Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1871-08-08
Our Dangers and Our Duty.

| ~ AHo w. n VI eHectlng reOrganlZ2tlOn or tn
conservative party is as delicate as it is impor
tant. Everything depends upon our harmony
Petty feuds, personal wranglings and silly dis
sensions among ourselves will assuredly resul
10 disaster; while, on the other hand. union
harmony and concession, blended with zeal anc
energy 10 the common cause, will as surely
achieve for US the victory.
| 1t is not to be disguised that we have some
malcontents and disorganizers in our ranks
men who think more of self than of party OF
country. They are not, indeed, sufficiently
numerous or influential to threaten the integ-
rlty OF our organization, if we are only true to
ourselves and set our faces firmly against the
hrst dawnings of factious spirit but they are
sufficiently numerous to excite concern Every
| thing Tor the cause-nothing for men should
be our motto, and if We adhere to it, we can
keep the good old ship of State-our party or
ganlzation-our State Government-in the
hands of true men, whose hearts beat in uni
son with our own, whose destiny is ours, and
| whose hopes and fears are ours
We should avoid all unnecessary complica-
tlons. and adhere as closely as possible to the
great landmarks of the Democratic party
we should not suffer ourselves to become en-
tangled 10 superhuous and unnecessary side is
sues, which will only serve to distract our coun-
sells, without possessing any practical advan-
tage We have before US a life-and- death
struggle upon the great question of constitu-
tlonal rlght-whether all power is to be con-
centrated in the Federal Government, or wheth-
er the people have any rights which may not
be crushed out of existence by the strong and
relentless hand of Federal power. AS at pres
ent administered, the States and the people
have only such rights as may be doled out to
them as acts of grace and mercy by the central
government at Washington; and the Radical
mar rtv fn IN Wv l.
that they may continue to plunder the public
treasury and retain the people in the condition
OF ''hewers of wood and drawers of water" to
their cruel taskmasters. It is to cleanse the
Augean stables by driving out of power those
who now SO unworthily hold the reigns of gov
ernment and by placing in their stead better
men, pledged to better deeds, that all our en-
ergies should be bent with might and main
We have, too, the battle of the habeas
corpus to fight over again-for that great con-
stitutional right has fallen sadly out of vogue,
and been treated as mere myth by the Fed
eral Government of late.
More than this, we have to assert and main
tain that the white man is at least the equal of
the negro before the law" and that this Gov
ernment was not established for the exclusive
benefit of the Ethiopian. While We are will
ing to concede to the negro every right that
justly belongs to him, and would deny him
none of his constitutional privileges, We at the
same time spurn the idea that he should be
made the special pet of the Government to the
prejudice of the white nan-that the white
race should be degraded in order to elevate the
black.
1t is true that the proposed organization of
our party has immediate reference to a State
campaign; but the questions above referred to
are so interviewer with that campaign, and that
campaign is itself so intimately connected with
the rapidly approaching Presidential campaign,
that they have all one aspect. In preparing
for one we practically prepare for the other
At all events, In establishing and perfecting
our organization for the one, we are making
important headway towards the other; and or
ization-solid, compact, harmonious organ
ization-is indispensably necessary to BOTH
With it, we can do anything-e everything
without it, nothing.
70 compass the SUCCESS of our party we must
be united and harmonious, as We before said
and hence we may as well go to work earnestly
and vigorously to set our house in order. One
of the troubles which we are likely to encoun-
ter will present itself in the shape of Indepen-
dent Candidates. These pests of the party
should be summarily dealt with. We have no
patience with men who have the arrogance and
presumption to set themselves up against the
voice of the people. Let all such be indig
nantly frowned down. He who is not for us is
against US; and the party should visit with
merited scorn and reprobation those who, pro-
Tossing to be Conservatives, shall presume to
overturn the regular organization of the Con-
servatiee party. When the will of the people
is expressed through its properly constituted
agents, let us all, putting aside mere personal
feeling unite in solid column and move forward
to certain and glorious victory. -NertoM Vir-
gsnsan.