Staunton Spectator

As the individual whom we would prefer to see the Representative of this District in the Congress of the Confederate States was in command of a regiment, prepared to spill his life's blood in defence of the rights, honor and independence of the South, we did not think that his services in the halls of Legislation could be obtained, and had prepared a notice in commendation of a distinguished Democrat whom we expected to support for Congress; for the fact of his being a Democrat was no objection to us now, for we could not respect ourself if, in these times, we could be influenced by past party prejudices. We pity the contracted and bigoted soul who is not willing now to merge the partisan into the patriot--to sacrifice party prejudices upon the sacred altar of patriotism--to support heartily and cordially the best man without any reference whatever to his past political status, and party associations. The ink had scarcely dried upon the paper with which our remarks commending the distinguished Democrat referred to had been written when we received the Rockingham Register containing a letter from the individual, whom of all others, we preferred to represent us, stating that he would consent to be a candidate, and that he hoped his present office would not prevent him from being able to serve, but, if it should, he would give an opportunity to have another elected in his place. We were rejoiced that the people of this District had the opportunity thus offered them to elect a man in every respect qualified in the highest degree to represent them in the Congress of the Confederate States. We call the attention of our readers to the letter of Col. Baldwin in reply to a gentleman of Harrisonburg, published in this issue. The possession by Col. Baldwin of integrity, patriotism, ability, courage, honor, and all the moral virtues and intellectual qualifications which adorn private and public character, is so well known in this District that it would be an act of supererrogation [sic] to say anything in commendation of him. He is one of the first men of the country, and the people should be sufficiently alive to their own interests to secure his services as their Representative in the Halls of Legislation. As we are about to put a new Government in operation, we need the services of our purest and ablest men. We are satisfied that the patriotic citizens of this county without distinction of party, (for fortunately there are no party divisions in this county--all being united in patriotic defence of the South,) will take pleasure in voting for Col. Baldwin. We expect this county to cast its vote almost unanimously for her own distinguished son--JOHN B. BALDWIN. Let the people of this county with one voice proclaim Col. Baldwin their choice.

P.S.--Since the above has been put in type, another citizen of Augusta has announced himself a candidate for Congress. We allude to Col. Kenton Harper, whose card will be found in another column.

There is nothing to which persons generally are more prone than to criticise and complain, and so great is this propensity, and so great the temptation to indulge this disposition, that it often influences persons to expose their ignorance and make themselves subjects of ridicule by criticising the conduct of adepts in sciences, about which they are as ignorant as the mole is of topics, or the adder of acoustics. We frequently hear persons criticising the conduct of our Generals, and, with great gusto, expatiating upon the merits of a campaign which they would have adopted, if the authorities had had the perception to discover their remarkable genius for military science and had made a demand upon their services. And that there may be no doubt of their possession of more than Napoleonic genius, they acknowledge that the world does not contain abler or more accomplished Generals than those in the service of the Confederate States, and yet those distinguished Generals have not the capacity to plan campaigns which would meet with their approbation, as they could, without the routine of military education, by the force alone of their native and heaven-endowed genius, plan much better ones. The press is not free from this kind of vanity and self-conceit, and a considerable number indulge daily in their ridiculous criticisms of the conduct of our Generals, and urge them to do what the sound judgment and discretion of our Generals forbid them to undertake. We concur with the sentiments contained in a communication in the Richmond Whig which says: On the Potomac we have at the head of one of the most splendid armies upon which the sun ever shone two of the ablest Generals of the age. They graduated at West Point with distinguished honor long years ago. They are to-day rich in all the wealth and lore of experience. The army reposes the most implicit and unbounded confidence in their military attainments and abilities, and the people join the army in the most enthusiastic admiration of their courage and patriotism. Now, under such circumstances, allow me to inquire what the people have to do with the operations of our army on the Potomac? Greeley raised the hue and cry of "On to Richmond." The Northern people caught it up and Northern hills and valleys were made to resound with the shout of "On to Richmond." As long as it was only Greeley's cry, no notice was taken of it, but when the old scoundrel succeeded in making the people echo it he triumphed, and the order "Forward" was given before the army was ready to move. The result is history. Is the lesson it teaches to be lost on our people? In the same pragmatic, impertinent, and fool-hardy spirit will they persist in the cry of "On to Washington?" What do they know about the condition of our readiness to advance? What do they know about the preparation the enemy has made for our reception? What do they know about the condition of the Potomac, our means to cross it, the number of our troops and that of the enemy? When and where did they receive a military education? Where did they acquire such a vast experience in the science of war that they should know so much better than Generals Johnston and Beauregard when, where, and how to advance? If it be true that our people are becoming diseased with a ricketty [sic] restlessness upon this subject, it is high time that they be informed that it is a matter with which they have nothing to do, and about which it is prudent policy that they have nothing to say. The manifestation of public discontent now may do some harm, but can, in no probable event, do any good. The only possible result that can accrue from it will be to weaken public confidence in those to whom the public should cleave, in an hour like this, with an unfaltering trust. Suppose you were on board of a ship, far away at sea, and a terrible storm were howling around you, would you have the captain and sailors directed by the people that might happen to be passengers on board? It would be equally as wise to do so as to allow the people to have anything whatever to do with our army on the Potomac!

