African race, which has been the
cause and pretext for all their wrongs, was first
forced upon them while yet in colonial condi
tion.by ENGLAND
We were forced to assume the attitude O.
masters to a race which inherited its bondage
from far antiquity, and we are now subjected
to the most ignominious treatment because We
are unwilling to have them sit in the seat of the
ruler.
We can discern in this treatment no other
right but might, and feeling that to be weak Ii
to be miserable, we can only add to our misery
the satisfaction of hating with a perfect hatred
the perpetrators Of this injustice. A hatred
not unmingled with contempt. The contemp
which every honest man feels for the knave who
overreaches him, and the hatred which every
christian ought to feel for the enemies Of hi
country, and the despoiler of his friends.
We detest the Radicals for the war they
forced upon us.
We detest them for injuries they have done
| us.
We detest them for the malignity which per
petuates our wrongs.
We loathe them for their canting pretence o
philanthropy.
We despise them for their folly, ignorance
and utter incompetence to direct the affairs Of
great empire, and we curse them in the name