Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-03-10

Let us consider the peculiar circumstances
under which the experiment is under trial here.
We are the children of England: of the sturdy
Anglo Saxon stock, with the political education
which is associated with the world-famous con-
stitutional liberty of England Through pain
full centuries those English people toiled to
erect the fabric of constitutional government
From Edward the Confessor, through Alfred,
John, the first and third Edwards, Elizabeth,
the Stuarts, the Georges, through foreign wars,
through civil connections, through contests be-
tween the mobiles and the king, through con-
tests between the commons and the crown,
through contests between the middle classes
and the mobiles, through contests between pub
lie sentiment and the privileged orders, this
people achieved framework of government
that had none to compare with it near the close
of the eighteenth century. This constitution
of government our ancestors brought with them
to America-the- institutions of Alfred, the
Common Law, TIE Magma Charta, the Petition
of Right, the Habeas Corpus, the results of the
revolutions of 1640 and 1858, and the great
princi Piles of parliamentary privilege and par
liamentary law established under the House OF
Hanover. Our ancestors came to Virginia and
Massachusetts, with this constitution, and with
that political knowledge which they inherited
from their British sires.
It was on this foundation that American De-
mocracy was reared; new and unique political
structure modified by the free, bold spirit, the
ingenious and manly genius, OF the pioneer
and the backwoodsman.
The foundations of the new temple were
laid by master work men-by Madison. by Ham
ilton, by Adams, by Jefferson, by Henry, by
Washington.
Such is our stock; such the political discip-
line, such the admirable fundamental law,
which we inherited
The second advantage which we enjoyed In
this experiment at free government was that we
were removed to new continent, and so
snapped at blow our connection with the past,
so emerged in an instant from the oppressive
shadows of medieval traditions.
The third advantage which we enjoy is the
diffusion of education among the masses OF our
people.
The fourth advantage which we enjoy is that
we are Christian people, and that our civili-
zation, therefore, must be immensely advanced
upon that of any pagan community. We are
not only Christian people, we are Potes-
tant people, and, by virtue thereof. enjoying
greatly the advantage over France In l7S9.-
This is not all our Professionalism is not the
political Professionalism of Prussia or the Church
of England, but it is an evangelical Protestant
ism with its severe religious standards and its
powerful restraints.
Such is the character of this Southern race,
portion of the great American family, whose
social life is in jeopardy, whom lnconslderate
madness and frantic rage would now seek to
overwhelm with negro domination-a race pre-
pared by God through a thousand years OF NOR
al discipline-a race naturally one of the finest
the world has ever seen-a race In whose veins
are collected the choicest currents of the Anglo
Saxon blood-a race upon which has descended
all the political maxims of Alfred and the Ba-
rons of Runnymede, of Pym and Of Hampden,
of Sidney and Somers, of Townshend and Wal
pole, of Chatham and Burke, and Mansfield and
Fox, of Washington, OF Madison, of Mason, Of
Leigh, and Of Webster: race upon whom Ev-
angelical Professionalism, in it's purest form, has,
perhaps, stronger hold than upon any people
in the world.
You propose to destroy this race you pro-
pose to break this beautiful vase; you propose
to dash to pieces this elaborate and admirable
piece of workmanship; you propose to fling a.
way this peerless jewel to quench these coy and
precious fires to mar this rich and glowing can
vass to seal up this spring of living waters; to
bark this brave and noble plant. You propose
to perpetrate that awful crime against human
ity-to overwhelm with population like that
OF Haytl, a large portion OF that American race
which is the last hope of Republican govern
ment in the world.
That is the job in hand. With these poor
deluded and blameess negroes, you seek to beat
us back into ST. Domingo or Jamaica. With
such programme as this, you marshal your
sable legons face to face with the white people
Of this State.
[ will not predict the fate ofyour constitution
at the coming election, but will predict for you
in no very protracted period, the most thorough
discontinue. You are seeking to reverse the
laws of nature you are seeking to reverse the
plain course of events on this continent You
beat us in the late war, because aCe fought
against the finger of God and the spirit Of the
age and we shall beat you now, because you
fight against God and the temper OF the Amen,
can people. [ tell you, we shall beat you, and
the farther you go, the more signal and COM
plete will be your defeat. The farther you push
out from shore, and the more you run out your
canvass, the more terrible will be the crash
when you are struck by the squall 1t is mere
question of time; there is point at which the
whole white race of this country will rise up
with ungovernable wrath against the black rab-
BILE whom you have instigated to usurp the gov
ernments Of these States and the dream OF AT
rico -Americanism will perish as preclpltately as
Jonah's gourd.
And how is this monstrous and unnatural So
cial abomination and inversion to be effected
Look at that side of the House: w ho are sent
here to represent the State OF Virginia In fra
ming her organic law? One half OF the dele
gates on that side of the hall are negroes, and
of the remaining half three ffths say dooty.
Where did they learn to say dooty? They come
here from New York, Ohio, Vermont, to make
Virginia constitutlon-an erperinlenfum IN
corpore vilt, as if they were the philosophers,
and we were dog upon which to test some
newly discovered gas. They come here to or
ganize negro governments. Never were more
well timed the prescription-'P Physician, heal
thyself!" State after state at the North has
refused to allow the negroes to vote, and they
call us ''contulnaclous, because we recoil from
the same thing, multiplied one thousand times.
Ohio has about 1000 male negroes, twenty
one wears of age, and about 100000 white vo-
ters, and no later than last October, on direct
issue, Ohio refused to allow these seven thous-
and negroes to vote by a majority of fifty odd
thousand! Now suppose the negroes in Ohio
were as numerous as the whites suppose there
were 500 900 male negroes In Ohio ready for the
ballot, and a vote should be taken on extending
the elective franchise to every one who isa man
and a brother; what would be the majority in
Ohio against negro suffrage in that case? If the
majority is 10000 against letting 1000 negroes
vote, what would it be against letting 100000
vote? Here is the sum 1000 500, 900 so
600 x; and is equal to 100000: /. e., the
majority in Ohio against negro suffrage suppo-
sing the number of negroes in the State to be
equal to the number of the whites would be
three millions, five hundred thousand. This is
the measure of the feeling against negro suf-
fra ge in Ohio 1t is the measure Of the feeling