Staunton Spectator

The election for President, members of Congress, are close at hand. They take place on the first Wednesday in next month. With regard to the Presidential election we have nothing to say, except that it is important for every man who has a vote to give it. The Yankees, with Lincoln at their head, have been contending all along that the secession of the Southern States is a mere partizan movement on a small scale, gotten up by discontented politicians, and that the great body of the people not only do not sympathize with it, but are at heart bitterly opposed to it. This is or was one of the pretexts alleged for invading the State of Virginia. It was contended that a reign of terror existed here, and that the people voted under its influence. It was confidently stated that if freedom of choice were allowed, the large majority would be found opposed to secession, and the federal army was designed to set opinion at liberty, and enable the friends of the Union to express their preference without the fear of bodily harm. Even now the Yankee papers, in sketching their programmes for a winter campaign in the South, reckon largely upon the sympathy of vast bodies whom they suppose to be attached to the old system. There never was a falser assumption, it is true. But it has not been without its effect at the North, where men, if they could be convinced that the whole Southern army was arrayed in heart and soul against the restoration of the Union, would be apt to see the folly of waging a long and expensive war for so unattainable an object. It is proper that these men--That Europe--that the whole world--should be taught the true state of the case, and they can only be taught by the voters of the Southern States. Let the vote be thin, and the people careless and willing to suffer the election to go by default, and they will still have ground for maintaining their present position. Let the turn-out be general, the movement enthusiastic, the vote large, and no ground will be left them to stand upon. We therefore hope that there will be no remissness in this respect. Let every man who can get to the polls deposit his vote. Let none think because there is no opposition, there is no danger, and therefore no occasion for exertion. A large vote, we tell all persons disposed to indulge any chimerical notion to the contrary, is more important now than it ever was before. We must show the world, who are watching us with the deepest interest--we must show our friends abroad, who are watching us with the deepest anxiety--we must show the Yankees and their government, who are watching us with the deepest malignity--that we are a great, united people. That the opposition among us is so small as scarcely to make up that sort of exception which is said to prove a general rule. That the whole Southern people are united in opposition to the old Government, and in favor of the new. That the crisis, in the midst of which we exist, is a mighty revolution, which it is wanton wickedness, in a supreme degree, to attempt to suppress by means of an armed force. That it is the strongly expressed desire of a vast country to change its system of government, as every community under the sun has an undoubted right to do.

EDITOR SPECTATOR: Dear Sir, It is my duty to respond to the call made upon me by "Manassas," contained in your paper of the 8th instant, asking my consent to become a candidate for a seat in Congress from this District. The call is flattering beyond my merit, and I am not insensible to the high honor it proposes for me.

The sentiment of the lamented Lowndes is more often quoted and applauded by aspiring politicians than followed by them. That sentiment was, that "office is neither to be sought after nor shunned by any good citizen, but should be the free gift of the people."

Now, if no other obstacle stood in the way, the fact that I do not, and cannot, suppose myself looked to by the people of the district to serve them in this present great emergency, would of itself suffice to determine my position. Excepting only this public call from "Manassas," and the solicitations of a few friends, personally, and by letter from Rockbridge and Augusta counties, since that publication, and endorsing the same, I have no evidence that I have been thought of in that connection. Moreover, so long have I been withdrawn from the public service, and from all participation in public affairs--except to cast my vote at the polls--that I must be personally, and even by name, unknown to a large majority of the voters. Add to this the just claims of my business upon my time and attention, and I am sure I shall stand excused and justified, even by my most partial friend, for preferring to occupy a private post, and in that post doing whatever I can to maintain and further the sacred cause.

Here I might stop; but I have some things to say, which, if you have room and disposition to print them, I will offer as my contribution to the public expression of popular sentiment about this war and the manner of conducting it.

That, on our part, it is a war waged in defence of our liberties, our homes, our altars, our very existence as a people, all of us must admit and the impartial world will attest. That, on the part of our foes, so lately our fellow-citizens and brethren, it is now become a war of sujugation [sic], even to extermination, all their leading organs of opinion unblushingly avow and all their acts unmistakably show. That in seeking our overthrow and utter destruction they are animated by a spirit the most fiendish, and are daily committing within our borders crimes the most atrocious, impartial History, the arbiter of nations, must forever record to their eternal infamy.

This being "the situation," what is our duty to our selves and our children? What does common sense dictate? Let "Manassas" answer in one brief, pithy, pregnant sentence: "If it takes every man and every dollar in the whole South to maintain our cause the sacrifice must be made."

Have we and the whole South yet begun to come up to that high standard? This beloved old Commonwealth did in May and June last offer herself in the full measure of that spirit of self-sacrifice. She who had so magnanimously played out to its last act, the role of peace and the part of peace-maker, now as nobly took upon herself the role of war and rushed to the van of the conflict. She offered fifty thousand more volunteers than she had already put in the field, and they were refused; were told their services were not wanted. The spirit of the people was repressed by official proclamation. Assuredly, at that time, the State authorities had not risen to the "mark of their high calling." Have they and the Confederate authorities since? It is the most earnest, anxious, unanimous wish of the people to believe that they have, and to be warranted in the belief by the energy of their acts. But what have we done? Our armies win battles, and we lose territory! Which is all one to say, the valor of our troops vanquishes the foe, but the supineness of our administration reaps no fruit of victory.

