The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-05-06
Exploded FalIacfes.


the past few weeks are the same that were
brought to an issue in 1861. The theories
of government and the constitution which |
he now maintains are the same which
went down in the shock of battle when the
attempt was made to put them into prac-
tical operation. They are theories which
were honestly held by many of the leading
public men of the South, and some Of the
North but all Democrats, i until the arbitra-
ment of the sword determined that they
were not part of our institutions or gov
eminent economy. They are theories which
had their birth in the fertile brain of Mr..
jefferson, fresh from the revolutionary
scenes of France and the inspiration of
the Red Republicans. who held TO misty
notion that pure Democracy was the only
system of government consistent with the
dignity and natural rights of man. These
theories had their origin in dreamy specu-
lations and not in the practical tests ofgov-
eminent machinery. They were the pro-
duct of refining intellections. which found
ready disciples in the cultured classes OF
slave holding community where leisure
and idleness were the natural outgrowth OF
the labor institution. No government ne
cessity inspired them. No practical de-
| ficiency in the experience of the people,
affecting their rights CT interests, de-
manded them. No well grounded APP
prehension of perversion of the original
design of the Republican theory, called for
them. They were conceived and brought
forth in the speculative fancy of minds
nurtured and matured under the influences
of an industrial system which divorced the
cultured and favored few from the harsh
attrit1on of the practical things of life,
and set them apart to indulge their specu-
lations in distractions and refining notions
of a government which would administer
itself without the intervention and con-
trolling agency of central power. In such
| a utopian atmosphere State sovereignty
and free trade had their birth. 10 the ear
and the imagination there was something
very winning and attractive in them. They
were accepted as fundamental truths in
government and religiously maintained as
the only true theory upon which the Re-
public could exist.
But like all air-castles, when forced to
encounter the practical, to answer to the
d emands of the necessities Of a press
ing condition, they collapsed, and left moth
ing but the regrets which fostered delu-
sions, when dissipated, always leave as an
inheritance. When the heresy OF seces-
sion, the elimination of the theory of
State Sovereignty, was brought in issue
with the preser walton OF the Unlon-Wlth
the predicate that the government insti-
tuted by the constitution was to be per-
petual-.its hollow pretense, its ideal nature,
its unreal, impractical character could not
stand before the stern bulwark of the Gen.
trail power which had its source in the
fundamental condition that the govern
ment was supreme and its authority must
go unchallenged. The great mass of the
people Of the Sonth, and even the leaders
in public thought, have honestly surrenv
dered their belief in the doctrine of seces-
sion as remedy for any ills that may af-
feet the State. They recognize that it was
brought to bloody trial and proved de-
fusion and snare. The constitutions of
the several States which attempted to put
in practice the theory contain formal ac-
acknowledgement of its fallacy. 1t is left
for Mr.. Davis to reSurrect the exploded
notion and fame it before the country as a
| living reality, when all the people recog
nize that it was buried for all time to come
twenty years ago.
The spasmodic enthusiasm and wild craze
with which Mr.. Davis was greeted in his
appearance at Montgomery, and the ova-
tion which attended his journey to At
lanta, to Macon and Savannah ought not to
be accepted as serious approval of the ideas
he has presented in several of his ad-
dresses. Rather should it be taken as an ex-
preston of sympathy for the mental sui
fering and the m notification he has en-
dured in the failure of his ambition for the
establishment of Southern Confed eracy,
in which the people Of the South were as
earnest as himself so long as the issue was
undetermined. His appearance in public,
on an occasion such as brought him to
Montgomery, was something akin to one
risen from the grave and it was because of
the common sufferings which the commu-
mites through which he passed had gone
through that the exuberance of the demon
stration may DE due, and not that the ideas
he proclaimed are held or approved by
those participating in the ceremonies. -
Mr.. Davis simply proclaims himself pet
rified Bourbon. The lessons of the war
and it's results have no meaning to him ex-
cept of physical defeat and frustrated
plans. He recognizes no great principle
settled He cannot understand that the
political distractions which grew out of
the civilization Of the slave system, have
been unequal to the practical demands of
government. He is too prejudiced and
proud to acknowledge that the ideas of
Washington and Hamilton have been vim
dicated-that the refnings of Jefferson
and of Calhoun, have proved abortive, and
that our free institutions cannot exist I'M
less there is located a supreme power in
government to compel obedience from
States and people. There is no danger,
however. of these negations of Mr..
Davis changing the current of public
conviction-reverslng the verdict of'Appo-
mattox, or resurrecting the ghost Of the
Southern Confederacy. They only go to
show what fools we mortals be" some
times and how the preconceptions of early
life may be so crystalized as to be imper-
vious to the modifying influences of gen.
Grafton of benedictions flowing from
crushed hopes and rnined ambitions.
One thing the South has not yet practi-
cally learned in its fnll meaning, and that is
that slavery, and all things emanatiDg from |
it, was curse. When she shall grasp
the fact that State Sovereignty and free
trade were the outgrowths of the slave sys-
TEN, and that the South can never pass to |
the positionshe should occupy as an inte-
grail part of the Union until these relics OF
the peculiar institution are rooted out and |
utterly repudiated, then we may expect a
new and more benefcent dispensation,
and wiser comprehension of our duty |
and destiny and higher ideal of the
purpose and mission of government.
Sc MT ;,,onpoc;fa bora to n,optiOn tho