The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1871-08-10
TWO OLD KNIGHTS.

| The following editorial we take from the
Louisville Courier-Journal 1t SO we'll exr
presses our own thoughts, and is SO much
more pointedy written than anything we
could produce, that we give our readers the
benefit Of it:
| Mr.. Stephens and Mr. Toombs who, like
Roland and Orlando, have set out in quest Of
adventures, again find themselves placed con-
spicuousy before the country. Their re-
scurc s, however, are erialy dwindled and
scattered. They stand pledged to tear away
the two last amendments to the Constitution,
and restorethe people the original document,
rurged Of its rldicaism but in this, as i'll
wearing the boar's hide of the fable, the
question is how can the boar be stripped of
| it +? The Northern people have to be Undue
| ed to elect Congress favorable to the de-
signs of the constitutional knights=errant !;
the Congress so elected must be instructed in
| the method it is to pursue; the case thus
| made up is then to be carried before the pee
pie and submitted for rehearing. Mr.. Steph-
| ems is not robust man, and Mr.. Toombs is
growing old. Will they live to see the end
| of the revolution they would inaugnrste
| We apprehend that they will not. 1t is
related that the gentle Orlando was lost in the
mists of Breton whilst seeking a golden APP
pie that hung, like star, on the edge of the
horizon. ever receding as he followed it, and
that the heroic Roland fell into pit, whittier
he had chased dragon, and was devoured.
Mr. Stephens, like Orlando, pursues phan-
tom. Mr.. Toombs' valor, like the valor Of Sir
Roland, outruns his reason. 70 men who
have been used to public displays-to whom,
popular applause is as needful as the air-the
tournay and the hunt for leadership and fol-
lowing may be in measure pardonaby tempt
ing. But in this instance, it is most unwise,
because in every way most impractical. Mr..
Stephens lacks the vigor and elan which are
essential to the part he would ill at this late
day, and Mr.. Toombs was never anything but
destructive. There was in their retirement
dignity. There is, in their temperance, a
certain boisterous and unsightly aspect which
will deprive them Of that respect and conh-
dence which old age should inspire. No man
is made to lead two revolutions. MIR. Steph-
ems and Mr. Toombs have had their time,
and are as untitled for the exigencies of the
present generation as it is possible to
conceive couple not wholly bereft Of reason
and the gift of speech.
| They cannot ask, they have no right to
require, the young men of the South to stoop
down and pick up the burden Of their lives,
to assume it as part of the duty Of to-day
and to wear it as necessary appendage Of
the future. The record of the great men
who brought about our civil war and guided
the hapless Confederacy to its doom, is made
up. Behind that record the South cannot
safely go but, standing in front OF it, ever
ready to defend its purposes against the cal
umnies of those who would wantonly drag it
through the mire of partisan hate and sec
tional malignity, the Southern people should
renounce all useless lamenting and empty
sentimentalism, which tend, in our political
and commercial pursuits, to identify the new
line with the old, and to press down the vi
| tally of the present and next generation with
the corpse of a fabric that was buried six
years ago
| We are, IN manner, come to new cGun-
| try, wherein We find many conditions that
seem strange to us. Among th's, conditions
the status ofthe negro that was slave is
strangest of all. That status was not fixed by
us-but it is fixed We cannot change it
| Prudence may douDG "hether, II we couia
it would be wise to make the attempt But
in the absence of even fair prospect, the Ell
terprise which Mr.. Stephens and Mr.
Toombs would have US engage in, is but an
other desperate effort at revolution, to which
we should bring not the cumulous stength
of fresh volition, and the vigor of an ardent
hope, but the spent energies Of defeat and the
depressing influence of division among our
selves. The very discussion of The question
brings up anew, with the story of our mis-
fortunes, the spectacle Of our helpessness, de-
priving US of the advantage, which we might
secure, by those strong and active alliances
which the spirit of detection offers in the
North and West, and even in the camp OF the
enemy.
Nor is this the worst circumstance in the
projected crusade Having failed to defeat
| the amendments whilst they we're before the
country, and when their features were unfa-
miliar, and to that extent unpopular, it is
proposed that we throw them out after they
have gone into effect and grown common to
the people, and this without any counter plan
to settle the question to be unsettled if the
scheme succ seds Mr.. Toombs is but SEN
sational word-monger but Mr.. Stephens is a
student, and his reading must teach him, il
L.: L;losonhu does NOT that rarties seldom