The Northern papers seem to be surprised because our papers speak of the sickness prevailing in some regiments of the Confederate armies. The surprise is simulated. The Southern papers, and Southern letter writers, and Southern officials, tell the whole truth about the condition of their army and their country, whether good or bad, favorable or unfavorable, and thus the people of the South are at all times informed of the real condition of affairs. On the other hand, the Northern papers, Northern correspondents, and Northern officials, studiously and systematically conceal from the people the real condition of their armies and the sufferings of their poor soldiers; and when, by accident, the truth is told, by them, as in the first reports of their rout at Manassas, they at once set to work to convince the people that their own accounts were all false, and themselves liars, or cowards and fools. Northern papers, for telling the truth, are gutted and destroyed by Northern mobs, or suppressed by Northern officials, and their editors arrested or imprisoned without the privilege of a hearing or the hope of redress. A correct report of the sickness, and suffering, and disaffection, and mutiny prevailing among Northern troops, would surprise the public; but it is not so in the South.

It seems to be clear that the Lincoln Government has organized a new United States District Court in Northwestern Virginia, appointing some traitor in place of Judge Brockenbrough, and that this Court has instructed its grand jury to indict, and they have accordingly indicted several hundred worthy citizens of that region for treason. Among those thus branded as traitors by the abominable Lincoln dynasty, we may mention the venerable Gen. T. S. Haymond, of Marion county, who is now in this city, and a number of other refugees from that section. Col. J. Willey is also under the ban. So, also, are many worthy and loyal Virginians whose circumstances would not allow them to leave home. These call with a loud voice upon the Confederate Government to do all in their power to extend its authority over that portion of our State. Let Rosencrantz, Reynolds, and their followers, aiders, and abettors, be expelled by a powerful army, and the true men be enabled to feel the protecting arm of a nation which is a "power in the earth." We feel certain that the Confederate authorities experience a lively interest in the welfare of the people of Northwestern Virginia who are true to the South.--Rich. Dispatch.

There is no country as rich in resources as the South. It is God's favored region, on which his hand has lavished boundless wealth. A single glance at the map, and the most casual view of its numerous advantage must satisfy any mind that it was furnished and destined by the Creator of all things to be the seat of a mighty and flourishing nation. All its features indicate that it was intended to have a national existence and career of its own, and to be tributary to none.

No other portion of the earth possesses such a combination of natural productions and resource. The three great kingdoms of nature, the animal, the vegetable and the mineral, contribute their richest treasures to its aggrandizement.

All the domestic animals which contribute to the sustenance and convenience of man can be reared in this favored region. Horses, mules and cattle find here a congenial clime, in which they reach their highest perfection. Its boundless corn fields can fatten innumerable hogs. The true latitude of the sheep, which furnishes both food and clothing for our race, is in the South. It was Mark Cockerell, of Tennessee, who, at the World's Fair, in London, took the gold medal, in competition with the wool-growers of the world, with wool of Tennessee growth. The mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina surpass even those of Spain as sheep pastures.

In the variety and value of her vegetable productions the South is without a rival. She excels the North in the growth of cereals, while to these she adds cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco and indigo, the elements of an immense commerce, to whose expansion there are no limits. Their magnitude and value are shown by the fact that they furnished four-fifths of the exports of the old Union, and that any interruption in their supply would derange the commerce of the world.

In mineral resources, also, the South possesses exhaustless wealth. She has coal and iron enough to supply the world, and is rich in lead, zinc and copper, and also in manganese, saltpetre, sulphur, salt, and other minerals. The South has, also, a territory greater in extent than that of the leading empires of Europe, watered by innumerable streams, affording limitless water power, with an extended sea-coast, dotted with harbors, accessible to ships of the largest class, and with a climate temperate and delightful and peculiarly favorable to the highest development of the human species.

Added to all these vast and varied resources, the South has a population combining more elements of strength than other of equal numbers on the globe. In her slave population of four and a half million, she has a body of laborers, hardy, industrious, reliable, and adapted to her industrial pursuits, equal, according to late acknowledgments of Northern writers, to double the number of white inhabitants at the North, in productive capacity, and the value of their labor. In her white inhabitants she has a population of freemen who, in point of intelligence, energy and courage, are unequalled [sic]. Animated by an intense love of freedom, an unbending pride, an indomitable personal courage, and a lofty chivalry of character, they can neither be awed by fear nor subdued by force.

Without presumption, we may well rely on the ability of a country with such resources to maintain her independence against the assaults of an enemy twice as powerful as the North. It is well for the people of the South to look at their own resources, to know and feel their own real strength, that they may entertain the confidence which they are entitled to feel in their ability to maintain successfully their present struggle against an insolent foe bent on their subjugation.