The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-09-02
Our Own Again.

Our Own Again.
''Who fears to speak of ninety eight?
Who bushes at the name?
When towards mock the patriots fate,
Who hangs his head for shame?
He's all knave, and half slave
Who Sights his country thus
But true man, like you man
Will fill your glass with us p
So sung the brave, fiery, vehement coun-
trymeD Of the Geraldiues, when to sing was
almost certain prison Incarceration by order
Of the ermined satrap Of Dublin Castle
LAUNDERING along down the corridors of
Time come the burning words of this once
taboed song. But single stanza is given,
but it serves us for lyrical text on which
may be predicated brief sermon easily IN
derstood.
There are men-born Southerners-
from mistaken policy speak of the "Lost
Cause with bated breath. It will never do
to shock the sensitive nerves of Yankee by
manly declaration that the late war between
the States was no rebellion. It would be ia sh
were these men to tell any one who glibly
terms us rebels, he lied in his throat. That
undying sovereignty Of the Southern States,
historical, and constitutional, taught by the
master minds Of the Old Dominion, and en-.
dorsed, strengthened, and glorifed by Cal
houn, Hayne and McDufie, is forgotten in
the polite talk about Conservatism which
means nothing at all; and of winning the
support, confidence and sympathy of the by
perborean Yankee, when nothing short gf d.
vine interposition could bring him into sym
pathetic harmony with genuine Southerners
Out upon all this scant Bavery never
goes out Of fashion Not the bravery which
springs from mere physical vin., any ruAian
has plentiful supply of that, but moral bra
very which impels men to hold fast to the
Right, to decrY and denounce the Wrong,
though chains be forged for their limbs, or
faggcts be prepared to consume them. Jefer-
son Davis said, almost upon the verge Of the
prison-door Of Fortress Monroe, that, ''prin-
ciples for which the South fought, with such
terrible earnestness, would be rsasserted at
another time and in another way" We see
this prophecy already fulfilled. For in the
North, the Democracy frightened at the Col
oGsus stride Of Radical satraps are re.assert-
ing the sovereignty of the States and the
supremacy Of civil law. The sword drawn by
Cauby, Meade, Sheridan, and others, across
the throat of the South, endangers the North.
MIR. Eldridgo pertincntly asked the writer
hereof, during visit to Washington: eff
Louisiana is to be subject to the rule Of Sa-
trap Sheridan, what guarantee have | that
some other shoulder-strap despot may not ere
long lord it over my constituents in Wiscon-
SNIP
G.,if l,,,o tIo
makes the Democrats Of the North compact
and determined The rapidity with which
the Federal government is centralizing its
power by denying that the Executive and
Judicial branches are co ordinate and COO
quail with Congress, the impending shadow of
a vast and irresponsible these
are the chief things that alarm the thinking
men Of the Northern States.
1t is our duty to unite with the Democracy
of the North, war and anti-war, Tor the SAX e
of our beloved and down trcdden South. We
must get into the common Ark in the coming
political deluge. The Northern Democrats
send to us the Olive Branch Let us accept
it. The day will come when we shall ride
high and dry on the Democratic Ararat, and
look with satisfaction, far and near, upon the
drowned wretches Of Radicalism.
And, SO, another day will soon dawn when
wo shall have Our Own Again when the
battles fought for Southern Independence will
be regarded as so many terrible blows for State
Rights; when the graves of our gallant dead
shall be wreathed with the flowers OF eternal
gratitude and when grandsire aud grand
dame, recounting the heroism. adventurers
and viscissitudcs fthose who lived, when the
first white curl Ct powder smoke rose from
burning Sumpter, and those who heard with
wet eyes and aching hearts Of tie last surren-
der at Appomattox, shall tell each group of
little listeners how the battle for our own was
won and lost, and how the Southern people
fought at "anothcr time, and in another way
to have their Own Again Crystal Springs
{ Missy .argns.