The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1872-10-24
POLITICAL PRESCRIPTION.


pies which uudsrlie the organization must be
broad and universal in their application. No
one section or State can expect to have ma
tional legislation SO warped and contracted as
to be applicable alone to its peculiar interests
or in harmony With the prejudices Of its PEG
pie. The people of neither Virginia nor of
the South can expect to have incorporated
into The creed Of any great political organi-
zation asits controlling thought and practical
living idea, their social prcjudices and polit-
cal failacies Whenever such an attempt is
made or idea suggested, the conclusion j.
forced that it is the offspring of narrow-miud-
ed b;gotry and dangerous sectionalism. The
great fault with our people has Been that we
have been two much Inclined to circumscribe
our views to the periphery of our Own geo.
graphical limits, and to forget that there was
an outs ide world whose interests, education
and prejudlccs, were alike entitled to consid-
Grafton in the adjustment Of government pol
icy and national legislation 1t was this re-
stricted one-ideaism that dissolved the great
Democratic party at Charleston ip 1860, from
which sprung all the ills that have flooded
over our people from That time until the pres
ent. We then entertained the very same
general thought, that influences US now
Rather than inaugurate the stepsto disunion
and civil war we deliberately broke the unit
vote of Virginia in that Convention, proclaim
ing the warning to those who differed with
US, that sectlonalism triumphant then, was
bloodshed aud war thereafter How true
that prediction has been fulfilled the history
of the rast ten years too painfully attests.-
We Were then regarded as an ''impracticable"
by those who were carried away by sectional
feeling aud prejudice and the pursuit of an
iynus ti,fuus, which we we're satisfied, and so
declared, would lead to the most lamcntable
results. All know how the more Conserva-
tive States were precipitated into secession
"hitched ON" to the Cotton States, and drag
ged into the terrible vortex of civil war. We
all know how bravely our people fought for
their rights 10 the territories and the priv
lego of taking their negroes where the negro
could not live! We bitterly opposed the first
step, and was then denounced aud prescribed
as is Threatened now, because we were not
true to the South
We merely allude to this incident Of the
past, to show that The present is not the first
time we have considered it our duty to aatag-
onizc party dictation and tyranny, and to il
iustrate that the party whip Las no terrors
for us. Those who are acquainted with oul
editorial course in the past, are aware thai
we have criticised with freedom, and sometime:
with severity both political friends and foes,
in the discharge Of our duty as the conductor
of public journal. We have had the salts.
faction of knowing too, that the great masi
of the rejecting people have generally appro.
ved the sentiments we have advanced
and the dogmas We have advocated. If no
| at the time, either sooner or later AS to thu
eurb-stone politicians, the little tom-tits ane
supple jacks of party, we can afford to le
them futter about, wag their tongues ane
franticaly gesticula'e, at the bidding of their
masters; They are simply the poll parrot.
which do the gabblng. AS to Mia5ing--
drawing conclusions from facts, and studying
the philosophy of events--that is sugges
ton that would startle their empty heads :
An idea, TO couein contact with their scatter
ed brains. would shock them worse than q
galvanic battery paying upon their nervous
syst ms.
But to return to the universally of the ap.
plication of any governmental principle, and
to give it pertincnce. The Constitution oil
the Uuited States and the Constitution of Vr.
glnia, recognize the freei ON of the slave, the
civil and political equality Of the negro, and
as entitled by these fundamental laws, to all
the civil rights and political privileges that
the white man enjoys. Both the Greeley and
Grant parties recognize and have formally en-
dorsed them IL, their platforms, and by every
other known means by which they can have
pract cal legal effect. These we're the results
OF Republican policy and Republican lsgisla-
ton. They have been taken UP and endorsed
by the Democratic Conservative party. This
last organization has planted itself square!y
on the platform of the former. They do not
propose to do anything in contravention of
the policy of the Republican party, incident
to these fundamental changes in the organic
law. They simpl, propose anything to beat
Grant, and elevate ia his place man totally
untitled for the position, a slanderer and rcvi-
Ter OF the Southern people, a fanatic in every
thing, an gamationist and friend of
mixed schools. The whites and negroes botl,
have 10 vote, either for Greeley or Grant
Both parties have persistently labored to Sc
cure the negro vote, and the controlling idea
with the Democrats in nominating Greeley at
Baltimore, was that he would command a
large part of the negro vote, by reason of his