Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-09-03
ADDRESS TO THE CONSERVATIVE
VOTERS OF VIRGINIA.
STATE CONSERVATIVE COMMITTEE.
August 26, 1872.

To-day we announce the naueS VI un0 Souu
ty canvassers for the political campaign OF 1872.
The list of electors assistant and senatorial cleo
| tors, already published, embraces much OF the
matured talent of the State. In this, with much
| of the same material, we have sought to enlist
the ardor, energy, and zeal of her youth. And
with one exhortation to all: "Speak unto the
children of Israel that they go forward
Can Virginians hesitate? If there be any
disposed to falter, to fall out of the great Con-
servative column as it moves along, let them
consider that there are but two sides here in
this controversy: that with which they have
battled for years for the redemption of our State
and people, and that which has striven and is
striving to infict negro domination, political
| disfranchisement, and the untold woes OF car
pet-bag government On all the people, OF the
| South. There are but two parties IN the coun-
| try: the Grant Radical faotion-whlch treads
with the armed heel of power on the neck OF
| the South which prompts, inspires, and sup
ports the expressions under which she bleeds-
and the great united party of the opposition
| the Democracy of the land and their Liberal
allies. Choose ye between them. There is no
step from Greeley that does not lead to Grant.
| The ''straight-outs" are straight for Grant
| Even the voter who remains silent and inactive
gives him half the influence and effect of posi-
| tive vote.
| Can it be denied that the present Admins
tration supports not only with the public money
and patronage, but by judicial prosecutions, by
corrupt management of the ballot-box, and by
military force, the usurping governments which
grind the States south OF us into dust and ashes;
| which have dishon0red their public faith bank
rupted their treasures, broke down their insti-
tutions of learning and charity; put their legis-
latures, their judiciary, their society, under the
control OF northern adventures and negroes !;
in word, waged war upon the white civiliza-
ton which has grown and fourished in those
States from their foundation?
And what but the successful uprising in Vir-
| ginia 10 1869 makes our condition different from
| theirs? Then we overwhelmed the party
which voted solidly to disfranchise almost every
respectable white man in the State and invest
the negro race with the permanent control of
the State. Then we felt
1--WE all were better in our graves
Than live to be the slaves of slaves"
Has this party changed its character or pur-
poser Their standing resolutions, published
daily before our eyes, assure US that these prin-
ciples now are exactly what they were in 1869.
Grant gives them the custom-h houses which
they turn into seminaries of sedition for there
they conccct their schemes of oficious inter-
meddling with the State elections. which in
purer times would have been the signal for their
instant election from Office, as we hope it will
be again. There they contrive for the negro
vote for control by its means Of the Legisla-
themselves tell us what will fellow. Support
Grant aud you support them.
Do Virginians desire to preserve the State as
an independent political institution? Would
they see the States, the creators Of the Union,
absorbed in the central despotism which is fast
usurpiug its placer Ever since the Grant
Radicals found themselves in unchecked con-
troll of all the legislative and executive powers
of the Constitution they have been unwearied
in building up at Washington centralized per-
sonal government on the ruin Of the States and
the people. With malicious ingenuity they
have perverted the negatives upon the powers
of the States contained in the recent amend
ments to the Constitution into affirmative grants
Of power to Congress to legislate originally up.
on all the subjects to which these negatives
refer. Should this Interpretation continue to be
sustained there will not be left to the States a
vestige of political independence. For exam
pie: the amendments declare that al! born OF
naturalized In this country are citizens, with
equal rights and Immunities as citizens and
that no State shall deny to citizen the right
of suffrage, nor any Of these privileges and i'm.
munities, nor impair their right to life, liberty,
and property, on account of color or previous
condition Of servitude; subject to this condition,
the State may regularly regulate by its laws all
these subjects as before. Thus suffrage must
be impartial as regards color aud previous con-
dition Of servitude, but it need not be universal
unless the State shall so decide. The whole
field oflegislation as to crimes and punishments,
too, remains with the States as before, subject
only to the same conditions. Similar inhibitions
on the States existed before In the Constitution
for example, in the power to pass laws impair
ing the obligation of contracts. Laws Of this
l vrha hav in
them, been declared void by the courts, and
there an end. No one has ever claimed this
negative as grant Of the power to Congress to
legislate originally, certainly not in the absence
of the forbidden legislation by the State.
But without pretence that the States OF
the South have in any instance denied or i'm.
paired the right of the negroes to vote, Con.
gress passed a law (approved by Grant, May 81,
1901 entitled IAN act to enforce the right of
citizens to vote and for other purposes, which
denounces severe penalties against all who in
terfere with the rights of those to sohons the
right OF su6rage as secured By the fifteenth amend
maent to the Constitution" by which severe
penalties are denounced, and many causes of
action are given, over all which eccluSiue iuris,
diction is vested in the Federal courts and an
elaborate machinery is provided for the "con-
Uenaent" arrest and examination of offenders,
supported by indefinite power 10 the President
to employ at his pleasure the navy and army
of the United States. Where an election for
Federal and State officers is held under the
same registration, and at the same time, full
power over the registration, counting, canvass
ing, and returns of votes is given to the Federal
officials, and by an amendment, in such cleo
tons in cities of over 10000 inhabitants, uu-
limited control is given them over the whole
registration and election, the whole being I'M
der military control of the President. And near
| the close of the last session of Congress there
was foisted into the judiciary bill Git could not
pass independently provision that in every
| town and parish in district in which such an
election is held commissioners may be appoint
ed ''of different political parties and able to
read and write the English language" to IL
spect the registration and election and an in-
timidation and corruption fund is appropriated
as follows: And for the expenses which may
be incurred 10 the enforcement Of the act reia-
tive to the right of citizens to vote, of February
28th, 1871, or any acts amendatory thereof,
| three million ta0o hundred thousand dollars"
Moreover, it is fact that five bureaus OF the
| War Department alone have, in the last six
years, according to their OWN admission, sold.
to suit themselves, property of the Government
to the amount OF $l37, 100000, and spentit all
In ways Congress knows nothing about. When
an account was called for in Congress it was
said the money had been mixed I'D with the
regular appropriations so that they could not
be separated shat there was not clerical force
in the department to do it but that the money
certainly went to pay debts of the United States.
Did 1t? And a0lsdt debts?
Nh - H. IL.