Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-03-29
The BATTLE Is ON.


buzzards, and jackals, and hyenas bt
gathered together" This quotation
is being to some extent verified IN the
gathering of the Republican phalan1
about the Underwood constitution
In these days when the hope of new
constitution dawns upon us and Re
publicans cry partisanism, it is we'll tt
recall the circumstances and some Of
the men or beasts who fixed that oh
noxious measure on the people of Vir
ginia, who held our noses while Others
poured the dose down our throatl
some thirty-fve years ago. Under
wood, whose name our present constl
tuition bears, was Federal judge
His mission in life, be said, was "te
hang Rebels, and especially the arcf
Rebel jeff Davis. He wrote the Davis
indictment. He packed the jury tt
try him. He placed on that jury mer
who had openly declared they would
hang Mr.. Davis if they got chance
Among them the notorious Hunnicu1
whose name at this late day ought
hardly to be uttered in decent society
and can scarcely be without turning
the ordinary stomach. He placed or
that jury Y Yankees who had just come
into Virginia a short time before
known as carpet baggers. He placed
also on it negroes, and-may the Lord
have mercy on his soul and theirs,
what was far worse-deserters from
the Confederate army.
OF Hunnicut, the Richmond Enquir.
er in speaking of that jury said: HE
Is the editor of a dirty negro sheet
published here called the New Nation
an infamouse, inscriptions old
villain. who has been everything from
whiskey seller to preacher"
Even Northern papers denounced
Underwood in unmeasured terms.
The Philadelphia Age said of him:
Judge Underwood, of the United
States District Court in the Virginia
Circuit, has manifestly taken Jeffreys
for bis model, and is impatient to i'm
mortalize himself by re-enacting on
the soil of the Old Dominion the cruel
ties and butcheries of the Bloody
Assizes. On last Tuesday be delivered
an address to the Grand Jury, the like
of which has never been heard of in
any court of justice. we verify believe,
since the darkest days of oppression
of which there is record in English
history.
1t was in these days and amid those
surroundings that constitution was
made for Virginia. High places were
filled with such as Underwood, who
needed tools, such as Hunnicut, and
deserters from the Confederate army.
AS our fathers were disfranchised at
that time, negroes and scallawags, and
carpet baggers and deserters from the
Confederate army, We're our lords and
masters, and how they performed their
work history tells. Have conditions
changed, have the Underwoods, the
Hunnicuts, the carpet. bargers, the
scallawags and the deserters passed
away? Have we only broadminded,
liberal, humane, honest, upright citi-
zens In the Republican party of today?
In outward appearances there has been
a slight improvement, in inward in
tentlon We fear they are still Under
woods and Hunnicuts. That they have
the audacity to continue to saddle the
Underwood constitution on US is some
evidence in that direction, that they
prefer darkness to light" is another.
and that they wish to deprive Virgin
tans of the right to frame a constitu-
tion for themselves, and maintain that
the one emanating from the Under
wood convention is better than any
we ourselves can make, argues that
there are still UnderWoods and Hun
nicuts, scalawags and deserters from
the Confederate army, banded against
the people of Virginia, that there are
those who having enjoyed the sweets
OF negro supremacy and white humili-
alton at one period of Virginia's exis-
tence, would return to it, as the dog
ret urns to his YOmit, or as the SOW to
her wallowing in the mire. With the
Underwood constitution as their
Glbralter we hope the Repu blican press
will, with its usual audacitY and
v1rility-we wish We could add abili-
ty-denounce the effort the people of
virginia are now making to write a
constitution for themselves. We like
the neigh of the war horse as We hear
him champing the bit in his anxiety
for battle. The people of Virginia,
that is the Democrats of Virginia, are
prepared for the struggle, the fiercer
the combat the more they will enjoy
1t. II IN the encounter the gentlemen
who see so much to admire in the
negro and in the results of the con-
Vention which gave us our present
constitution, and SO little to admire in |
white people or in the convention we
are about to elect, get little of the
dose the scalawags, carpet-baggers,
negroes and deserters from the Confed.
crate army, gave US along with the
Underwood constitution as well as on
other occasions, we shall shed mol
tears. We like the tone OF the Repub-
1can press, we rejoice in that politics
In Virginia, no matter how great our
contempt for the men who play it,
which PAGES the negro above the
whites, or denies to our people the
right to wipe the present constitution
from the statute books and in it's stead
put one there they have made them
selves. Your Underwood constitution
gentlemen, is doomed, gather abont