On the part of the South this is a defensive war. But does that imply or require that we shall stand forever within our own limits and await the attack? Being begun in defence of our every right, is it any the less a war of defence if we strike the enemy in whatever vital part we can reach? Shall we stand within our lines and make proclamation to him by our acts? "Come over to us; leave all your homes unguarded, all your property unprotected. Spare none of your force in their defence, for we shall not assail or molest them where they are, nor even aim to injure your persons except you be found within our territory!" And this to a people who are ravaging us by sea and land! Was ever a proposition more preposterous? Could any war be more sentimentally insane than one conducted on such a theory?

Of course we must not assume the offensive till we are prepared. But we can be fully prepared by the opening of the campaign of 1862, if we will--if Congress wills it and decrees it. Let camps of instruction be established in every State of the Confederacy. Let the quota of each State be fixed by Law, and if the requisition be not forthcoming by volunteers offering their services, let a pro rate draft of the militia be made forthwith, say, if you please, 10 per cent, or 15 per cent. It will be found in every State I doubt not, as I know to be the case in Virginia, that some companies and regiments have already contributed their full, and much more than their full quota, whilst others have done far less than their just proportion. Let these new levies go into camp early in 1862; and a single month's rigid, vigorous training will turn them out soldiers of the very best stamp. They are already such in every element, with only the want of a little practice in the manual of arms and skill to move in company and battallion [sic].

I am no military man, and have no skill to plan a campaign, but one thing seems obvious to me as the noon-day sun, and that is, we shall never conquer a peace except we are strong enough and energetic enough to dictate it either in old Independence Hall, Philadelphia, or in New York City, or on Boston Common, at the base of Webster's statue, according as the backbone of the Washington despotism is more or less strong.

Whilst I am glancing at the duties of our first Confederate Congress under the Constitution, I take the liberty to say they will be criminally direlict [sic] if they fail to probe to the bottom abuses in the Commissariat and in the Medical Staff and the Hospital; possibly, also, in the Quartermaster's Department, though I know less of that.

If it be found that nepotism or favoritism in dispensing Government "patronage" (I think the very word is loathsome) has already crept into the Executive offices, and should high officials be found more concerned about the fleshpots than about the public liberty and safety in this great crisis, then, wherein are we better off than under the old and broken down government? I will not assume that such is now the fact; but, like causes produce like effects. We are living under the same Constitution (with a few slight amendments) than nominally obtains at Washington. A system of government more beautiful in theory and more beneficent in practice, wit and wisdom and patriotism of man never before devised and never will again. And so long as it was administered in the wisdom and purity of patriotism of its founders, it vindicated their highest claims to immortality. But that enormous "patronage" of the Federal head presently grew too strong for State sovereignty, or even for popular liberty; and behold the result in the truncated remnant of the United States! Thank God we are cut loose from them, and I trust forever.

But, hastening to the conclusion of the whole matter, for I have already trespassed too long upon your patience, if we would preserve our liberties after securing them, we must cut off this fruitful source of corruption by limiting within far narrower bounds than at present the powers and functions of the Confederate Congress and the Executive head. We must reduce and simplify its governmental machinery by reducing the scope and object of its jurisdiction--we must reserve to the States, severally, and to the people a far larger residuum of power, delegating to the Confederate agent a few important specific duties. In fine, we must not aim at a grand Union of States presently to be merged into one nationality, but strive for a simple league of independent, co-equal sovereignties, each jealous of its own rights and honor.

Submitting these views for your consideration as a public journalist, and for the consideration of the people who have, in common with you and myself, a deep and abiding interest in the whole subject, I subscribe myself,

Very respectfully,
WM. FRAZIER.
Rockbridge Alum Springs, Oct. 16, '61.

MR. EDITOR: Unmistakable signs of the times point to what may prove a fatal result of our victory at Manassas--an over confident and boastful spirit--and its necessary consequences--inactivity. In the beginning of the war, whilst we knew our cause was just, we also felt our comparative weakness and hence betook ourselves, by a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, to our only sure refuge--the great God of battles. We adopted our motto: "God and our rights." The result was seen in the battles which ensued, but nowhere more remarkably than at Manassas in the mysterious panic of the enemy and their utter overthrow, just at the moment of their apparent victory. We have since indulged in a boastful spirit, and said it was the strength of our bow and the might of our arm which got us this victory, and have forgotten the mighty God who brought about this result. We have dropped into a fatal indifference, and a vain, confident spirit that, we hear, may require a terrible defeat to dispel. Many have ceased to toil, and we fear to pray, for our success. Levity is taking the place of the gravity becoming the calamities we are suffering. Amusements have supplanted the little "lint and bandage circles," and the little "what-can-we-do-for-our-army circles" which once showed the interest we felt in our soldiers and cause.

Is it a time to grow lukewarm, to forsake God, to court amusements and to indulge in levity? We have thousands of sick to be restored; we have three hundred thousand brave and valuable men in the field, and to keep them efficient requires not only all that the Department at Richmond can do, but the earnest, private efforts of every true Southern man and woman who longs for our independence.

We are upon the eve of another great battle. Let us awake to the nature of its untold results. Let us show our patriotism not only by what we can say but by what we can do. Not in finding fault, but striving to remedy the evils we see; not in provoking God by levity, profanity, and a wicked neglect of Him and His truth, but by a solemn regard to his precepts and earnest prayer in public and private. Let a dignified gravity pervade the public mind. Let our temples be filled with His worshippers, and, by taking Him for their "defence and shield," secure His mighty aid, which will give us the victory and a speedy and peaceful enjoyment of our rights.

AN OFFICER IN THE CONFEDERATE SERVICE.