Staunton Spectator

The county Courts ought to appoint patrols of some guards in every neighborhood. Neighbors ought to organize themselves and be ready to render such assistance as exigencies may require. All that is wanted besides is a little vigilance, but vigilance and organization are not to be dispensed with in such times as the present. We trust these intimations will be received as a word to the wise.

There are other subjects that deserve much attention at this time. The enemy are changing their system of war. The plundering that was occasional and sporadic before, depending somewhat on the character of the commander, is probably to become universal. The country through which they may pass is to be despoiled. The citizens are to be indiscriminately robbed in the latest despatches which have come to us through the enemy's papers, touching the operations of McClellan's army, we find the following:

"General Pleasanton is now seizing all horses to be found for the use of the Government, without reference to the opinions of the owners."

Now, so far as possible, we ought to leave nothing for the enemy to commit robbery upon. At all events anything that has legs, like a horse or a beef, should be driven away before he comes.

The negroes whom he has heretofore seduced, he will probably hereafter constrain. They should be kept out of his way as far as possible in the districts which have been ravaged by the war, these removals will be difficult for the owners to effect for want of transportation and other facilities. We entreat therefore, our Generals in command in the various localities, and those who have the direction and management of affairs to make it a prominent idea in their plans subordinate only to the exigencies of important military operations to afford every possible facility and protection to the citizens in removing their property out of the enemy's grasp. We know that it is the policy of the Commissary Department to draw its supplies from the exposed localities first; and that arrangements have been made to effect this. We entreat all connected with the transportation service whether in a civil or military capacity, to bend their energies to the promoting of the same end. It is a high duty of patriotism, because it is an important patriotic service. We shall thus save our citizen from plunder, deprive the enemy of this source of supply, and secure to ourselves the benefit of all our resources.

Let the citizens themselves be active in effecting the removals we have mentioned. Government should do all it can, but cannot do all it may wish. Take command of your own ingenuity and energy, and act without unnecessary delay.--Richmond Enquirer.

The Richmond Whig maintains that the North will continue the war as long as it is possible for them to do so, for the reason that upon its termination, without the accomplishment of the end for which it was waged, the North would be utterly ruined--the mob would be the only Government, and confusion and anarchy would reign supreme. The "Whig" concludes its article as follows:

It is to avoid such scenes as we have pictured and such a doom as we have traced, that the Northern people will continue the war as long as possible.--They may realize many of its horrors, but they must feel that for them the peace that would result from defeat would be more horrible still. They have the wolf by the ears and dare not let him go.

Is there, then, to be no end to the war? Yes. War cannot last always; and where neither party has the power to subjugate the other, it requires only the constancy that becomes a good cause and a brave race to wear out the party in the wrong. Financial prostration or physical exhaustion will end the struggle in due time. And this, if no accidental cause should bring it to a speedier termination. Of such accidental, or, we might better say, incidental cause, there is a chance in the possible withdrawal of the Northwestern States after a while. They do not profit by the war as do the New England States.--They are not urged on by the demon of fanaticism as are the New England States. They have nothing to fear from the return home of their soldiers, as have the New England States. Reason and interest may, therefore, lead them to dissolve the unholy and unnatural alliance, and withdraw from the bloody and bootless crusade. This would give us peace. The intervention of the Great Powers of Europe is another circumstance to which we may look with reasonable hope. Some time or other, if the war continues, it will come. It may not be as soon as we desire. It may be long deferred. But we have faith--the faith of just deduction from immovable facts--that it will come. And when it comes, it will be potential, all the more for the delay.

From all points of view, our duty is clear. It is to bear resolutely up against all trial; to husband all our resources; to bring every energy to bear; to give all that we have, if needed, and all that we are, to the cause; to make it the burden of our prayers, and the business of our lives, never doubting that success, final and glorious success, will be awarded as when it seems well to the Great Ruler of Nations.