Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-01-14
DESPERATION.


tained-by violence and outrage-ths de-
stfuctives, it seems, are resolved upon play
ing game of pure desperation This is ln-
dictated by the measures recently proposed
by their leaders in Congress. Not content
with the abomination Of the reconstruction
acts as originally passed, and which, as one of
their provisions, required that majority of
all the votes registered should be cast IN
order to the ratification of any of the Con-
situations that should be submitted by any
of the mongrel conventions now in session
in the Southern States, it is now proposed
that simple majority of the votes cast,
should they amount only to twenty, shall be
sufficient to consummate their diobolical pur-
poses These latter are to surrender ten
States, the fairest half of the nations mag
nifcent territorial inheritance-th on which
the sun shines warmest and the winds breath
their softest breath-to the government Gf
such term is not misnomer) of half
civilized, brutal race, who will but be acting
out the instincts of their nature in scatter
ing ruin broadcast, realizing that sad picture
of Goldsmith
Through all thy fields the tyrants hand is seer.
And desolation covers all thy green
And as if there turks suspicion that, even
after such crime as this shall have been
consummated, there is danger that their ruth
less and lawless exercise of power may be ar
rested by that stern honesty and integrity
which has characterized majority Of the
Supreme Court of the United States, it is
proposed in order to disarm that august tri-
bunal of its wonted power to correct the evils
of legislation, by the application Of. the test of
the Constitution, that two>thirds of its mem
bers shall concur to make its decisions effec-
tive and binding. 1t will thus be seen that
these men are prepared to sap the founda-
tions of the government itself to compass their
ignoble end of party rule.
With much of that spirit which actuated
the fallen archangel they would sooner "rule
in hell than serve in Heaven" But we
take this desperation as one of the most IA
vorablc signs of the times. 1t hastens the
events we most desire to occur. 1t makes
the autagonism between right and wrong,
conservatism and radicalism, complete There
can be no compromise between the opposing
forces There is no middle ground on which
they can stand Overthrow, defeat, utter
dnnihHation of one or the other party must
be the result. The elements at war with
each other are as incongruous and immiscibic
as oil and water, or fire and water. The al
tentative is broadly put to the people of the
country either to expel crush out the miser-
T.. Il, thnIr
subsistence and trampling ON their liberties,
or become people without country at all.
That issue we believe is about to be fully
comprehended, and when it is once taken
into the popular mind in its full proportions,
and with all its fearful significance, the con-
suming fury of the aroused manhood of the
nation will sweep from existence the crimi>
nails that have forced it upon them. The
authors of the woes that now aftlict us seem
to be unconscious of the perils that surround
them They do not realize the changes in
process about them. They are no longer in
the midst of the heat of civil war, whose
quick and fiery passions they directed in the
name of patriotism and union, but really for
their own base and selfish purposes. These
passions have been luled, and in the calm
which succeeds the angry and dcsolating
storm they wrought Reason has re-asserted its
sway, and with patient investigation seeks
the cause.-the real authors of the terrible
sufferings to which we have been and still
are subjected. With unerring and fatal GER
tainty the real culprits will be Indicated
They can not escape. Rocks nor mountains
can hide them from the wrath in store for
them. Never was armor forged strong
enough or thick enough to resist the lance of
justice that shall pierce and transfx them
And vet these achitccts of destruction, ply
the implements of ruin as though the eye of
neither God nor man was upon them
Could our pity, but for a moment get the bet
ter of our sense of justice, We could almost
compassionate them.
BB-The Legislature of Maryland is now
in session, and the miserable radical jumpers
who have hitherto ruled and prosecuted the
decent people of that State have not single
representative in either branch. Such, we
predict, will be the case in West NirSinla,ere
many moons shall wax and wane, notwith>
standing the premcditated fraud and delIb-
crate disfranchisement of Boreman's regis
tration God hasten the period.
The National InteYgencer collects, from
various sources and circumstances the facts
in relation to Hunnicutt, the Radical leader,
showing what manner of nian he is,"-that
he ,1as violent and proscriptive enemy of
the blacks-that he was a voluntary 'rebel"
and secessionist- he proposed at an early
day the capture of Fortress Monroe, &c, &c,