Staunton Spectator

Since Tuesday last--election day--our citizens have experienced not only that calm and serene enjoyment which springs from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, but also the more active pleasure and even ecstatic joy consequent upon rescue from threatened and impending ruin. It is impossible to estimate the evils we have escaped by the glorious victory won at the polls on Tuesday last. Though that victory will not secure us all that we desire, nor all to which we are justly entitled, yet it has saved us from "woes unnumbered," and this good old State from ruin absolute and irretrievable.

No people ever won a more important victory, and no people ever had greater reason to rejoice at the result of their patriotic efforts to save their beloved State from a "living death." It appalls the soul to contemplate what the fate of Virginia would have been if victory had perched upon the standard of the Radical party in the recent contest. Many do not realize the vital importance of success in that election--they have never reflected sufficiently upon the subject, and are not aware of the fate with which we were threatened. We hope that we may never again be similarly environed with perils so direful.

The escape has been made, the rescue secured; for which we should be duly grateful.

As we had hoped and expected, this noble old county has not only acquitted herself with credit, but has covered herself with glory as with a mantle. She is the banner county of the State. Rockingham is a great and patriotic county, and she did her duty noble. She stands second on the roll of honor, being excelled only by Augusta. When we predicted, before the election, that Augusta would give Walker a majority of 2,500, some thought that we were extravagant in our expectations, and that we would be sadly disappointed. The result shows that our confidence in the patriotism of the citizens of this good old county was well founded, and that our anticipations have been more than realized. It is no small honor to excel in a contest in which all acquit themselves with great credit. In the recent election, all the counties in the State did well, yet Augusta excelled all others--she was primus in primis--and stood amid her noble sisters "proudly eminent." The citizens of Augusta have good reason to be proud of their county. When a great and patriotic duty is to be performed, Augusta can always be confidently relied upon. Whether in the calm of peace or the storm of war, in response to the call of patriotic duty, she acts with prompt alacrity and potent power. She knows when and how to act--her intelligence being commensurate with her patriotism. The disc of the sun is not without spots, and Augusta has the misfortune to have a few sons at whom the slow unerring finger of scorn should be pointed--they form the exceptions which establish the rule--they testify to the patriotism of the great majority, and, by the contrast, make it the more conspicuous.

In the late election, the colored voters in this section of the State did much better than was expected. Many of them had the good sense and patriotism to vote the Conservative ticket straight and a majority of them voted against the disfranchising and test-oath clauses of the Constitution, even when voting for Wells.--Their conduct in this election was such as not to forfeit the friendship of the whites, as most supposed they would do, by voting, en masse, for Wells and the excepted clauses. This course, on the part of the colored voters, is very gratifying to the whites, who have none other than kind and friendly feelings towards them, and it has had a marked and happy effect which will redound to the great benefit of the colored population. It is our candid opinion that, as much reason as the great mass of the whites have for rejoicing at the result of the election, the colored have more reason to rejoice. By the election of Walker and the defeat of the excepted clauses they secure perfect equality of political rights with the whites, and what is much more important to them, the retention of the friendship of the whites, upon whom they are dependent for employment, shelter, and subsistence.

By the election of Wells and the incorporation into the Constitution of the clauses voted upon separately, they would not have added anything to their political rights, and would have forfeited the friendship of the whites.--They would have alienated the races, and have occupied an attitude of hostility to the whites, who have all the advantages over them embraced in the possession of superior numbers, intelligence, money, and property, and, as before remarked, upon whom they are wholly dependent for employment, shelter and subsistence. If they had perpetrated that outrage upon the rights of the whites, it needs no prophet to tell what the conduct of the whites would have been, and consequently, the condition of the perpetrators of such outrage.

As we have none other than the kindest feeling for that class of our population, we heartily rejoice, for their sakes, that they have acted so wisely, and that the election resulted as it did. We would counsel the whites to exercise charity towards the colored, and, remembering the circumstances in which they were placed and the influences brought to bear upon them by more guilty parties wearing white skins over black hearts, to make due and liberal allowances for them, and not to visit upon them the punishment due to those who deceived and misled them. Though many did wrong on this occasion, we do not believe that they will do so again. In future, they will do better. "Having won a great victory at the ballot box, it now remains for us to secure its legitimate fruits, and this can only be done by moderation in the use of it. The colored people, it is true, have suffered themselves to be deceived, and have voted almost in solid column, against our interests and their own; but will dismissing them from employment, refusing them assistance, &c., mend the matter? Let us be magnanimous,--as we can afford to be. They are, for the most part, very ignorant, and it was natural that the carpet-baggers, coming among them with specious promises, while we stood aloof from them, politically, should have been able to deceive them, and to persuade them that their interests and ours were antagonistic, but the days of carpet-bagging are numbered, and if we their delusions and forget their error, we will be able in time, to satisfy them, that the white man and the black man, natives of Virginia, [5 lines too dark to read]

us not gratify them by intemperate words or hasty and violent actions, but, conscious of our strength, let us use it calmly and wisely and we will secure peace and prosperity which it will be beyond the power of carpet-baggers or scalawags ever again to disturb.

