Staunton Spectator

The Richmond Whig says that "no people who respect themselves can desire association with the Yankee race--no State that cherishes independence can trust its fortunes to Yankee government. One by one the bulwarks of State sovereignty, and the muniment of individual liberty, have been destroyed, till nothing remains worth preserving. A reign of terror prevails in the Yankee States, and those subject to them, as complete, if not yet quite so violent, as swept over France in the days of Robespierre. As one of their journals remarks, it requires but one step to inaugurate the scenes of the French revolution when the guillotine was a perennial fountain of blood.

Men and women are daily arrested in Washington, New York and Philadelphia (says a contemporary, summing up the atrocities of the usurpation,) and thrown into loathsome dungeons, without warrant of law, and without being confronted with their accusers or advised of the charges against them. Journals are suppressed for denouncing the actions of the Government. Editors are lynched and their printing offices destroyed by the mob. Forced loans are demanded of the banks. A system of detectives is organized at Washington, to dog the steps of peaceable citizens, report to the tyrants and arrest persons suspected of opposing the usurper's will. No Neapolitan despotism or Spanish Inquisition ever exceeded in the measure of its cruelty, the present Dictatorship at Washington. The Doge's dungeon in Venice, which yet stands a monument of tyranny, is represented in Forts LaFayette and Hamilton, names that are worthy of a more honorable fate. The Government of the United States is prostituted to the vilest purposes of the most infamous men that ever walked the earth. There is no such thing as public or individual liberty in the United States. Men, to be free, must sing paens [sic] to a baboon and worship the Government of usurpers. They must sanction the most unholy war ever waged against a free people. They must approve of the destruction of their own liberties. They must become slaves, in order to enjoy exemption from molestation.

There is more in these arrests than meets the eye. It indicates a deep and determined opposition to the acts of Government, among the wiser and more virtuous men of the North. It evinces that the tyrants are trembling on their thrones and fear the day of reckoning, which will sweep them violently from their seats of power. They fear not only the armies of the Confederate States, which, in the language of a member of the Cabinet, are already "thundering at the gates of the Capitol." They stand in awe not merely of those gallant legions, which have driven them like dogs howling back to their kennels from Bethel, Manassas and Oak Hill. But they fear the, as yet, unorganized masses of their own section, who are preparing for them the doom of Belshazzar, and who will hold them to a just and stern accountability for their crimes. They fear the rising indignation of an outraged and down-trodden people, who have been betrayed by fear and excitement into an acquiescence in the usurper's acts, but who have not been educated in the short space of five months to support the yoke of an absolute despotism, after having received the blood bought heritage of freedom from their fathers, and enjoyed its blessings from their birth.

Meanwhile the Confederate States are calm and impregnable. But for the mustering of the troops, which we see about us every day, we should scarcely know that anything unusual was in progress. No man in the South complains that his individual rights are trespassed upon. No State feels that she is in danger of losing her liberties. Our independence is a fact. Our prosperity is beyond a contingency. The North may hurl charge after charge upon us, but their "Grand Armies" will be routed and driven back, as fast as they come. Ere long foreign powers will be seen marching on the field to salute the victor, and demand, in the name of commerce, humanity and civilization for the sake of the world, the peaceful recognition of Southern independence.

We would invite the attention of the public to the advertisement of Rev. Geo. B. Taylor found in our advertising columns. Mr. Taylor possesses the requisite qualifications to make an excellent instructor of youth. We hope that his school will be liberally patronized. Whilst we are endeavoring to preserve the liberty and independence of the South, we should not neglect the duty we owe the youth of the rising generation, who, in a few years, will be the custodians of the weal and liberty of the Confederate States. The very best investment parents make is the money devoted to the education of their children. It is better to give a child a good education, than to bequeath him a fortune of ten thousand dollars.

The 52nd Virginia Regiment under command of Col. John B. Baldwin will leave this place today (Tuesday) for more active and stirring scenes. Should this fine Regiment get an opportunity to pay its respects to the enemy, we feel confident that it will acquit itself with credit.

We find the following editorial in the New York Day Book of August 26:

But it is said we are "disloyal." Disloyalty!--What is it? To be "loyal" must we believe in "the irrepressible conflict" of Seward, "the negro equality" of Chase, the "ultimate extinction" theory of Lincoln, and that the Helper book is a "valuable political document?" Must we believe that Seward is as great a statesman as Jefferson, that Cameron is as incorruptible as Diogenes and that Lincoln is as learned as Machiavelli? Must we believe that black is white, that two and two make five? In fact, must we commit intellectual suicide? Does Mr. Lincoln's Administration demand all this as the price of "loyalty?" If so, the price exceeds our ability to pay.

But it is said we oppose the Government. How, where or when? Bring on your accusers: let the case be brought before the court. Let me see the counts and the specifications. If to be "loyal" means sincere reverence for the Constitution--a fervent love of the Union--an inevitable repugnance to its overthrow, and earnest labor and exertion to prevent such a great national catastrophe--if these be the price of "loyalty," then do we and have we rendered them cheerfully, earnestly, and with a single eye to the good of our country. What more can we do? We cannot prevent the avalanche of falsehoods with which day after day Republican papers slander and libel us. To ask justice or mercy from these fanatical journals that seek to destroy the independent Democratic press because they fear its power, is to ask the lion to give up its prey after he has caught it. Puritanical tyranny never yielded power until choked into repentance.

At all events our right and duty as an Amer-citizen are fulfilled, and if for this we fall under the ban of official punishment, we shall not fail to protest against the unconstitutional usurpation, or to defend, until the pen is snatched from our hand, the rights of the people, and to execrate, ever though a dungeon opened its portals before us, the hypocrisy of a party which, getting into power under the pretence or regard for the negro, had riveted the chains of slavery upon millions of white men.