Staunton Spectator

After more than two years of warfare scarcely equalled [sic] in the number, magnitude and fearful carnage of its battles--a warfare in which your courage and fortitude have illustrated your country and attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad--your enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake your determination, and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion in the vain hope that by a despearte [sic] effort success may at length be reached.

You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, your wives and children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your homes, and they debauch the inferior race, hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they would be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization.

Fellow citizens, no alternative is left you but victory, or subjugation, slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country. The victory is within your reach.--You need but stretch forth your hands to grasp it. For this and all that is necessary is that those who are called to the field by every motive that can move the human heart, should promptly repair to the post of duty, should stand by their comrades now in front of the foe, and thus so strengthen the armies of the Confederacy as to ensure success. The men now absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to create numerical equality between our force and that of the invaders--and when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victorious? I believe that but few of those absent are actuated by unwillingness to serve their country; but that many have found it difficult to resist the temptation of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for temporary attention to their affairs with the intention of returning, and then have shrunk from the consequences of their violation of duty; that others again have left their posts from mere restlessness and desire of change, each quieting the upbraidings of his conscience, by persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence on the general result. These and other causes (although far less disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger, or to escape form the sacrifices required by patriotism,) are, nevertheless, grievous faults, and place the cause of our beloved country, and of everything we hold dear, in imminent peril. I repeat, that the men who now owe duty to their country, who have been called out and who have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented themselves form their posts, are sufficient in number to secure us victory in the struggle now impending.

I call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten to your camps, in obedience to the dictates of honor and duty, and summon those who have absented themselves without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair, without delay, to their respective commands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy, now absent without leave, who shall, with the least possible delay, return to their proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absentee may be at the date of the publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused of, or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for, absence without leave or desertion, excepting only those who have been twice convicted of desertion.

Finally, I conjure my countrywomen--the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters--of the Confederacy, to use their all-powerful influence to those which their patriotism has no freely and constantly offered on their country's altar, and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home, from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Confederacy States, at Richmond, this 1st day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.
By the President:
J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State.

The papers throughout the Confederate States are requested to copy the above proclamation, at the earliest moment, and for twenty days thereafter, and send their bills to the Private Secretary of the President.

Again do I call upon the people of the Confederacy--a people who believe that the Lord reigneth, and that His overruling Providence ordereth all things--to unite in prayer and humble submission under His chastening hand, and to beseech His favor on our suffering country.

It is meet that when trials and reverses befal [sic] us we should seek to take home to our hearts and consciences the lessons which they teach, and profit by the self-examination for which they prepare us. Had not our successes on land and sea made us self-confident and forgetful of our reliance on Him? Had not the love of lucre eaten like a gangrene into the very heart of the land, converting too many among us into worshippers of gain and rendering them unmindful of their duty to their country, to their yellow-men and to their God? Who then will presume to complain that we have been chastened or to despair of our just cause and the protection of our Heavenly Father?

Let us rather receive in humble thankfulness the lesson He has taught us in our recent reverses, devoutly acknowledging that to Him, and not to our own feeble arms, are due the honor and the glory of victory; that from him, and not to our own feeble arms, are due the honor and the glory of victory; that from Him, in His paternal Providence, come the anguish and sufferings of defeat, and that, whether in victory or defeat, our humble supplications are due at His footstool.

Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of these Confederate States, do issue this, my proclamation, setting apart Friday, the 21st day of August ensuing, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer; and I hereby do invite the people of the Confederate States to repair, on that day, to their respective places of public worship, and to unite in supplication for the favor and protection of that God who has hitherto conducted us safely through all the dangers that environed us.

In faith whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.
By the President,
J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State.

The Proclamation of the President, and the published Orders of General Lee, indicate the great importance and necessity of gathering in all the absent soldiers, and of bringing to an end the vice of straggling. The country joins the President and the Generals in imploring the soldiers who have been derelict, to hasten at once to their places, where they will be generously received. We fervently trust that these solemn appeals and this universal entreaty will prove effectual; and that no soldier, after so liberal an offer, will permit himself to be longer numbered among the delinquents.

But the people have a high duty to perform in this matter. Already they have been appealed to by the President, and the influence of ladies especially invoked, to cause the return of absentees to their posts. If this be done in the right way and with the proper zeal, there is not a man now aloof from his regiment who will not be beset by influences which he cannot resist. He will feel that the disgrace of skulking is intolerable, and he will be anxious to reinstate himself in the good opinion of his friends by a speedy return to duty.

