Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-05-12
B. JOHNSON BARBOUR, ESQ.
REVIEWED BY A UNION MAN.
BARBoURsvILLE, April %, 1865

BARBoURsvILLE, April %, 1868.
To the Editor of the Enquirer and Examiner ::
When the card from your unknown cores
pondent, "Albemarle, - first appeared, asking
me to define my political position, passed it to
the credit of too jealous friendship-conclud-
ing that as my opinions were so well known
within the immediate circle of my friends, and
in all probability were so little canvassed or con-
sidered beyond it, that there was no pressing
necessity for obtruding them on the public. -
Since then, however, have noticed the men
ton of my name in connection with the first
Office in the State, and fearing that my silence
might be Inexperienced, and construed into
an acquiescence in this suggestion, have de-
termined to avail myself of your courtesy and
kindness (so delicately profered) to make the
following statement
1t is well known to all who take any interest
in my opinions, that it was my fortune to differ
seriously with my Southern brethren on the
subject of secession. From the first, rather by
dread instinct than through any political sa-
gacity, l regarded the movement as suicidal !;
and furthermore, [ believed then, as now, that
the cause of constitutional liberty, of civilization
ITSELF was bound up in the preservation Of the
Union. Thus believing, [ felt myself at liberty,
conscientiously, to declare that from my stand
point and under what | regarded as legitimate
construction, was able to take the oath neces-
sary to admit me to a seat in the Federal Con-
gress, to which had been elected by my fel-
low-citizens of the seventh district of Virginia
[ gladly avail myself of this opportunity to say
that desired to make no separate terms for
myself, and that my whole energy would have
been devoted to the repeal Of that oath, and of
every unjust restriction upon the Southern peO-
pie. allowed myself to hope that the magma
nimity and iberality displayed by the two great
| Northern generals would be warmly seconded
| by Congress and the people, and that the two
sections (sections then no longer) saddened and
sobered by terrible war, would come together
in peace and harmony-that their separation
and alienation would be regarded as temporary
madness-and that like our giant Mississippi,
divided for a time by some envious island, the
two currents would speedily unite again, and
flow on in mingled might and majesty forever
In this hope and expectation, l have been
sadly mistaken. The example set them has moi
been followed, and it turns out here, as Macauly
says of the contest between Holland and France
that whilst "the Generals were making peace
the Legislators were making war;" Practically
and virtually, we are not as near true and valiC
reconstruction as when Lee and Johnston sur
rendered their swords The Republican party
unwisely, indeed [ must say wickedly, have re-
jected the noblest triumph ever vouchsafed anc
offered to man. One touch of kindness woulc
have subdued the South more effectually thar
all the armies they can muster but they failed
as other conquerors have failed, to appreciate
the grand truth that perfect love is absolute
peace and boundless power" and the result il
that they hold the ground on which they are
encamped and nothing more.
The picture as now presented to us is sombre
enough. Day by day the spirit of the South
ern people sinks lower and lower until it verge:
on despair, and there is danger that they viii
settle down into the melancholy conviction thai
the world can no more supply a cement for q
broken Union than for broken heart The
production of the most fertile portion of the
country languishes-the people lack the energy
which springs alone from hope-they are irreso
lutte and nerveless, weighed down by sense o1
impending calamity all the more intolerable be
cause it is so vague and indefinite. This, how.
ever, is as nothing compared with the effort tc
place the Southern States under negro domina
tion-an outrage so foul as to justify us in de-
nouncing it as the master-crime of the nine
teenth century and l cannot understand how
any Southern man could sympathize with a
party which has either through hate, fanaticism
or folly, inaugurated a scheme filed with certain
danger, and perhaps, fraught with unutterable
woe to the two races, and ultimately to the
whole nation.
The dread experiment is upon us, and oul