Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-03-03
THE POLITICAL SITUATION.
An able Document for the Times.

ADLER document than the following address
adopted by the Democratic convention of West
Virginia. The address em5odies with remark
| able brevity and power, an exposition Of the
unconstitutional and revolutionary policy Of the
Radical party. 1t is document which should
be in the hands of, and read by, every Ameri-
can citizen. Read and give it to your neigh
bors It is beyond all question the best politi-
cal document Of the times:
To the people of Vest Virginia.
We invite your attention to review of the
general political situation, its evils, and their
remedy.
Since 1861, the harmony of this nation has
been sadly disturbed. For four years of the
intervening time the interruption Of peaceful
relations was due to a state of war. The prac
tical disunion existing since 1865 is referable to
a course OF Congressional action, wicked in mo-
tive, illegal in character, and ruinous in result.
While the war for the Union was in progress
its successful issue was anticipated as the guar
anty of prompt reunion and permanent peace.
Such a consummation was the aim of patriotic
effort in the field, the object of solemn pledges
in the halls of Congress, and the confident ex-
pectation of the masses of the people.
The war has long since ended. The rebellion
has long since been crushed. Every obstacle
placed by Southern movement in the way of
the nations unity has long since been removed.
Nevertheless, disappointment waits upon the
peoples wish. The pledges of Congress have
been repudiated. The triumphs of our armies
have been neutralized, and the purposes Of the
brave men who secured them have been shame
fully defeated
A dissolution more disastrous than that now
existing between the Southern States and the
H. ~
brought about by the success of the rebellion.
A condition of affairs so much at variance
with the wishes and interest of the people Of
our entire country demands reference to the
acts and aims Of those who produced it.
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION.
For more than two years the Southern States
have desired to renew their old relations to the
Government.
Congress has constantly prevented that re-
sumption.
They are entitled to be restored upon the ba
sis Of the Federal Constitution.
Congress has confessedly thrown aside that
instrument, and obstructed restoration with
terms and conditions of its own prescribing.
Affecting to desire the perpetulty OF the Re
public, it has made deadly assault upon re-
publican institutions.
Processing to aim at the salvation of the
Union, it has wrought the destruction of ten OF
the States.
The right of each State to regulate its own
internal affairs, enfranchise its own voters, and
choose its own rulers and lawmakers, is as sa-
cred as our Constitution, and as indestructlble
as our Government.
Without it republican liberty is worthless,
for when the people cease to be free citizens OF
the States they become the subjects OF unllml-
ted and irresponsible Federal power
When Congress abolished the local govern
ments of the South, it violated vital principle
in our system.
When it crested military establishments in
their stead, it introduced the most abominable
feature of despotism.
In further pursuance of its purposes, Con
gress has thrown the political power OF the
South into negro hands.
To assure this result, it has disfranchised the
white population by hundreds of thousands.
Enfranchisng the blacks, it has made voters
of the ignorant, the vicious, and the brutal !;
legislators of those who regard liberty as license
and law as the instrument of revenge; and ru-
lers of class whose ideas of government, like
their notions of religion, tend directly and in
| evitably to barbarism.
MILITARY GOVERNMENT AND ITS RESULTS.
I Having given the negro the right to vote and
the power to rule, Congress confesses his in
competency for either by insisting that the bay
onet of the soldier, the disfranchisement of the
citizen, and the supervision Of the Freedmen s
Bureau are necessary to sustain him in his new
relations.
By such declarations the dominant party
| would Justify the continuance of military des-
| potism erected within the Southern States.
Before we sanction this iniquity, let us ex-
| anime its results.
| It found civil governments in successful op-
Grafton it abolished those governments, and
made the will of brigadier generals supreme for
all purposes.
| Southern elections are ordered. supervised
and approved or set aside, by district COM
manders.
Southern justice is what the bayonet may
provide.
Southern law is what the sword may decree.
Southern peace is the patient submission OF
| conquered people; peace threatened by I'M
pending negro instructions, which white sedi-
| tionists are melting, and liable at any moment
to disappear before the terrible tumult of social
anarchy.
The military governments found business re-
yiying, and enterprise struggling to repair the
| ravages of the war.
They abolished labor, and offered army ra-
tions as premium on negro idleness
The country ceased to produce, and trade
and commerce with other sections perlshed
Capital left land which promised soon to
| be given over to confiscation.
General poverty followed the encouraged In
doence of the laboring classes
Actual and almost universal destltutlon ex.
lists among the people; the unhappy victims Of
Congressional cruelty must become pensioners