Let every one exert himself to hasten back to the army all who are improperly away. Listen to the earnest call which comes over the hills of Virginia from Gen. Lee. Listen to the earnest, affectionate appeal which the President sends out to his countrymen. Listen to these, as they cry out in this crisis of the country's fate; and let father and mother implore their son--let wife go down on her knees to her husband--let sister appeal to brother with all her wealth of affection--let maiden entreat lover as for the most precious boon--let friend urge friend with all the power of persuasion--and let each and all implore the objects of their solicitude not to stain their names with an infamy so indelible as that of deserting on staying away from their standards in such a tremendous hour as this, and when the calls of their chieftains are ringing in their ears. Oh, it is a shame that will descend to children. [Sentinel.

The Romans and the Spartans, the most war-like of nations, best understood and appreciated the virtues of frugality and industry. Let us emulate their examples, and vie with each other in economy and industry, rather than in ease and luxury. He who lives, in these times, on half allowance, is an excellent citizen. He who is satisfied with a third of his usual expenditure is a distinguished patriot.

Let the rich set the example of hard work and cheap living, and it will become fashionable and easy to practice. The poor will feel no disgrace attached to old and coarse apparel and frugal table fare, when they are the rich no better fed and clothed than themselves.

We might make frugality and industry quite the rage and fashion, if we were not ashamed of them. We can carry on the war indefinitely, if we will exercise these Spartan and Roman virtues.--[Sentinel.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, July 30, 1863.

It is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations, and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person on account of his color and for no offense against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age. The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our possession. It is, therefore, ordered, that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed, and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continue at such labor until the other shall be released, and receive the treatment due a prisoner of war.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By order of the Secretary of War.
E. E. Townsend, Assistant Adj't General.

"Never was there a time in our history when unanimity was so much needed as now. The people should be of one mind of one will, of one purpose. Laying aside all sectional, social and political differences--ignoring all prejudices and funds and wranglings--we must, as one man, don the harness for the work before us. We must whip this fight, and the way to do it is to pull together. Nobody will deny that the task is no light one--no holiday business--but with a fixed determination to win, that there shall be no such word as fall in our vocabulary, the day will be ours. On man working for dear life in the cause, while his neighbor hangs back and does nothing, will never do. Pull together, men pull steady, even and true. Move forward shoulder to shoulder, never faltering, never wavering. With this singleness of purpose and the zeal and may shed her benign influence over our country sooner than we think. Then, a 'long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,' and the victory is won!"

The Mobile Advertiser thinks that, for the present, the tide of war has turned to the East. We believe that Grant's army is being moved to Virginia, in the belief [and the true belief] that Virginia is the backbone of the Confederacy, and that with Lee's army beaten and Virginia occupied the war will be at an end. It may be, and it now looks like it, that the great and final battle will crimson the soil of the dear, noble, and brave old Dominion, and that the whole of our moveable forces may be called there to meet the grand onslaught of the continued armies of the enemy. We hope the Government at Richmond is awake to such a contingency. From a quarter of a million of Confederate soldiers, order such leaders as Lee, Johnson, Bragg, and Beauregard, &c., the North cannot muster the masses, even in Persian numbers, to ravish a victory. But come what may--let what may be wrapped in the womb of the future--there is but one policy, one duty for us. It is to fight--to FIGHT--to FIGHT to the bitter end.

Mr. Editor:--I wish to call the attention of the press, and the Government, to a subject which calls loudly for reform, and which, if not checked, has, and will continue to inflict immense injury upon our country. The subject is this: A high functionary in the army quarters his troops, or it may be prisoners, upon the premises of an individual, with the full assurance that he shall not sustain any injury, to his crops, fences, &c. Well, now, what is the result?--The commanding officer, gives his orders, leaves his men to the care of others under his command, while his attention is called to other business, or his own private pursuits. These sub-officers, care little what the men do. Instead of enforcing the injunctions, laid upon them, by their superior officer, the men are allowed to roam, where they please, inflicting serious damage upon the rights and property of individuals. A day of settlement arrives and he is only allowed about one half the amount of damages that he has incurred by the wanton injury imposed upon him. Have not the insolent foe inflicted upon us injury enough, that our own army officers, and men should help to fill up the cup of misery? It is a burning shame that such proceedings should be allowed in a land among a civilized people, who are contending in the field of battle, for the highest and noblest principals that can actuate and govern the human heart--Liberty and Independence. I hope the evil will at once be arrested. God and the country know, the Jews and vile speculators have inflicted great damage upon their bleeding country, but hope, they will soon be placed, where they can do service, instead of injury, in the army.

SENEX.

