Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1868-08-06
The Way to Peace.

whose only cementing element is a sym
pathy Of hatred, can ever be permanent
in power Or even in existence
With large mutitudes of men, this spirit
of hate was the controlling motive thro ugh-
out the late civil war, and has continued
to, govern them at every slept in their efforts
at reconstruction But with smaller,
yet far more dangerous class of politicians,
the sole aim for the last three years has
been the perpetuation of Republican rule,
through the negroes of the South. To this
basest of motives and purposes the public
good and the pacifcation Of the country
have been steadily sacrificed and, worse
yet, all constitutional Limitations altogether
disregarded Signally defeated in their ef-
forts to establish negro suffrage and equal
ity in the North and West, they have now
impudently in their platform proclaimed
that here each State shall regulate suffrage
for itself, while at the South the elective
franchise shall be determined by the Con-
gress of the United States Acting upon
the double motive of hate and the desire
to maintain partisan supremacy, they have
disfranchised large majority of the white
population of the Southern States, and
conferred upon the negroes, y act of Con-
gress, the right to vote and then at the
point of the bayonet, have proceeded to
establish seven State Governments, con-
troled by negroes or white adventurers
meaner than they-mere sojourners, birds
of passage, and very foul birds at that !;
and have gone through the farce of admit
ting them into the Union and the right of
representation in the Senate and the House,
and full vote in the Electoral College for
President. In this manner, gentlemen
they expect to control the Legislation and
the elections of the country. And these
ignorant, british negroes Of South Carroll
ma and Florida, and the other States, do
now make laws and levy taxes and create
public debt for you, white men Of Ohio !;
and they expect to override your choice
for President. Yes, gentlemen, under
these Republican reconstruction acts, en-
forced by an army for which you pay
heavy taxes out of your hard earnings, half
million Of negroes in South Carolina re-
inforced by some thousands of adventurous
white loafers from the North and West,
will control as many electoral votes as a
million white of men in Ohio. Aye, and
at this present moment the "Governor"
so-callsd, Of that State, elected by negroes,
under an act of Congress, and through
the aid of your army, is citizen of Ohio,
having legal settlement here; so that
if he would become pauper-and South
Carolina is very poor now, and no longer
able to enrich her satraps-the proper
township in the county Of Henry, in this
State, could be compelled to maintain him
as public charge. And moreover, Gen
eral Willard Warner, noble confrere Of
his from Ohio. has, observe, just been
elected a United States Senator from Ala
bama
These are the doings of the Republican
party, and if not marvellous in your eyes,
they are at least costly to your pockets
These are part of the blessings over
which the Chicago platform exults, and a
continuance, and, indeed, a multiplication
of which they promise upon the election of
General Ulysses S. Grant.
Now, gentlemen, suppose for a moment
that the case were reversed. and that the
South had waged a successful war of con-
quest against you here in the West and
had compelled, by force and arms, the in
PRODUCTION of slavery here. and you sur
rendered in good faith, under pledge and
promise Of all other rights within the I'm
ion, under the Constitution and that when
you had no further power to resist, South
ern Congress had, at the point of the bay
onet, forced constitutions, governments
and laws upon you against your will, and
that victorious and insolent South Carroll
Ma has sent up here the meanest and ba-
sest OF her vagabond Sand Hip citizens
with carpet bags i'll their hands, to repre-
sent you, the once, free white, men Of
Ohio, in the Senate and House at the Fed
eral capital, and to usurp the places once
filed by the Morrows, the Mcheans. the
Corwins, the Ewings, the Hamers, and
the Aliens, Of this glorious Commonwealth,
what would have been the emotion Of wrath
and Indignation which would have burned
within your bosonls? And yet to just such
indignities are South Carolina and Virgin
la, and their sister States of the cold
Thirteen" scorched and SCARED all over
with the flames of the war Of 1875, sub
jected, by the false and degenerate sons of
the New England sires, who stood shout
der to shoulder by them in that grand rev.
dictionary conflict, which in blood and
suffering, and with precious treasures first
bought us our liberties.
All, but these men are now rebels and
traitors, and you. the Democracy, receiv-
ed them with open arms and gushing
hearts to your recent Presidential Conven-
ton" Thank God, we did: and by none
were they hailed with more cordial well
come than by, not the bloodless though
bloodthirsty home loyalists of the war, but
by the gallant and noble heroes, the Han
cocks, the Franklins, the Ewings, the
Blairs, the Slocums and the Steedsmans,
who had met them in deadly conflict amid
the sulphurous canopy and shock Of battle.
We mean to have peace indeed we intend
to restore the Union in fact !; and to-day
we know these men only as our friends.
fellow citizens and brothers-the decend-
ants of the Washintons, the Lees, the
Hamptons, the Sumters, the Marions, the
Prestons, the Haynes. the Laurens and
others, who, side by side, stood with the
Hancocks, the Adamses, the Starks, the
Putnams, the Gates and the Waynes of the