Staunton Spectator

We know that the patriotic citizens of this good old county who have already done so much for the defense of the honor and rights of the South will not utter a murmur of complaint when the tax gatherer calls for their proportion of contributions to the defense of the South. They feel, as is well expressed by the Richmond Enquirer that all we have, and all that we value, and all that is dear to us, is at stake.

A people who number twenty millions have blown the war bugle, and have already resolved to devote an army of half a million men and a treasure of five hundred millions of dollars to our destruction. We have called upon Heaven and drawn the sword, and vowed to defeat them or die. It is a vow and resolution that ennoble out Confederacy, and will be recorded on one of the most glowing of historic pages. It is an ennobling vow, only because it is not an idle one. We have resolved to do and suffer whatever may be necessary to win our success. Let this spirit, then, animate our people everywhere, and in every duty. Let it not only animate our heroic soldiers--as it did on the glorious fields of Bull Run, let it not only cause our planters and property holders to empty their barns, and to hold their wagons and their laborers at the call of our generals--as did the patriotic populations around Manassas: let it not only inspire out ladies to those deeds of mercy and gentleness, which are making them the praise of every camp and the angels of every hospital; but there are other occasions for its exercise: Let there be no murmuring when the government asks for money! Let there be no repining when the tax gatherer comes. In whatever form he may appear, welcome him as one sent to receive the contributions of a patriotic people to the cause of liberty and independence! Contributions necessary to purchase food for the brave soldiers who are fighting for us; clothing to protect them from the weather; guns and weapons and munitions of war, to enable them to fight and to meet our foes on equal terms. If there be a man who wants these, our noble brethren and the heroes of whom we are all so proud half-starved or ill-clad; or wishes to press them half-armed against the foes, let such a man confess himself destitute of all patriotism and possessed of a soul as mean as a miser's and as black as a fratricide's; and then let him as would benefit such a character, murmur against his war taxes. But let all others prepare to bear with cheerfulness the pecuniary burdens which war must inevitably impose, and to bear them in whatever form the wisdom of Congress may decide that is best to take them."

Mr. E. O. Randolph killed his wife at Middlebrook in this county on Saturday night last by stabbing her in the abdomen and arm. She died on Sunday morning. E.O. Randolph is the same person who was tried here some time since as a spy, who a few weeks since stabbed Dr. McCheaney, and who accidently shot Mr. Jacob Prubeck last week. He is either very unfortunate or a very bad man.

With the Richmond Examiner we earnestly conjure all who are not in active military service to prepare for the winter campaign. God has blessed every State of the Confederacy with such abundant crops that we can easily feed an army of five millions of men. All of our energies must now be directed to providing sufficient, warm and comfortable clothing for our soldiers. The soldier is subject to so much exposure that he will need his winter clothing by the first or middle of October. Blankets, comforts, flannel shirts, thick strong shoes and woolen socks, overcoats, warm well-lined pantaloons, padded coats, gloves, worsted protectors for the chest, and numberless other articles, will be needed in immense quantities by our soldiers. Let every hand be busy and let every private purse be open for the preparation and purchase of these and other indispensable articles. The South is full of the raw material from which these things may be fabricated. They should be made at every farm house in the South. There are no fingers too delicate for this work, nor too coarse and ignorant to be usefully employed.

If there are any so parsimonious as to hesitate about contributing to this indispensable work, we must stimulate them to liberality by a simple suggestion. The property of every citizen of the Confederacy, who is not a traitor of the Carlile type, has been confiscated by a recent act of the Yankee Congress. If we are conquered, we are beggared. Lincoln's ruffians will seize every acre of our lands and variety of personality which we possess. If we do not triumph we lose all; whilst on the other hand success in five years will make us the most prosperous and affluent people of modern times.

Liberality to our soldiery has become a great necessity to every property holder in the Confederate States.

Let no sane man think of money-making until every battlefield is whitened with the bones of our sensual, brutal and depraved invaders. Every thought about gain and self must now yield to the wants of our brave soldiery. If, through our neglect and indifference, our armies become disorganized, then will land, slaves, mules, horses, cattle bonds and stocks become worthless, except to the rapacious Yankee invaders.

Every feeling of patriotism and every selfish consideration require us to devote money, labor, indeed, everything, to the comfort of our soldiers.

There are now about 500 sick soldiers in Staunton. They are generally from Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. Staunton is now the great Hospital for the Western Army. The diseases are pneumonia, measels (sic), mumps, typhoid fever and dysentery. Every possible attention is shown to the afflicted. The ladies of the town (God bless them!) minister tenderly to their wants as far as possible. With lavish liberality, they have emptied their larders, their store rooms and their purses, to add to their comfort. But their supplies are well nigh exhausted, and it would be well if their sisters of the South would contribute their mites to the relief of the suffering soldiers. There is no point West of Staunton where the sick can be properly cared for. Hence all who are in a condition to be moved are sent to Staunton, and the number of patients is rapidly augmenting. A dozen nurses could find ample and useful employment in the Hospital, and jellies and other little luxuries for the sick would be very acceptable.

Staunton with a population of a little over 3,000 has 335 men in the field--mainly in the gallant "Stone-wall Brigade." There are few able bodied men left to nurse the sick.

Augusta county, too, has had a heavy burden to bear, but she bears it out cheerfully. She has about 2,230 men in the military service. One half of her white agricultural labour is withdrawn from its ordinary pursuits. She has also been obliged to supply a large proportion of the animal labor used in the transportation of provisions and munitions to the western camps. Almost every farmer has been required to surrender one or more wagons and teams, and there is reason to fear that the withdrawal of so much labor, both human and animal, may seriously affect the next year's crop. But all are in good spirits and unalterably fixed in the determination to resist to the last Yankee aggression, and never again to be in political fellowship with those who have shown themselves willing to surrender the writ of habeas corpus, and every other safeguard of liberty, into the hands of an arbitrary despot.--Rich. Whig.