Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-09-03
THE WADE HAMPTON FURRY.

THE WADE HAMPTON FURRY.
Without going into details about the
events following Gen. Wade Hampton's
much discussed address at Stauntonawhl
would be interminable, we may say that
the excitement over it, both among the
Democrats and Republicans, is entirely
unnecessary and must of necessity be Of
temporary existence. As we stated two
weeks ago not one of the two Thousand
Democrats assembled at the meeting at
which the speech was delivered believed
that Senator Hampton in his remarks had
the remotest reference to secession, disso-
luton of the Union, resistance to the gen.
eral government or any of those questions
which were so effectually settled fifteen
years ago. Indeed these issues have so
faded out of the public mind in this Sec
ton that no audience assembled in Vir-
ginia would deem speaker. unless in
sane, as likely to attempt to commend
himself or his cause to their favor by re-
ferring to such obsolete issues. Aside
from this, Gen. Hampton himself in let
tiers written since his address unequivocally
repudiated such sentiments and even dis
claimed the recollection of having used
such language-so absent were such
thoughts from his mind. AS to the mis-
construction of Gen. Hampton's utteran-
ces now being circulated at the North it
will not amount to feathers weight in
influencing the intelligent vote of that
section and its active use will only the
more plainly show the poverty of live issues
in the store house of the Republicans. AS
the New York Nation, - a paper friendly
to the Republican party, says: 1.-THE fran
tic eagerness to hold on to it displayed by
some of our Republican contemporaries,
like the exposure of the English mortgage
es, has painful appearance of poverty
which cannot but be injurious to their
own party" If the North really wants to
know the sentiment of the Southern peo-
pie about Senator Hampton's speech, as
the intelligent portion of it does, it will
find it in the facilitating local matter
| as an instance-tbat nearly two hundred
of our best citizens have signed paper
stating that they regarded it as patriotic
| and unobjectionable from Union stand
point; and certainly not inconsistent with
a perfect acquiescence in the results of the
late war between the States. as embodied
| in the recent amendments to the Federal
Constitution. - And if they desire to know
Hampton's own sentiments they will find
them explicitly set forth in letter writ
ten by him to Hon. VIM. L. Balthis. May.
or of Staunton, on the subject of his speech
and two weeks after its delivery, in which
he says:
ssThe principle upon which the South
1 went to war was her claim to the right Of
peaceable secession. The North denied
this right and Democrats and Republicans
there fought to defeat it and did defeat it
| The legitimate results of the war have
| been embodied in the amendments to the
| constitution, and I have always realized
them as Of binding and lasting Effect
We shall not enter into discussion OF
the exactness OF the reports of Gen. Hamp
toms speech. The only Importance of q
report is to define Imposition of the speaker
and Gen. Hampton having at later date
than the published reports explicitly and
even infinitely defined that position his
| statement should be satisfactory to every
| fair mind and make discussion of the
| newspaper reports superfuOus.