Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-03-06
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divide, and are dividing upon the live
economic issues of the day. The great
body of the hitherto deluded and
much exp. oited negroes are now be-
ginning TO zee who ara their real
friends; they are realizing that the
interests of their white neighbors. and
their own, are identical. and that, after
all. the white mans government is far
best for both races. This new status
is welcomed by all good crtiz.ns of the
South. regardless of race or politics,
and is regretted and resisted onlv by |
professional agitators and political
adventures distracted othellos with |
their occupations gone. But we let
the heather rage-iti is but proper th; t
they she uld.
The body of this death having been
at last shaken off, the new American
Of the South is now arising in his
strength like young and lusty giant,
full of vigor, hope and good will. His
weary labors in the field being doue.
the marsh lands drained. the dykes
made safe, he is now ready to enjoy,
with his brethen of the North, the
East and the West. the fruits of his
labors, in the blessings OF our common
prosperity. He has returned to the
mansion house of his fathers, not
sham. faced and detected like pro-
digal son, but, with the testimony of
a good conscience, ruddy.checked
and enthusia stic. He does not hum
bly, pray to be permitted to dine with
the servants but, with a confidence,
born of his own worthy toll which has
contributed to the good cheer, he has
taken his seat at the banquet table, Is
already helping himself freely to the
rich dishes of railroads, banks. mines.
factories, commerce and agriculture,
and, if you boys of the North. East
and West, do not be aware, this husky
young fellow from the South will yet
| get the cake also at Prosperity feast !!
But what if be does ? Its all in the
family''-the reunited family, from
| which jealousies and discords have
been forever banished (; for, let me say
| bere to our Northern brethen, that,
with us of the South, the old enmit1es
are all forgotten, and that for us Sec
tional lines exist now only to stimu-
late generous emulation in the up
| building and cementing together of
our great and beloved country, for
above all, and before all, We glory in
our American citizenship.
Foreign nations, who knew not the
loyalty of our hearts, seemed, before
the recent Spanish war, to think that
the Southern people were filled with
sullen resentment against the North,
ard would hold alOOf In a war of the
| I'm on. But the prompt and generous
enthusiasm with which the Southern
youth, at the first blast of the trumpet.
rushed to bare their breasts in the
defence of our common country, has
convinced the world that in Dixie
land at least, blood Is still thicker than
water, and that, with the Southern
people, wheI you strike one American
you strike them all
The time has passed, Mr.. Chairman,
when this great country was inhabited
by distinct white peoples, between
whom strife was possible. The pure
metals which formed the old time
North and South were fused together
in the fierce crucible of civil war, and
now exist only as constituent elements
of the new and wonderful material of
American citizenship. from which has
been created our beloved and glorious
country, impregnable from without,
invulnerable from within-esto per-
petual!
But this great achievement was not
wrought out by civil war alone. Mach
has to be done to the metal after it
comes from the crucible, before it is
the finished product and many years
of earnest work and weary vigil were
necessary, after the war, to save the
great Southern portion of this land
from the black death that threatened
| it. This work Is what the Southern
people for generation, have been en-
gagged in, while their more fortunate
Northern brethren were less disagree
ably employed. But now, at last, Ills
done, and securet, a happy, prosp-
erous, and loyal people, in the South,
are rejoicing in the name Of Ameri-
cans, and participating in the common
destiny of great nation This is the
work of the Southern people since the
tciviI war, and this is what they have
accomplished by their settlement Of
the NEGRO question: that once rent
our land in twain.
Just as Washington and bis fellow
patriots, for eight long years, fought
to gain the independence of our coun-
| try, SO has the living race of Washing
ton, against disheartening obstacles,
for thirty years and more, to preserve
that independence for themselves and
their children and to rescue their coun
try from the brutalising degeneracy
of attempted negro domination.
Thanks be to God, they also have been
successful.
| Methinks / see the Genius of our
country, enthroned-at last with peace
in the midst of smiling and happy
land, dealing out to all her children
from her horn of plenty; but saying,
with gratitude and appreciation, to her
weary, though victorious, Southern
son. who for SO long has fought in the
political trench to save his home
and his race for the dominion of the
| white man:
"Unarm, Eros, the long days task Is done.''