The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-11-18
Spirit of the Press.

PROSPECTS,
Let no one contemplate for moment the
breaking up of the Democratic organization
Let no one abandon it. To abandon it is to
act the traitor. No Democrat need despond.
No Democratic heart need falter. No Dem
ocratic nerves need culver. We have lost
great battle. Perhaps We lost it in part on
account of our own mistakes and errors of
Judgment But our hosts are not scattered,
and only very small portion of them are at
all dispirited. Our columns are unbroken
and, it we but keep them so, and hold our
selves in readiness to stand up to our work,
wherever and wherever strong hearts and
sinewy arms may be needed, victory will most
assuredly come to us and it may not be long
in coming Even now it may be awaiting us.
1t is not possible that the Radical party,
heterogeneous as it is, and differing as its sec
tions do in regard to many important interests
and issues, can long remain undivided, even
if it is SO now. The seeds of separation and
dissolution are ready to sprout from its fur
rowed and narrowed bosom. The late con-
fict in Massachusetts between General But
Ter and his partisans on the one side, and Mr.
Dana aud his partsans on the other, is vi
vid foreshowing Of the strifes that must soon
rage throughout the whole Radical party,
and rend it in twain, if not into many frag-
ments. Terrible as the question of the cur
rency may be to the Radicals, and great as
may be their dread o: meeting and graphing
it, they mast meet and grapple it. even though
in SO doing they grapple each others Threats.
The public debt is rushing onward with ac-
CELEBRATED speed the people are writhing and
groaning aloud under the burden Of it y; the
country is ground by taxation as by the up
per and the neither milestone; and the next
to impossible work Of providing the means
which the appalling emergency demands de-
wolves upon the party in power That party
must decide whether the frightful debt shall
be paid at all aud, if SO. in what kind of
asunder as if a thunderbolt were exploded
within the cavity Of its body. And then will
come the opportunity Of the serried and we'll
compacted Democracy.
Nobody can predict with confidence what
position Grant will take as President, or what
he will do. He may go with one wing of
his party, or he may go with the other or,
disguised with both, and annoyed and tor
mented by both, he may go with neither
We have not a doubt, that before getting
through one half of the term of Office for
which he has been elected, he will be de-
nounced by large portion, if not large
proportion: OF his own party, far more bit
terly than he has ever been denounced by
the Democracy. Undoubtedly he would be
exceedingly glad to go With the whole of his
friends who have voted for him, and would
willingly make almost any sacrifice of prin
of or fo doc b,t In, 1,oll
be pulled in two opposite directions at one,
he cannot pursue both without splitting him
self in two.
Again and again we exhort our Democrat
ic friends to maintain their courage. They
are exempt from the responsibility Of the man
agement of the affairs of the nation at time
when that responsibility is almost too vast and
heavy to be borne by mortal man. The Rad
ical party will be crushed under it until its
: two eyes shall ''start from their spheres, and
the blood exude through every pore of its
9 frame. And then will come the opportunity,
the grand and glorious opportunity OF the De-
nocracy. We firmly believe, that long be-
fore General Grant shall be out of Office, the
Democracy will exercise far more control in
the country than the Radicals.
e.s=s.rSs~ From the National Intelllgencer.
THE TWO ALTERNATIVES
The Republican party already exhibits signs
of disintegration, and these will maltiply ev-
: cry day. 1t is made up Of every discordant
and incongruous material-the election of
General Grant being the link that bound them
together when no other could have done so.
Il may sound paradoxical, but it is neverthe-
2 less true, that this party could not have sur
! yiyed either defeat or victory. 1t is clear, we
think, that General Grant will have to block
out policy Of his own, and look beyond party
to the country to sustain him. If he does
this, he may well face the future, and the
splitting up of the Republican party need not
alarm him. Indeed, it will be positive help
to his administration.
From the Newark a. J) Journal.
WHAT WILL THE COMING MAN DO?
We do not pretend to conjecture what Grants
policy may be. We leave speculation on that
point to our radical friends, who are directly
interested parties. Wendell Phillips has in
Dictated what his ring expects, while the Con-
servative element Of tho Republicans as I'M
mistakably declares its preferences. Between
these two opposing factions stands Gen. Grant.
He cannot hope to satisfy both; and, as a
necessary consequence, war must be declared
Hostilities will commence with the assembling
of Congress, and we look for as interesting a
combat as that recorded of the Kilkenny cats.
"Let us have peace"
From The Springfield Republican.
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE.
Whether Congressional reconstruction is on
the whole failure or not, it is not worth
while considering now. Nobody claims that
it is satisfactory success. The South is yet
= to be pacifed-the political rights of the freed
men are yet to be made secure How to ac-
complish these objects, and in the least posi-
BILE time, and with the least possible injustice
and evaporation to all classes, Congress must
decide. 1t must perfect and complete its
own work. 1t will have no hostile President
to quarrel with and to share the odium Of its
faults The new President will be, as he al.
ways has been, in favor of the most generous
and magnanimous course possible towards the
South. but he will not undertake to dictate
legislation or to thwart the purposes of the
legislative body. So far as it is within the
scope of his Legitimate action, he will make