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


ferson' views In reference to emancipation have
taken especial pains to suppress his reiterated
and decided opinion that the two races could
never live peaceably in juxtaposition. This O.
pinion is declared in all his writings during halt
a century but its fullest and most explicit ex-
position is to be found in his notes on Virginia,
i (page 267,) wherein he announces that in the
proposed revision of the Code of Virginia, lin
the year 1871 it was intended to emancipate all
slaves born after the passage Of an act to that
effect, with an amendment directing that the
children thus emancipated should continue
with their parents to a certain age, then be
brought up. at the public expense, to- tillage
arts or sciences, according to their geniuses, till
the females should be eighteen, and the males
twenty-one years of age, when they should be
colonized to such place as the circumstances of
the times should render most proper sending
| them out with arms, implements of household,
and of the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the
useful domestic animals, &c. to declare them
free and independent people, and extend to
them our alliance and protection till they have
acquired strength. ~
! He proposes that Immigrants should at once
be obtained to Gil up the vacancies occasioned
| by the departure of the blacks. 1t will proba-
bly, be asked, he says, s'why not retain and
incorporate the blacks into the State, and thus
save the expense of supplying by importation
of white settlers the vacancies they will leave 2?
To this he returns the following conclusive
answer
''Deep-rooted prgudtces entertained By the
aehites; ten thousand recollections By the blacks
of the injuries they haze sustained aeao oroUoca-
tions the real distinctions lohich nature has
made and nadny other circumstances, s0iU dtvlde
us into parties and produce conrulsions which
aoW probably neuer end but IN the determination
of one or the other race aa5
| The whole chapter is interesting, but | re-
traln from quoting further.
Press this political equality, and you evolve
by necessity but one unavoidable result. You
array the negro against the irresistible white
sentiment of the whole country you merely
stimulate the final and inevitable catastrophe.
You might as we'll try to get the rights of
the Indians by stimulating them to go to war.
The time is coming when the teeming pop
ulation Of the North will precipltate itself on
the unoccupied territory Of the South The
colored men on that side of the House know
! that the Northern man is more iutolerant of the
negro than the Southern man; they know that
he is by nature harder and less charitable; and
they know that when that mighty movement
commences, they will find no mercy In the eyes
of the Northern man. For the Northern man
is the antipode OF the negro it is catgut against
worsted Is it wise then in the colored race to
prepare no shelter against this dark and lower
ing cloud? Is it wise to alicnate entirely the
white race of the South? Is it wise to crystallze
| themselves as they have done, into an aggreS-
sive and uncompromising Black Mans Party?
When the North comprehends what has been
done at the South-when the mass of that peo
pie do In fact realize the awful ruin which has
| been effected here-when the white race stand
face to face with the fact that the land Of the
South has all been practically coniscated, and
| thot h. hoov, loIo tO
| the negroes-Will not the appeal burst all the
barriers of party organizations, and overwhelm
every maudlin sentiment about negro equality?
Or, if we may not rest any calculations on the
better feelings of our nature Or the instincts OF
race, will not the selfish impulses Of the heart
prompt the Northern man to remove from the
| South the obstacles to his occupation and enjoy
ment Of the country? Will not that feeling
which stirred the hearts of the North to its in
most depths, when the question was merely one
about the occupation of our Western territories,
be immeasurably intensified when the question
is presented, whether this magnificent domain
of the South shall be thrown open to Northen
| settlers? | leave the question with the think
ing colored men on that side Of the House.
| And here, | take occasion to remark that for
my part, [ entertain no bitterness of feeling
against the colored man. [ have never since
/ the surrender, received one unklnd word or one
disrespectful look from one OF them. Go heart
| lily rejoice In their emancipation, for L believe
in universal human freedom and [ earnestly
desire their happiness, preservation as a race,
and their elevation and advancement. In my
humble sphere shall do all in my power to
elevate and to ameliorate their condition. |
would have them educated | would see them
imbued with healthy and intelligent religious
opinions. 500 a
| But sir, if it comes to the worst, and thought
| less and bad politicians succeed in permanently
antagonizing the races, [ have but one political
sentiment, and that is that am ao1tite man."
| If you compel us to the election, which race is
to go down, then every white man in the South
must by necessity, hearken to the invocation,
''Io your tents, . lsrael!' i 3a.
There is another matter to which would call
attention. 1t is now nearly three years since
the close of the war, and the embarrassments
of diminishing, since April, 1865. What is the
cause of this? | think, sir, the whole matter
lies in nutshell. The government at Wash
ington was not content with restoring the Union,
the grand and cardinal-indeed the only pontof
debate in the war. That government has made
of the Southern people an impossible demand,
and this is the cause of the continued confusion
| It has demanded that the Southern people
should become q portion of the Republican
party here is the whole difficulty. This party
was sectional lit cannot be contradicted) in its
inception it is sectional now. 1t was distinc-
lively Northern party, and it is now North
ern, and not national party. Its ideas (they
may be good) are the ideas of a section in their
| most dOgmatic and EXTREMIST form. The spirit
| of this party, aggravated no doubt by the bit
terness of civil conflict, has become more than
Northern they are sentiments OF positive hos
tity to all that was distinctively Southern
They may be always correct as matters of feeling
and political faith ; but right or wrong, they as
sail all that we love or believe In the SOUTH
The effort to impose these feelings and opinions
on the South as a part Of the legitimate results
of our discontinue in the field, was and must
be, both wrong and impossible. The faith and
traditions and prejudices of a people are remov
ed beyond the jurisdiction ofany earthly power.
When the South relinquished the appeal to
arms, ,she assumed these obligations: namely,
to return to the Union, and to become faithful
to the United States government. 1t was also
within the sphere of the requirements of the
occasion, that certain terms-as the abolition
of slavery-should be imposed upon us. These
conditions imposed and accepted, the matter
ought there to have stopped. We were hence
forward by surrender members of the Confeder-
acy, and entitled to our legitimate weight in the
councils of the country In the United States
Congress we should doubtless have represented
sentiments at variance with the sentiments re-
presented by other sections of the Union, and
the West In like manner would have had its
L - l.. l.