The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-01-03

not be trusted.

.ort to give them good governnacnt- to en-
force the laws ina spirit of fairness. and TO
relegate Is .tEell the management of .heir
own afairs, Subject to natlonaA Laws and
authority. Those who haunt the avenues OF
Washington and the approaches to the
White House and the Departments, asking
official recognition as the price of their con-
ciliation, or the influence they may control.
are not worthy of confidence. Their actions
will revolt the honest impulses Of the peo-
pie, and if influence they ever had, it will
leave them, for the people are not for sale
in that way, and are governed by mere ex-
allied motives.
1t is plain that the effect of The pacific
policy of the President, has been to loosen
party ties very much in the South. 1t Is
question whether thefe is a Republican par
ty in that section now: and with almost
equa! verify it may be asked whether there
is Democratic party, either in Virginia,
Georgia or Tennessee. Stale issues have
shaken the old organizations to pieces. How
the disintregated elements will crystalize
hereafter, we cannot say. We think, il the
influences now at work, shall continue to
operate, PARTIES will never again be formed
upon race and sectional issues. The people
realize the great harm which has lesulted
to material interests from them. Capital
and ENTERPRISE have been driven away from
us by them, and it is material development
the country needs The strengthening OF our
physical power, through the legitimate en-
| ployment O. mind aud muscle. and the utili-
cation OF all the agencies beneficently be-
slowed upon us for the attainment o. great
Ell prosperity and higher civil cation. Re-
publican principles are not inconsistent
with, but are conducive TO this. They are
the principles which assimiate with the in
terests and yearnings OF the great mass OF
the people, and whether accepted under
Republican nomenclature o.: not, they will
still continue to work out the grand results
of human advancement and material pro-
gress-in short, American Destiny.
Our Republican friends i'll the North
should think OF these thing, an.' whether
in their zeal for their views of what a Re-
publican President should do, from Il North
ern standpoint, they are no. doing griev-
Gus injury to the people of The South, ire
spective of parties. No true friend OF the
, South desires to see revived the old party
hates and prescriptions which have brought
; so much misery and inflicted so much suffer-
ing in that section. 1t would be better that
partizan aeitalors should have mil stone
around their necks, than the great mass of
the constituent body should be kept in a
under influences which can have no posi-
BILE compensating good. The Republicans
of the South have endured much-have had
their metal and convictions tested as ii by
! fire. They have faith in the principles they
have professed and maintained, and do not
believe that any mutations of parties can in
the least change their adapta5ility to the
wants of tile nation. They have no ambi-
ton, however to longer play the role OF
martyrs. They have faith, too, in the Presi-
dent. His history, fIom the bllth of the
Republican party, has been but ar express
| sion of devotion to those principles, and
while, as we have already stated, we Go not
, endorse every act of his administration, in
dealing with the complications which con-
front him, we bayc ar abiding confidence
that he will maintain them in their integ.
ritY, and work out benelicept results during
his term of Office. He has been deceived by
few political marplots in the South, and
from these he should keep aloof. But this
does not imply that his policy should be
abandoned, nor that the confidence OF the
people will be withheld from him, because
he has weighed and found wanting some OF
his pretended friends. The necessities OF
! the case nor of the country do not demand
that the Republicans OF the South should be
sacrificed, and stricken down il, their man
. hood, to appease the greed OF the corrupt
, and selfish politicians who are incapable of
: comprehending the true dignity Of patriot
ism, or rising above the pitiful derces OF
the cross-road statesman. The Southern
democrat, whose highest ambition is for
good government and the prosperity OF his
section and the whole country, does not re-
, quire this. He will plainly tell the Presi-
dent, as hundreds of them have told us, that
they do not think it is right, for they would
not consent to such a policy in their own
party. They recognize that there is snlfi-
Gent capacity and virtue in each party to
administer the government in the Interest
OF the people, and that there are Republic
cars in the South identified with her inter-
ests and people who are capable of filling
the Offices in the South without compromis-
ing the government or harmfully affecting
the community in WHICH they live.
Northern Republicans should recognize,
too, the fact. that the political adventurers
WHO drifted from their section to the South
upon the pestilential current OF war, did
not constitute all of the Republican party,
and that their absence is not an absorption
of the virtue and intelligence of the South
crn Republicans. 1t is to them, and their
mistaken policy that the South owes much
Of its agitation and misfortune, resulting
from race issues, and the present compost
ton OF the two parties. A large majority
Of the white people OF the South were hon.
est in their acceptance of the results of the
war. and but for the forma;io ion of leagues
composed entirely of colored people, the
whites of the Soath would have divided
upon nation Il Questions, with preponder-
ance in sympathy and support of the gov
ernmept. Nothing could have been more
opportune for agitators and lemagogues
than the organization OF those Leagues, for
it gave them the excuse to appeal to race
and sectional passion and prejudice, Ind to
crystalize this feeling into party canons.
From this has flowed many of the ''direful
wocs' which have deluged the South, and
arrayed the Southern people substantially
against the government. The great body
of the people did not want to be thus
aligned, but the harsh and arbitrary de-
maids of party leaders, and the agencies
they employed to enforce obedience, over
came their better judgment, and Wigs and
Il un;on ,nou ond eooaseiop;ctc ho