Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-03-13
md OF a voice that is STILL


the sound OF a voire that is STILL
But we do not concede. even from a
practical point of view. that it was
best for the Confederacy to have faiIe ;.
This is a great country, and the Union
is certainly stronger than ever before.
The United States of America is now
one of the gi eatest aud grandest of all
nations and commands the respect and
consideration of the great Powers of
the earth 1t Is a privilege to live in
such A country, and ali citizens are
proud of our nation s fame and pr eStlge.
But for all that, we do not believe that
it was best for the Confederacy to have
fai ed.
Surely no man thought so in the dark
days of reconstruction, when we were
overrun by the ''carpetbaggers' of the
North, when we were dominated by
the negro party. and when the envy.
hatred malice and Observation-Disclosures
of the North were heape1 upon'us to
distress and humiliate us. Ii we bad
not had the pluck AMI character for
which the South was always famous,
we should never have come safely
through this te,rible ordeal. We suf-
fered in every way. suffered from
the tariff, we suffered from the nation
al bank system, we suffered from the
discrimination of the government
against us; and it seemed at one time
as though we were doomed to ever
lasting poverty rs well as to everlast-
ing humiliation. Not only we're the
freed slaves, directed by petbaggers
and scalaways. turned loose as a pack
of wolves to prey upon us, but all leglS
latiOn and all the results of the war
were for the enrichment of the North
and the impoverishmen of the South.
That the South finally recovered and
built up her waste places and became
once again prosperous and powerful
section of the country, is due to the
industry and heroism of her own peo-
pie, and to no help or favor from the
Federal government.
1t would have been far different II
the South had succeeded in the war
and set up government of her own.
The Southern Confederacy did not
seek to conquer the Union, but only to
establish its own independence, as our
Revolutionary fOrefathers had done,
and had we succeeded We should have
made, upon treaty of peace, a much
better bargain with the North than We
did make; and if by and by it had SEEM
ed advisable to unite once again with
the States of the forth, it would have
been upon terms favorable and honor
able to the South. The South would
then have come back into the Union
in all its dignity and sovereignty, and
not as conquered nation to be ruled
by military satraps. 1t would have
been an alliance and not subjugation
and enforced annexation.
But some may ask what would the
South have done with the slavery ques-
tion? Again they may ask was not
slavery foredoomedY Slavery was fore
doomed, and the leading men of the
South knew it. Some of them had al
ready begun to set their slaves free,
and if they had been let alone by the
North or if the Confederacy had
triumphed, slavery by degrees would
have been abolished and the negro
problem would have been worked out
by the rule of justice and common
sense.
The Southern people understood, as
| the people OF no other section of the
country understood, the art of self
government. 1t was in the land OF
chivalry, the land of the cavaliers,
that true Democracy tiourlshed, and il
the Southern Confederacy had been
esta blisbed we should have given q
splendid account of ourselves to the
world. We should have shown to The
world an object-lesson in genuine De
mOcracy-We should have shown to the
| world a model republic.
We say this in no spirit of disloyalty
to the Union. 1t is our country, anG
we love and will defend it against al
corners, as the Southern people have
abundantly proved since the surren
der at Appomattox; but the tact thai
we are now by still waters and in 6
green pasture does not obliterate thu
| retrospect, when we were buffeted or
bloody seas and ate the bread of Attic
tion.
1t is perhaps well that the rising gen
GRAFTON, to whom the deSolatiOn of The
war and the humiliation after the wal
were unknown. should approve those
speakers and writer's who rejoice In
| the failure of the COnfederacy, bu
these young ones know only the pres
ent situation, which is full of hope tt
them. They ignore the anguish o.
their fathers and mothers, and the fac
that with the success of the South
they would have been the sons of tri
umphant heroes and not of men who
! are put on the records of their country
as rebels and traitors. That the cor.
ruption which has followed the Unio1
victory. especially In the distribution
of plumber through prodigaI pensions
would have been checked. That Meth
er in the North nor South would there
have been such truculency in govern
ment as was practiced by the Repub
lican party in the days of it's unbridlei
control. There would have been we'll
balanced parties In both republics and
the two governments would have ne
gotiated on terms of equality and NUT
uaT respect. That the abolition of slav.
cry and the assurance of only one gen.
| eral government in the territory of tht
United States are great benefits in
themselves, is not to be denied. But
these benefits wonld have been attain
| ed by methods less cruel and ruinous
than those which were pursued had the
South succeeded, or, better yet, haG
there been no invasion of the South
and the processes of reason and inter
est been allowed to take their natura
course.