Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-02-11
AN ACT ENTITLED AN ACT TO
AMEND AN ACT &c.

FRIDAY MORNlNG, FEB. IL, 1876.
AN ACT ENTITLED AN ACT TO
AMEND AN ACT &c.
There is nothing in which your average
American has more confidence than the
efficacy of acts passed by their legislative
bodies, from Congress down. 1t is his SOW
erign panacea. There Is nothing he thinks
can stand in the way of an Act. If he
wants to make an addition to the voting
power Of the South which shall always vote
the right way, he passes an act clothing
several hundred thousand ignorant negroes
with the franchise. and bids them 60 on
and exercise their privilege. When, utterly
unfit to perform the duties OF their new
office, they fail, he passes another 'act''
protecting them and supporting them, and
Furnishing other people, as responsible Tor
their failure. 1t never enters his head that
the mere calling CT the ayes and noes on
bill don't put intelligence in the voters
head nor courage in his heart and that
YOU can't make voter by it. They find
that when you take possession of coun-
try, and put strangers OF renegades to rule
it, trouble must come, but instead oflgoing
to the root of the matter they merely pass
ian act entitled an act' to punish the gov
erned people instead Of the governors, and
consider the matter ended. They intro
duce resolution in the highest legislative
body of the country declaring that the
doctrine of States rights is dead, and that
the people no longer believe in it, as if the
thousands both North and South who be-
lieve in the theory, and have believed it
all of life time, could change the opin-
ions of years just by the adoption OF sheet
of paper. Great battles, such as the South
went through, kill those doctrines dead,
but they don't disprove them. This is,
without doubt, a nation, but it would be a
qualification of all their lives for the pres
ent generation Of men in the South, or
rather the generation that fought the war,
to pretend that they hadn't been educated
to believe that it was a Confederation OF
States What good would there be in a
resolution on paper declaring the belief that
this is nation? It is new idea for us,
and rapidly gaining ground, and the South
is willing to do as much to make it a great
nation as the North, but what would be
the use of IAN act entitled all act" decla-
ring that it is. The whole business Of i'm.
agining things as done, merely because they
are put on paper, is like counting a railroad
finished just because the map of the route
is drawn. The Republicans have several
times run the government engine off the
track, under the belief that the whole roa6
of reconstruction was finished, while OF
some parts of it they have hardly laid ths
ties.
In Virginia we have pretty much TIT
same idea of what "an act' will do. Tht
people look to the Legislature as it it could
pass some resolution by which, as it b,
magic, all our troubles could be removed
We will have to learn that there is no legls
lation on earth that could lift our deb
from our shoulders, and that it is no US
looking to Richmond for help. Our onl
show is to work it out, by working up to it
Every time the sun rises and sets in Vir
ginia, if OH people have spent the tWelv
hours intervening in work, we are tina
much nearer to the solution of the deb
question Whatever windfall of luck t.
make the time easier, shall come, must COM
from the creditors Of the State who hav
already made two offers, the last better thai
the first, for a settlement. AS for ourselves
NO oan only work and wait. The creditor
of Virginia take a business view Of it, jus
as the creditors of business man would dc
They don't wish to press her to death;
wouldn't pay to do it. II our people vii
only go on and work, as they are doin
daily, the debt will pay itself, and the onl..
s.act entitled at act'' that will be necessary
will be one retiring the State bonds whel
they are paid.