Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-11-10
Staunton.

The last Rockingham Register contains long
and interesting editorial about our enterprising
town. We regret that we have room only for
the first two paragraphs of it. The senior of
the Register says:
Ii We were not citizen and sort of fix
ture OF Harrsonburg, and if we did not love
that place with an affection intensified by the
earliest and happiest memories of childhood as
we'll as the sacred sorrows of maturer manhood,
we should feel half incined to seek "a local
habitatlon, If not "a name" in our neighbor-
ing city of the hills" A visit of week to
tins active hery little town, with the opportuni-
ties We have had for observation, induces us to
say a word as to its claim to stand at the head
OF the list of our beautiful Valley towns
We are obliged to admit that Staunton stands
hrst IN the category of competitors for the proud
and envlable distinction Of being at present,
whatever it may be in the future, the chief town
IN the Valley of Virginia. Geographically
located at the head and crossing place of the
finest section of the Valley, her people have
had the sagacityand spirit and iberality and
tar reaching intelligence to improve the natural
advantages OF their position. So far, indeed,
have they carried their policy" of mastery
activity, that they have appropriated to their
use imp ovements and advantages originally
NS'iSHSN duO lltcuutU ILcI uClSEUUIS.
This Is emphatically true of the great line OF
the Virginia Central railway that now sweeps
onward across the heart of the State to the Ohio
river. This road was designed, in its inception,
to make Harrisonburg point on its line OF
progress. Indeed, Gordonsville and Harrison
burg were points specifically designated in the
provisions of the original charter of the incor-
poration. And yet, through the active exer-
tons of the public men Of this little town of
Staunton, this grand Improvement. whose future
is SO full of hope and promise to the State, was
turned from its track at Gordonsville and Har-
risonburg left twenty FIVE miles out in the cold,
and in the rear, Of course, of their more active
and energetic neighbors OF Stanton. neaW
THEGREAT ISSUE Imam eminently thought
full and impressive speech of Mr.. j. Q. Ad-
ans, delivered at Albany, New York, this gen
tleman uses words of warning admonition SO
eminently fit and appropriate to the present
juncture that, though the election is over,s we
cite them for the attention of our readers. Said
he: ~
Il will not close my speech as I began, as a
Democrat or partisan; but L will, in conclusion.
pray you. as American citizens, to try, in this
supreme crisis of our fate, to-rise above party
or SectlOn, 10 Stretcn out beyond this little
shred Of time, to forget this heated canvass,
and as citizens Of the great republic, contem-
plate the long reaches of her grand career
Shall it be that We must tread over and over
again the old course, from liberty to license,
from license to anarchy, from anarchy to-, des-
potism Must 1t be that we are to furpi h an
other failure Of constitutional, regulated liberty?
Can it be that In our hasty impotence of tran
sient troubles We are madly bent upon Ieveing
with the earth the temple that our fathers
bullded? Oh, my countrymen, these our trials
are but transitory if you will but be patient In
little while, if you will be steadfast they will
pass away but if, on Tuesday next, you reg
lister your resolve to return no more to the old
ways We shall wander on in this dismal revo-
lutlonary wilderness, no man can tell how long
or how far. Have you been SO much happier
since you abandoned the faith of your fathers to
follow after these strange gods that you should
still cling to them? Has the path been so plea
SAINT since you wandered from the ancestraltra
that you would not, if you could, regain it?-
No. my friends, let us retrace our needless steps,
and for the future, cursed be he who removes
the ancient landmarks. F"