On yesterday a week, the military authorities here received intelligence that the enemy, in considerable force, had made their appearance at Moorefield, the county seat of Hardy, and were probably contemplating an attempt to reach this place. This caused some excitement here for a short time, and preparations were being made to "welcome them with bloody hands to hospitable graves." Gen. Imboden moved his command up the Valley with the view of keeping it between the enemy and this place. He came up as far as Bridgewater, in Rockingham county, eight miles Southwest of Harrisonburg, when he learned that the enemy, if they had contemplated a raid into this section, had abandoned the idea for the present. The enemy seem to have left portions of their forces at Moorefield, Martineburg and other places. We think it probably that they are stationing their forces to guard against apprehended raids on the part of our troops. There is no excitement here at this time, as there seems to be no probability of a visit by the Yankees. There is no truth in the statements of the Richmond papers that there were conflicts between the forces of General Imboden and the enemy in Brock's Gap on Monday and Tuesday of last week. The "reliable gentleman" on the Central train proved, as usual, to be a lineal descendant of the world renowned Munchausen. There was no conflict at any of the gaps, because the enemy did not make their appearance at any of them.

Heads up! Why that long face and gloomy countenance? You must be bilious, and should take a blue pill; for there is no cause for discouragement even, much less for despondency. The prospects of the enemy have never been so bad at this moment, and we have never been so near the end of our trials. The much-dreaded conscription act of the enemy will avail them little, and they can never venture upon another.--We have now sufficient men in the pay, if not in the service, of the Confederacy to defeat the enemy at all points. All that is necessary is to get them to their posts of duty. The danger, if any exists, is not in the strength and numbers of the enemy, but in the remissness of our own officers and soldiers, who are at home or hiding in the woods instead of being with their more gallant comrades in the "tented field." The Confederate Government has now about as many men in its pay as it can well afford to support; and, unless there be a real and exigent necessity, it would be bad policy to take more men from their homes, where they are producers, to convert them into consumers, and thus, at the same time, diminish the resources of the country, whilst greater burdens are imposed upon the Government. The President says: "The men now absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to create numerical equality between our forces and that of the invaders--and when, with any approach to such equality, have we failed to be victorious?" The President ought to be good authority, and upon his authority we say it is not more men, but greater fidelity, which we need.--On the part of the soldiers there should be more fidelity and less shirking,--more fighting and less deserting; and, on the part of the citizens, there should be more cheerfulness and less despondency, more hope and less fear, more liberality and less speculation, more patriotism and less extortion, more honesty and less robbery, more christianity and less Mammon-worship; and, "with a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together," we would soon attain the "summum bonum" of our wishes--the freedom and independence of our country.

A day or two ago a letter was received at the Treasury Department from a negro man, named Henry Jones, the property of Mr. E. Cannon, of Clarksville, in this State, which is worthy of the highest commendation, and justly entitled to be imitated by those who have been hoarding their treasure during the troubles which at present afflict the country. Henry places at the disposal of the Secretary of the Treasury $465 in gold, which he hopes will be of some service to the Government. In his letter he speaks of "our glorious cause," and declares that the slaves of the South have a deeper interest in the establishment of Southern independence than the white population. He thinks if the Yankees are successful the negroes are destined to the most cruel treatment at their hands.

The New York Daily News says, that "the recent edict promulgated by President Lincoln in his communication to Governor Seymour, has created the most intense excitement in this community, who considered they were living under a democratic form of Government. The dictatorial spirit in which the President refuses to concede to the justice of Governor Seymour's request to have the draft suspended until its constitutionality can be tested by the courts, has fallen like a bomb-shell among the conservative men of the city."

The same paper states, that about 15,000 Federal troops are now in and around the city, composed chiefly of regiments from the New England States, whose Abolition sentiments are such as to make them perfectly reliable to carry out the Radical policy of the Administration. "It is evident, that stirring events are close at hand. The public mind is intensely agitated at the threatening aspect of affairs, and if the draft is commenced again in violation of the protest of Governor Seymour, a revolution is inevitable."

A Georgia paper says that the only effectual way to prevent Northern negroes from enlisting, and white officers from commanding them after enlisted, is not to take either prisoners. Leave them on the battlefield. If our troops are in a hurry to pursue their retreating foes, they need not give the black rascals and their blacker-hearted officers any more attention than the Scotch soldier did the Frenchman who was begging for "quarter." "I canna stop to quarter ye," he remarked, "but I'll cut ye in twa;" and, suiting his actions to his words, passed on.

From reports of superintendents of Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, we have conclusive evidence that from 10 to 15 or 20 percent of deaf mutes are the children of Cousins. It is greatly to be regretted that we have no law forbidding the marriage of first cousins. These marriages are a violation of a law of nature, as is evidenced by the afflictions visited in almost every case upon their offspring in deafness, blindness, and idiocy; and ought to be violation of human laws also. The Commonwealth has the clear right to protect itself against these unfortunate matches, whose offspring it has to sustain too frequently for life. It may be hoped that this important subject will not escape the action of our legislators at its next session. I confidently believe that by preventing all the marriages of this kind, and by proper attention and care of infants laboring under the disease stated, the number of deaf mutes might be diminished one-half in a generation.