Valley Spirit

There are social errors and crimes difficult to expose and correct without shocking the sensibilities of the virtuous and suggesting evil to the innocent; and extend themselves without resistance until society is threatened with utter corruption and decay. Such is the fact now with the crime of infanticide before birth, or more accurately, foeticide. So general and destructive has this crime become as to cause reasonable alarm, and at length the silence is broken, and the doctors of medicine and divinity unite in solemn remonstrance and appeal against its guilt and danger.-Dr. Morse Stewart, an influential physician of Detroit, Michigan, has contributed to the Western Medical Review, a paper discussing the physiological effects of abortion, as well as the moral guilt of the practice, and making startling disclosures as to its prevalence and the immense amount of disease and death resulting from it. Dr. Stewart declares that his statistics, confirmed by the observations of physicians, prove that there is no crime more surely punished in the persons of those committing it, than that of abortion, and that more lives are lost by it than by childbirth. Of those who survive the operation, the majority are made invalid for life, by a complication of incurable disorders that break down the constitution and often produce insanity.-When the attempt fails, the child that escapes the fate plotted for it, and often the succeeding children, will be deformed, idiotic or diseased in various ways. The crime is never safe, and when the evil consequences of the unnatural act are apparently evaded at the time, they are certain to be developed later, and to bring terrible retributions upon the mother.

There is general concurrence in the opinion that the practice of abortion has rapidly increased within a few years until it may be said to be common, Dr. Stewart declares that if every mother guilty of it should be hung for murder, the married women would be almost decimated, for the criminals are chiefly married women. For the single woman, deceived and betrayed, there would seem to be some excuse in resorting to this means to conceal her shame. The wife, who desires to escape the pain of child-birth and the trouble of rearing offspring, and so ruthlessly outrages her maternal instincts and destroyes her unborn children can not satisfy her conscience with the selfish and cowardly reasons which move her to ten unnatural crime. A New York physician states that there are in that city over four hundred professional abortionists, most of whom do an extensive business and some of whom advertise in the leading papers. There are establishments for the purpose adapted to the different classes, some fitted up luxuriously for the rich, who pay as high as $500 for the service. Besides the professional abortionists, there are some regular physicians who secretly assist there patients to the commission of the crime at their own homes, and hundreds of ignorant quacks, men and women, to fall into whose hands is almost certain death, and whose sole recommendation is that they do their work quickly and cheaply. The specifics advertised in the Metropolitan papers for causing abortion are generally but baits and advertisements of practicing abortionists, for they almost invariably fail of their purpose, while the directions accompanying them, point to the establishments where the work may be surely accomplished. In addition to these systematic methods of procuring abortion, the physician says they are called to prescribe for many women who have attempted the crime upon themselves, with such crude means as were in their power, and these are some of the worst cases in their results of sickness and pain.

Abortion would seldom be practiced if it were felt to be a crime. There is a prevailing notion that the life of the human germ is not sacred, that it may be destroyed without guilt at any moment before it exhibits life, or indeed, at any moment previous to birth. Dr. Todd tells us that Catholic Christians are better instructed on this subject than Protestants. The confessional guards human life from its first stage, and fearful penalties are threatened against those who interfere with its natural growth. The Catholic Bishop of Boston says on this subject:

The very instant conception has taken place, there lies the vital germ of man.-True, it is hidden in the darkness of the womb, and it is helpless; but has sacred rights, founded on God's law, and so much the more to be respected because it is helpless. It may be already a living man, for neither mothers nor physicians can tell when life is infused; they can only tell when its presence is manifested, and there is a wide difference between the two things. At any rate it is from the first moment potentially a man, with a body and soul destined most surely by the will of the Creator and by his law, to be developed into the fullness of human existence. No one can prevent that development without resisting and annulling one of the most sacred and important laws established by the Divine Author of the Universe, and he is a criminal, a murderer, who deals an exterminating blow to the incipient man, and drives back into nothingness a being to whom God designed to give a living body and an immortal soul."

