Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-04-06
Tuesday, april 6, 1869.
President Grant and peace"

by the expression, LET US have peace" 1t
seems, verify, in one sense, to be the "peace
that passeth all understanding. The Nation
al LateUiqencer, which seems, like other jour
nails, to be at loss to understand it, says:
General Grant was either sincere or insln-
cere. If sincere, let him, to the best OF his
power make good his promise, now that the
opportunity is upon him. If insincere, let him
take his place among the tricksters and dema-
gogues of the day. We do not wish to think
harshly of him. We do not wish to treat him
with severity or unkindness. We are quite
willing to believe him honest in the peace
which he has promised. We opposed his cleo
ton on broad grounds of public policy, and be-
cause of his associations with and candidacy OF
the Radical party-a party many of whose po-
Gtical tenets we simply abhor. But if General
Grant should prove himself a faithful, upright,
and efficient Chief Magistrate, the fact that we
did not support him in his Presidential preten-
sions will not in the least bias US against him,
and he will find, in so far as he is right, cor
dial support at our hands,
But what did General Grant mean by his
oft-repeated and ever-approved saying, Let
us have peace?' We are inclined to take it
for granted that he did not intend to play the
trickster, This, we cannot but think, would
be a new character for him, and that he meant
what he was saying. Then what did he mean
In coming to the Presidency he found, under
the management of the Radical party-the
party whose candidate he was-the Union dis
rupted, civil subordinated to military rule in
several of the States, hundreds of thousands
of white citizens ranchised-deprived vir
tually of citizenship-a prodigious and aug
menting public debt, industry parayzed, mo-
nopolies everywhere in the ascendant, the pub
corruptions in every branch of the Govern
ment, and taxation, too heavy to be borne,
resting upon the shoulders of the people. By
the promise of peace did General Grant mean
to enter upon a course that would lead to and
accomplish, as far as possible, the correction of
these evils? If he did there was something
some wholesome meaning-in his phrase. If
he did not it was hollow and heartless mock
cry. IF he did, he WILL in SO far as his efforts
are directed to this end, receive the hearty CO.
operation and approval Of every Democrat and
every Conservative in the land. If he did not,
General Grant and General Grants admins
tration will be the most conspicuous and igno-
BILE of all failures Many not Radicals, not
even Republicans, voted for Grant in the be-
lief that he had at once the power and the dis
position, if elected to the Presidency, to heal
the wounds Of the nation, reunite the divided
States under the Constitution, unmanacle the
hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens
which Radicalsm had enthraled, set the South
ern States in their old orbits and the Southern
people on their feet again, and restore frater
nal feeling between the long alienated North
and South. Had not such views been enter
tanned of General Grant. such contamination
confidently looked for at his hands, he would
never have been elected.
General Grant must be persuaded, any one
of reflection must be persuaded that peace
and the adj uncts Of peace cannot be brought
by any process of tyranny, or by putting the
grinding heel on the necks of proud and high
spirited men, or by bearing down upon such
the strong arm. This Union can never be kept
together, and this people never live together in
peace, by holding any portion of the people as
a conquered people and as inferior, and de-
prived of like rights with the rest. In giving
all the people of all the sections all the rights
which belong to them under the Constitution
lies the only safe and peaceful course and this
is all that any people of any section ever asked
To take sef-government from States is not on
ly criminal, but suicidal, for which there is no.
where found warrant. To send strangers
among them who have no sympathies with
them, whose feelings are harsh and unkind to-
wards them, to whom they are as mere stran-
gers and foreigners, to hold the Offices and rule
over them, is a monstrous injustice, and I'M
natural beyond expression and it is no Won
der that the people of the depressed and pow
erty-stricken South rebel instinctively against
such treatment These Southern States are
either in the Union Or out of the Union. If
they are cut of the Union, it is most mex
plicable and marvellous thing, remembering
how the war closed. IF they are in the Union,
they are entitled to all, and should not be de-
MED any of the rights which that Union prom
Uses them. and which it gives to other States.
This, indeed, is the pith of the whole trouble
Of the country at this time and has been for
years past. Had the Radical party had the
craftsmanship or patriotism to acknowledge
this, for they could not but have seen it from
the commencement and gone about removing
the cause of complaint, all would have been
we'll long ago. But they had not the patriot
ism. They lived solely and singly and selfish
ly for themselves, and to perpetuate their SUI
premacy and their powers has been their only
aim, disregarding wholly, through long and
suffering years, while myriads of hearts were
beating in anguish for redress, the welfare of
stricken country. Does General Grant pro-
pose that this same heartessness and cruelty
and sordid ambition of the Radical party with
neither justice nor mercy 10 it. shall continue
1t he does, ne has risen to eminenee to be en-
inently and long hated. If he does not, and
he proposes to bring alienation Of these ills.
and redress to his bereaved and harshly- treated
brethren of the South, not for their sake alone,
but for the sake Of one common country, of
which they are part, then does every Ameri-
can citizen with 4 heart in his bosom, and every
one who believes that in mutual forgiveness
and fraternity there is peace, and that in peace
there Is prosperity and happiness, bid him God
speed"