The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1872-08-01
PIE MILLENNIUM.

Of the past, which is being cultivated by the
people of the South in adopting Mr.. Greeley
as their candidate for the Presidency, seems
to be only pai tial. It takes in Mr.. Greeley
and then stops. Mr. Sumner is not embra
cei. At the bare suggestion Of his coming
South to speak in the interest Of Greeley
and Brown, the Virginia and Southern De-
1nocratic press enter protest, and announce
that he had better remain at home. IF we
are demanded to forgive Mr.. Greeley, to for
get bis past hostility to our people and their
prejudiccs and education, We think it would
be ominently proper to include Mr.. Sumner.
IF the spirit is genuine, it will do SO. I'm
partial history will rank Sumner as one of the
greatest, if not the greatest intellect of the
age, and oro Of the most penetrating and far
seeing statesmen that the world has produced.
From our earliest recollection Of his pro-
claimed views on the social and political
problems now being solved, he has advocated
and predicted the triumph Of the very ideas
that are fashiouing the legislation of the ma.
ton, aud which have been Incorporated into
the fundamental laws both Of the Federal
and State governments. Certainly there is
no man living or dead, who has given evil
dence of more exalted and consistent adhe-
sion to principle, than Sumner. There is &c
statesman. who has made his impress upon
the policy Of the nation that has more con.
sistcutly and persistently adhered to his con.
victions, and followed them through every
conceivable vicissitude. Twelve years ago
the bare suggestion that Mr.. Greeley would
be supported at this or any other time, by
the Southern people for President, would
have subjected the propagation of the rash
thought to accommodation from all social
aud political recognition. Now, the reverse
is the fact. To say one word against his
eminent fitness to be the leader of the people
of the South, in great national contest is
to draw down upon the head of the man who
~OCo ~ tuC IuipuedtIOu Va uIoIOydIGy w ocC'
ton and enmity to Southern interests. And
this, too, without the retraction or modifca.
ton of a single sentence he has ever written
or spoken in denunciation of the Democratic
party or the social institutions and domes.
tic habits of our people. If forgiveness car
be extended to Greeley, and he embraced a.
the Moses who is to lead us out of the viii
aerness of our troubles, why not extend the
same charity to Sumner While the motives
and the thoughts of both have been the
same, agreeing more harmoniously on ali
public questions than any two men of promi
Eence in the North, Sumner has risen, in
the discussion Of those questions to plane
to which Mr.. Greeley has never reached
lie discussed them as a statesman, Creole,
as a politician. In the massive character o
their intellects there is no comparison. Sum
ner is as far above Greeley in all the attri
butes of craftsmanship as Henry Clay wa.
beyond the reach Of Geo. D. Prentice, or III
Sam johnson was above Boswell
IF, therefore, the millennium has come il
the era of peace and good will among men is
to be inaugurated. we insist that Sumner
must not be left out in the cold Assuming
for the sake of argument, that Grants ad-
ministratioD has been stigma upon Ameri-
can government and Republican principles,
we must concede that not all the intellect of
the North and West, taking out Carl Schurz,
has been equal to his in bringing it into dis
Sepute. If pondsrous denunciation bold and
deadly thrusts at the heart of the corruption
-ineAhaustible resources of sarcasm, and
splendid clocution in the effort to break
down Grant and his party are to be consid-
cred, there is not one who has attained to a
respectable comparison with Sumner. The
most attractive flowers of rhetoric, the most
gorgeous array Of classic lore, the most pow.
erful condemnation of logic grouped and COM
pressed into solid battering.. ram, added to the
intensest venom that ever ranked in human
breast, have been brought to his aid to crush
Grantism aud draw out the unmitieatsd
ioathlng of the American people for his ne.
potism, his weakness, his vices his follies
and the whole catalogue of crimes that are
charged against him.
Then, of all the statesmen that have strut.
ted their brief day upon the nations stage
since the day of Corvallis surrender, there
has not been one so thoroughly american
as Sumner. This sentiment has been pas
sion with him. He has never tolerated any.
thing that could be possibly tortured into a
compromise of American rights or privile-
ges. He has stood by the ''fag' in sunshine
and storm, bearded the British lion in his
den, and flashed his buckram scimeter 10 the
face of every nation on the globe that has
dared to frown at the American Eagle
We insist that the elastic mantle of Demo-
cratic and Southern forgiveness shall be
stretched over Sumner as completely as over
Greeley; that the white winged messenger of
peace shall hover over his head, and the
cheering voice of forgiveness whispered into
his ear, peace Oh earth and good will towards
men.