The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-07-08

| which railroads and steamboats, gave for thu
transportation Of troops and supplies, were
for the first time to be made known to thu
world Nor was it possible to estimate II
advance the benefit to the Federal Govern
ment, in the terrible struggle upon thu
threshold of which we then stood, Of the Ions
lines Of magnetic telegraph which penetrated
every portion of the country, and enabled il
| to transmit to every one of its armies in the
field, however remote from the seat of gov.
eminent or widely separated from each other
on the same day, at the same moment, on
the wings Of lightning, orders, which without
telegraphic communication would have re-
CURED days, weeks, and in some cases, per
haps months to communicate Neither the
tremendous power which the Northern sec
tion Of the Union was afterwards enabled tt
put forth, nor the paralyzing effect of slavery
upon the South, nor the desperate expedi-
ents to which the North was driven during
the progress Of the struggle that Of armine
| the negroes among others--nor what was Of
far more fatal influence upon the Southern
| cause than all other adverse elements COM
| bined: the unparalleled rashness and imbe-
cility Of the Executive branch Of our govern
| ment could have been antici pated.
With the results Of that struggle you are
all familiar. You all know that after endur-
ing most dreadful and desolating war, for
| four years, during which the fortitude and
courage Of the people Of the South were en-
inently displayed, that proud army Of
Northern Virginia, which in its long term Of
service had SO often born its banners in tri-
! umph over hard fought fields, though con-
tending against vastly superior numbers
that proud army worn down at last by the
protracted garrison duty around Richmond
and Petersburg; weakened by desertion );
exhausted by hard fighting and the scant
supply Of food, and surrounded by an enemy
fiye-fold superior to it in numbers, was COM
PEELED, in the language Of its peerless leader
the Bayard Of modern soldiers, the man with
out fear and without reproach- around whom
row clusters the admiration of the civilized
world, and to whose grave the votaries Of
freedom and of virtue in every age and in
every cline will resort as to pilgrim shrine
that army, [ say, was compelled, in his
language to yield to overwhelming numbers
and resources, and lay down its arms at Ap
pomattox G. H. On that fatal field persisted
the last hope of Southern Independence.
But although, that government which wehad
established in strict conformity, as we thought
to that principle Of the American Declaration of
independence, which declares that all govern
ments derive their just powers from the con.
sent of the governed, was thus overthrow,
almost in the hour Of its birth, yet never can
fade from the recollection of mankind the
fba e. II.
the self-denial, the grand, the noble an(, he
roic virtues for which a large portion of the
Southern people were so remarkable during
that protracted struggle. The conduct Of
the soldiers Of the South in the many hard
fought battles Of the war has become a part
Of the history Of the world I do not pro
pose to refer to those battles in detail. The
general character of the struggle may be
found in Moore's description of the contest
between the Fire Worshippers and the Mos
lem invaders.
ssBut vain was valor-vain the flower
Of Herman, in that beautiful hour,
Against AL Hassan's 'whelming power.
In vain they met him helm to helm
Upon the threshold Of that realm
He came in bigot pomp to sway,
And with their corpses blocked his way.
In vain-for every lance they raised,
Thousands around the conqueror blazed
For every arm that lind their Shore
Myriads of slaves were waited o'cr:
A bloody, bold and countless crowd,
Before whose swarms as fast they how'd
(. AS dates beneath the locust cloud"
And what had the people of the South
done, will not say to deserve, but even to
afford decent pretext for this dreadful and
mol inf lVbr
full and happy country visited with all the
desolation Of war teeming with atrocities
unknown to modern civilization, throughout
the vast extent of the Southern Confedcracy
from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico
from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi
riyer-on the green fields Of Virginia, Ken
lucky and Missouri, the rice lands
and the cotton covered plains Of Ala
bama, Louisiana and Texas? Why for four
long years were our citizen soldiery ruthless
" slaughtered on their own soil and our no.
BILE, devoted, self sacrificing women and help
less children subjected to all the horrors and
enormltles growing out Of the pesence in
their midst of the invading armies of the
North !? Was it to vindieate any great prin-
pie Of our government Surely not for its
cardinal doctrine laid down in the Declare
ton of Independence is, that all govern
ments derive their just powers from the con
sent Of the governed and that is the inalien-
able right Of any people, whenever their gov
crnment shall cease to promote their interest
and Happiness, to abolish it and establish
new one. This was all that the people of
the South had done or sought to do. The
plain provisions Of the Constitution Of the
United States and the laws passed by Congress
in pursuance thereof, for the protection Of the
rights of Southern men in their peculiar
species of property, having been systemati
eally disregarded by the people of the free
States tor many years Southern men, seek
ing their property on Northern soil in con
formity with the laws of tho United States,
and through the fundamentally Of TIE Off
ces of that government, having been repeat
edly murdered by mobs, and the murdere.s
permitted to so unwhipped of justice; hav-
ing been fora long period persistently assail-
ed, lnsulted and outraged in some shape or
form by sectional and dominant faction in
that Union, which was mainly the work Of
Southern hands, Of which Washington, Mad
ison and Jefferson, all Virginans were the
chief builders and architects-they merely
claimed the privilege Of Withdrawing from