Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1873-09-25

Ill.
AS to the first two, | feel well assured
that, like all who know them, he re,
CARDS their manhood as having been
fully established and vindicated on the
battle field, as well as at home.
But, are we willing to acknowledge
that we did n OF contend for the prin
ciples of civil and constitutional liberty?
Ii so, then we were rebels and traitors.
II we did fight for the principles of civil
and constitutional liberty, then where
is the Virginian who will dare to saw.
that be does not desire that those who
are TO come after us shall cherish and
maintain those principles. ~
But it is said that it was imprudent
for Mr. Davis to say anything, because
bis words were likely to be seized
hold Of and distorted from their true
meaning, Really, this is strange doc
trine for a country claiming to be
Republican in its institutions. and
where liberty Of speech has been re
garded as one of the great bulwarks of
freedom. Edmund Burke said that
prudence when carried too far de-
generates into reptile virtue which
IS the more dangerous for the plausible
appearance it wears and this remark
has been cited by the New England
photographer, Webster, or his editor,
TO illustrate the difference between the
words wisdom and prudence. The
prudence recommended by our most
polite politicians very often now
assumes the shape of ''a reptile virtue /"
Why should we care what such Jour
nails as the New York Herald New
! ork 1Ssaes, Washington Chronicle e..
t0oaajse, dc, say about us? Are not all
our acts, sayings, customs, &c, the
constant theme Of Misrepresentation.
perversion and abuse in the daily
papers, pictorial journals, periodical
literature and books of the North9 IF
we cannot have political independence,
let us have independence of thought at
least.
And now let me say, that if there be
some tlme-servers who are willing to
yield the principles for which we con-
tended, there are still those surviving
who believe that good government can
never be restored by an abandonment of
principle, and who intend to vindicate
the principles involved in cur late
struggle, and the motives and conduct
OF those who fought to maintain them
Besides the appeal to the source of all
power and justice, there is another ap-
peal from the so-called s'arbitrament of
arms" and the judgment of those who
are overawed OF seduced by power,
which lies before the Judgment seat OF
foreign nations and postelity, and that
appeal will be taken. It was the pur-
pose OF The convention lately assembled
at the Montgomery White Sulphur
Springs, to inaugurate that appeal, and
If there be treason in that, then let the
adherents oflawless power make the
most Of it. Let the United States
government, if it thinks proper, cal
into requisition its whole military ano
naval power to quell the unreconstruc
ted women of the South, and suppress
the truth Of history Many of its al
herents have good reason to Gread th,
LATTER certainly, but physical powe
cannot crush it. is it feared that tn,
late proceedings in Montgomery vii
cause the Federal authorities to inter
iere in our elections? Do we not know
that all possible means foul as well a.
as fair, will be employed to contro
them anyhow?
In regard to myself, I have this to
say, when with all the ability posses.
sed, was trying to avert the confic.
between the two sectioDs of the coun-
try, the journal, for which the. present
Radical candidate for Governor wa:
supposed TO be writer, designated ME
as submissionist of the deepest dye.
and very plainly ihsinuated that a COM
mission as brigadier- general of militia,
which Governor Letcher had bestowed
on me, would be used for riveting the
letters on my own people. Afterwards
when [ was in the field to defend the
State against invasion, the present
chairman of the Radical Central Com
mlttee, then avowedly an ultra seces-
si0nist, in a letter to the &. Richmond
Dispatch, signed Ithuriel," very
strongly insinuated that was disposed
to betray our cause by a sacrifice of my
command to the enemy, (whom he de-
signated as my friend" in the first
battle of Manassas, when my brigade
made the movement, which both Gen.
! erals Johnston and Beauregard have
said turned the tide of the battle. If
the party of which these persons are
now, 'loyal' members and shining
lights, charged me with plotting treason,
II nav ox,,oo,. = E441. F,, .