In the language of the Dispatch, "we must not thrust them out of our doors to prey on society and to become the outcasts of the earth--the ready instruments of crime. They are here among us, and, as far as we can discern, the providence of God will continue them, at least during our day, part of our civil community. If we deprive them of all means of an honest support they will of necessity have recourse to every crime. Christianity, humanity, and policy, alike dictate to us to show to the colored man by our conduct that we are superior to those who have so long misguided him, and that his happiness depends upon his maintaining relations kindly and harmonious with us."

In a speech in Norfolk, on the day after the election, Gov. Gilbert C. Walker used this language:

Let us be grateful to God for our great victory, and, fellow-citizens, let us not, in the pride of our victory, forget charity. The great mass of those who voted for Wells yesterday knew not what they did, but the vile crew who led them on deserve the execration and condemnation of the civilized world, and let them sink into the insignificance which God Almighty intended they should occupy."

We have fought the battle bravely, says the Lynchburg Virginian, and victory has perched upon our banners. We have broken the backbone of Radicalism, and the monstrous thing lies helpless and bleeding at our feet. It can never again, on this soil, consecrated to Liberty and Truth, by the Fathers of the Republic, who sleep beneath the green sward of the Old Dominion, exert the strength it did on Tuesday last. Never again shall we see such a vote polled by such a party, for such principles, in Virginia. The Conservative party, the True Republican party,--or whatever else that aggregation of individuals, opposed to the diabolism to which the Radical party was committed, may be called,--will, in the next trial of strength, have one hundred thousand majority in this State. Mark the prediction! Indeed, it is doubtful whether the Radical party will ever make another fight here. The major part of its supporters, the poor deluded negroes, whose ignorance and credulity were taken advantage of by the base, venal, self-seeking adventurers who came here in quest of office, will leave the sinking concern and array themselves once more on the side of their old master and best friends. They will see that men of whom we have spoken would, as we have often told them, lure them to ruin. The result of this election will tend to open their eyes. They will see that we were in earnest, and that our statements to the effect that the white people of this State have a controlling majority, are true. They will, therefore, desert the beggarly pack of vagrant adventurers and native scalawags who have seduced them to the worship of false gods, and ally themselves once more with their ancient friends.

And now, what is the policy we should observe towards these poor people? We answer: Treat them kindly. Forgive the erring. Pity the infirmities of the weak. Show them that the hour of victory is the opportunity for magnanimity. They have been misled by the artful and the designing. Hold the leaders responsible, but excuse those who have been deceived.

House of Delegates

SENATE OF VIRGINIA

The following are the returns of the election for Congress in this, the 6th District:

Highland only partially reported.

--*not complete

Modest, unpretending Craigsville has the distinguished honor of being the banner precinct of the banner county. That precinct gave a unanimous vote for Walker. Though thirty-two colored citizens voted at that precinct, yet there was not a single vote cast there for Wells. The colored as well as the whites in that precinct had the good sense and patriotism to vote for Walker in preference to Wells. Such unanimity in such a cause is as admirable as it is rare. It presents a noble spectacle. It may be equaled, but it cannot be surpassed. Nine cheers and a tiger for the Craigsville precinct! The colored citizens who voted there will neither be forgotten nor go unrewarded.

MR. EDITOR:--Virginia is redeemed--Augusta has done well, but Craigsville is the banner precinct, not of the county, but of the State. Let me suggest that the ladies undertake to have a suitable banner prepared to erect not on the 4th, but the 6th of July, hereafter, on Elliott's Knob--within the precinct. An anecdote is told of a Michigan Regiment, (it must have been organized by Wells,) that was found weeping bitterly around an old saw mill somewhere in Arkansas, during the late war. On enquiry as to the cause, they said it was because they could not steal it, it being the last thing left they had not stolen. It may be well for R.T. Daniel, as chairman of the Executive Committee, to look after the Governor's mansion or its contents, to see that Wells does not steal it or them.

As we will have an immediate exodus of carpet-baggers and scalawags from Virginia, I would suggest that a big thing might be made out of them, in colonizing them at the Sinks of Humboldt River, where they might enter into the manufacture of soda, potash and other alkalis. This precinct will furnish a brisk, cute, active son of Crispin, who belongs to the old issue of Cuffee, a white scalawag, who will do the milling of the colony, and will not neglect the taking of toll. He can have the mill-wrighting all done in the family. We can also spare an experienced shingle and stave getter, who will also aid in defending the colony from the grizzlies. The Union Pacific will accommodate the colony, at low rates of fare, for fear Wells will have the road sold out. He (Wells) will not care to go further West, for fear he may meet Stoneman.

MORE ANON