Dr. Todd asserts that the practice is far more common among Protestants than among Catholics. In this fact, doubtless lies the explanation, in whole or in part, of the decline of our Protestant population as compared with the Catholic. It is not common to find more than two or three children in our Protestant families and those who have abundant means for the care and education of children are more likely to limit their families by unnatural methods than their poorer neighbors. Women in the very highest circles of society evade the duty of maternity on the pretense that they are too delicate for it, and by that evasion often become helpless invalids for life, while all observation confirms the fact asserted by Dr. Todd, that "the fairest, healthiest, happiest, most respected and most useful women that ever lived, have been the mothers of large families." It might also be shown that many cases of domestic infelicity and alienation of husband and wife, of late so common, originate in premature sterility caused by the attempt to circumvent the divine law. Our women need to be taught that the laws of nature cannot be evaded, nor its processes obstructed in any way, without incurring the penalty. And the penalty will be fearful in proportion to the crime and perversion.-Health and enjoyment, of body, mind and heart, come only through obedience to law.

The Radical policy of reconstruction is rapidly bearing fruit at the South. Richmond being the first point of attack in the new war inaugurated by the Radical party against the people of the South, we naturally look there for the first fruits of the campaign, and we need not in vain. Thousands of worthless negroes have been congregated there through the agency of Hunicutt and his Yankee co-laborers, with the view of organising a grand black Radical party, with the Richmond niggers as a central nucleus. A black "loyal league" has been established there, through which it is hoped the darkies in other portions of the state can be reached in due time, and manipulated so as suit the purposes of the Radicals in Congress. It was in Richmond that Senator Wilson made his great debut before the colored citizens of Virginia; it was there that the thousands of Africans assembled, according to Forney, were so overcome with profound reverence for the big-bellied Senator from Massachusetts, that they were unable to greet him with a single cheer, but stood in silent awe before him with heads uncovered! Richmond, as we said before, was the initial point of the Radical campaign against the South. Now for the result.

In the early part of last week, a number of fire companies met in the lower part of the city of Richmond for a trial of their engines. As usual on such occasions, thousands of idle negroes assembled on the ground. One of their number was arrested by the police for disorderly conduct. The other then made a riotous assault upon the officers of the law, and rescued the prisoner. A general negro riot ensued, which was only quelled by Gen Schofield ordering the U. S. troops, who had been sent to the scene, to drive them from the ground at the point of the bayonet, which was accordingly done. A few days later another riot occurred in the same part of the city, and growing out of a similar cause-the arrest of one of their number by the police. The Telegraph gives the following account of it:

RICHMOND, May 12.

Another negro riot occurred in the lower part of the city last night. The negroes attempted to rescue a drunken negro from the police. Bricks, clubs and pistols were used, and four policemen badly beaten.-One of them is severely injured. A company of soldiers guarding the Libby Prison were called on, and captured eighteen of the rioters.

While this was going on, another negro difficulty occurred on First street. This last mob dispersed upon the persuasion of a colored juryman. To-day mounted soldiers patrolled the streets to keep order, and squads of police were placed at all the churches, in view of threats of the negroes to force their way in amongst the white people. A large procession of negro societies attended a funeral to-day, accompanied by an unarmed company of colored militia, the officers of which carried swords.

These are some of the first fruits of the Radical policy of reconstruction, and of the attempt to organize a "black man's party" in the South, in opposition to the whites. Wilson has gone to other cities and towns further South, haranguing the negroes and organizing them into a Radical party. The same results will doubtless follow his efforts elsewhere which so speedily developed themselves in Richmond. How do our Republican friends like the prospect? How do they relish increased taxation to keep up a large military force in the South to quell negro riots, incited by Radical emissaries for political purposes? If we find these things in the green tree, what may we not expect in the dry?

We are also informed by telegraph that some citizens of Richmond have laid before General Schofield a complaint about the language used at a colored meeting on Friday night last. The General promised to investigate the matter. Subsequently one of the speakers, a Yankee, named Frederick K. Hayward, of Massachusetts, was arrested on a warrant from the Mayor for uttering the following incendiary language to the negroes:

After Judge Underwood leaves, you can hold high carnival, or what you please. I need not advise you what to do, for great bodies do as they have a mind to.

Such are a few of the beauties of Radicalism-these are the evidences of its practical workings. Who would not belong to the party of "great moral ideas?"

We are glad to see it stated that General Schofield told Judge Underwood that if there was any more rioting on the part of the negroes, "he would plant cannon in every street and sweep the rioters down with grape." This evinces the right determination, but if he would go to the root of the matter, he should send for Wilson, Kelly, Hunnicutt & Co., and "sweep them down" along with the negroes. They are the real criminals