Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-04-14

| canlsIn or JEFFERSON. we nave no Sc
curity but in cleaving to the funda-
mental principles of free government.
1t is 10 be expected that special and To-
cal grievances will sometimes result
from the novel and abnormal circum-
stances of the situation. In such case
es passion looks alone to the particular
grievance, and urges violent correc
tives which would so remedy a special
evil for the present as to imperil the
rights Of all for the future But it is
the duty Of the Statesman, while de-
plOring and condemning the special
wrong and sympathising with its vic
tins, to oppose himself unfiinchingly
to the passions of the hour, to take care
that no rash remedy 70. temporary and
particular evil shall jeopardiZe the safe
ty of the whole people, yet at the same
time to apply with firm hand the
most efficient corrective to be devised
in harmony with the organism Of
/ American constitutional liberty.
! In maintaining the views, we neces-
| sarily maintain the avowed principles
and aims of the conservative party
| They are parcel Of its faith. They are
/ III strict consonauce with every au-
| thOritative announcement of it's pur-
poses. What is OF less but of some
! significance, they accord with my
| published acceptance of the Conserva-
! tive nomination for the position l now
hold. They but reproduce the senti-
ments l uttered and emphasized, in
| the late canvass, before great masses
of the people in every section of
the State; and they harmonic with
! such of my official messages and with
such joint resolutions of the General
Assembly as have relevancy to them
1t has been falsely supposed by
few that the Conservative party was
| nothing more than a combination of
white people, organized on TIE idea of
white against black for the sole
purpose OF perpetuating the party SUI
premacy of race. Every where in the
late canvass L denounced that policy
and my review of it, which met with
general acceptance, was, in brief, to
the following effect: That at the close
of the var, and years before the Con-
serVative party was formed, political
adventures had taken the colored peo-
! pie in hand as their pretended friends
and deliverefs had by promises of con-
| fiscation Of private property, and by
| infiamatOry appeals, fred them against
their former masters {; united them in
an oath-bound political party solely
upon the principle of antagonism to
the native white race and had voted
! them almost in mass in 1859 in favor
of the Acknowledgement and test-oath
| iniquities which, if adopted, would
have shH5 out the great body of the
white people from participation in the
| government that such policy meant
| the degradation and virtual enslave
ment of the white race, and the usur-
! patton of all the powers of the govern
| ment by party organized and boun-
| ded by color line; that the Conserva-
tive party had grown out of the calam-
| tiles and necessities of revolution, and
was composed of all the old parties
periodically united together for the
purpose ofrescuing society," civilization
and liberty from the ruins of war
! that the conservative party had by
! their votes and their Oaths in good
faith accepted the new constitutional
| order; that in their four years admin
/ istration of the State government they
! had emphatically recognized the equal
! ity of all men before the law; that in
creating a generous system of Public
schools and in all other legislation,
they had provided equally and impair
TALLY for both races, and had secured
| the same rights and benefits to all men
! irrespective of color; that their aim
was to break and disperse the adverse
ry color-line party, and their final
success would be the signal tor the
! dispersion and extinct of all race
! line com binations, would inaugurate
new erea when colored men, freed from
race enthrallment, would come under
! the same influence and reasons which
! governed other men in forming party
affiliations, VIXEN the politics of our
whole people would return to healthy
and normal conditions, and when men
of both races, combining for the good
| of all, would restore peace and COM
| mon prosperity. After a color-line
| party had been formed, Conservatives
| arrayed themselves against it to de-
| stroy it; and if any man suppOses that
| in thus arraying themselves, they inn
| itated the very example against which
! they waged al DISCRIMINATING war. he
mistakes the shadow for the su distance
of historical truth. If the Conserva-
| tive party has effectually resisted any
evil, it is that of the disastrous dissev-
ering ofthe community into Earring
and hostile classes-inspired by the ia
| tai war-cry of "black against white"
or of 'white against black. AT the
same time and from the same devotion
to principle and to peace, it has resis
ted the tyranny and wickedness of any
intermeddling with the social rela-
tons of the people, of so legislating as
to impair or to touch the social indie
pendence Of any race or class, under
the pretence of comforting civil rights
so-Called.
The Conservative party has broken
down all race combinations in the past
and it will assurely never countenance
within its own ranks any efforts for
their renewal. No such narrow ideas
can ever hem in its organization. mo
pent up utica contracts its powers.
1t not only seeks to promote the peace
and welfare of the State by establish
ing the harmony and cooperation of
the races. 1t is the reimhOdiment of
those true principles of government
which in earlier days gave to the States
and the Union their purity and real
glory. Ii would confirm to the States
all their original, constitutional rights
and powers it cheerfully comedies to
the common government the full mea-
sure of it's delegates and authorities !;
ii steadily resists the tendency of the
hour towards Capitalization it holds
ours to be government of and for the
people, amenable to the people, with |
no powers except such as are derived |
from the consent of the governed; it |
fosters harmonious and cordial rela-
tons between all the States as co-equal |
members of restored Union, and be- |
tween the States and Common Govern |
ments in a word, its voice is clarion
blast which summons all men to rally |
under the standard of constitutional
free government