Staunton Vindicator

Light.

We are very little acquainted with Gas arrangements of Staunton, and consequently cannot give any very satisfactory reason for the outrageous negligence or carelessness which has deprived the town of light for a week past. We have understood that the resin, from which our gas is made, was suffered to give out, and hence the exhaustion of the gasometer. We are not informed as to the exact terms of the contract on which the gas is supplied, but if there can be any justification for it, we hope the council will at once bring suit against the contractors for damages, or failure to comply with stipulations. In the present condition of our streets it is extremely dangerous to walk at night without gas lights. We urge the council to at once enquire into the cause of the absence of the lights, and ascertain whether or not this great inconvenience has been occasioned by unavoidable necessity, or inexcusable negligence.

Manifest Destiny.

The philosophy of history has been studied to little purpose, if the intelligent reader does not see in the causes which are shaking the fundamental structure of our government, the agencies that overthrew destroyed the Republics of Greece and Rome. Xenophon and Isocrates have transmitted the beneficial instruction that popular government was administered with singular success in Athens and Sparta, so long as the people were held to a rigid observation of the laws, and never permitted to indulge in habitual neglect of the stern requirements of mutual confidence, respect and fraternity. So long as an elevated sense of obedience to government animated the people, those cities marched forward in all the arts of civilization, and attained the eminence that eclipsed in renown and splendor the then known world. The first symptoms of decline and decay were manifested in a departure from the teachings and examples of the founders of the cities. A gradual laxity in the administration of the laws quickly succeeded, and finally the whims of the popular mob became the ruling element in the administrations; license assumed the mantle of law; the governments of regulated liberty were swiftly converted into warring and chaotic elements, and the last hopes of a once happy, prosperous and contented people blotted out in a sea of blood and carnage.

No less impressive are the lessons drawn from the graphic historical recitals of Gibbon, as he traces, with the charm of Romance, the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire. The incipient signs of disease in the body politic, at first apparently trifling and insignificant, and no larger than a man's hand, gradually spread, until the entire system became corrupted, and the dark cloud of impending ruin broke in destructive fury upon it.

We do not think it is drawing upon the imagination to an absurd degree to assume that Washington himself, when penning that rich legacy to posterity--his Farewell Address--had vividly before his mind's eye the mournful lessons of the history of these ancient governments. It cannot escape the intelligent reader's attention, that his earnest warnings and patriotic injunctions are directed against the very evils which proved the bane of the political systems of Greece and Rome, and are, therefore, not so much the result of a prophetic vision as the philosophic teachings of history. The same may be written of the Farewell Address of Jackson, who, instructed by the realization of many of the evils which Washington predicted would grow out of sectional prejudices and geographical parties, was thus, with the lights of actual experience, as well as of historical record, beaming all around him, enabled to point out with the greater accuracy the evils which threatened the stability and existence of our government.--Could those great and good men have lifted the curtain of time itself, and been permitted to glance down its unveiled vista, they could not have invested their patriotic warnings with more instructive truths. And if the seals that have thus far been broken attest the prophetic wisdom of Washington and Jackson, how can we close our eyes to the rushing conviction that the mournful fears which pressed upon them may be realized to the very letter in our own day and generation. Sectional parties have been formed. Against these they warned us.--Embittered feelings have been engendered. This, they told us, would be the natural result of sectional parties. Mutual distrust, antipathy and hate do exist, which they plainly pointed out to us. The Union is now shaking and creaking under fratricidal blows, and will, we fear, speedily be riven asunder, thus realizing their most painful fears and forebodings. If in these respects, Washington and Jackson were the faithful chroniclers of unseen events, is it not more than possible that the warring, petty Republics and States which they pictured in the dim future, may be our destiny, until we fall prey to more wise and united powers?

We confess that the actual developments which loom up before us in the history of our government, have startled and shaken our faith in the destiny of the American Republic. While ever skeptical, when left alone with reason, as to the continuance of an united Confederacy of all the States, we have thrown our intellectual doubts and fears down before the triumphs of an abiding faith that the reins of this free and happy government would be controlled by the Ruler of the Army and Council of the Skies, for the purpose of spreading, by the agency of Democratic Republican government, the principles of Christianity throughout the world. Believing that the destiny of peoples and governments are determined in the Councils of Divinity, we still cling to the conviction that whether united or separated, some good end is destined to be accomplished.

The historical truth that the negro slave and the acquisition of Territory constitute the rock which will eventually break asunder the Union of the States, affords us a gleam of light as to the pat "Manifest Destiny," marching before us like a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, is pointing out for the Southern Confederacy. We have ever believed that the genius of American liberty was destined to overspread the Mexican Republic, and thus pave the way for the triumph of Christianity over the religious superstition of that benighted and priest-ridden people--wresting one of the loveliest countries beneath the sun from the rule of ignorance, tyranny, and wickedness, and making her beautiful valleys to blossom as the rose, and her auriferous mountains to yield up their immense treasures, under the magic touch of Anglo-Saxon energy and industry.

The question presents itself, is this possible so long as the enemies of the expansion of negro slavery have the numerical power in our national councils? We think not, for it is a conclusion fortified by the most powerful arguments-- adaptation of soil and climate--which can be adduced, that negro slavery is destined to be established in old Mexico, if ever that country passes from the ruse of the race that at present governs it, and becomes a part of the American domain. This being admitted, then it follows, the antipathy of the Northern mind to the expansion of slavery being greater than a desire for territorial acquisition, that no scheme, however plausible, could ever be carried into successful operation, the object of which would be the possession of Mexico, so long as the Union of these States continues.

But establish a Southern Confederacy, then the difficulty arising from division of sentiment on the negro question would be removed, for there would be but one opinion in common with all the component parts of such a government, and that, the dedication of all territory to slavery where it could be made profitable.

May it not be, then, an arrangement in the economy of Providence--

an unfolding in the "Manifest Destiny" of our race--that from the rending asunder of the bonds that unite these States, is to be accomplished the peaceful religious and political regeneration of that land of beauty, mystery and romance, around whose history is thrown a charm and attraction unsurpassed by the most fascinating pictures of modern fiction? Under the auspices of a Southern Confederacy, this could be attained without the fear of violent controversies, sectional wars, and personal hatreds; while, if attempted by a Confederacy united in name, but divided in sentiment, a scene of strife and crimination would follow, shocking to the civilized world, and a libel upon the name of an enlightened patriotism. The history of Kansas, written in tears and blood, is a fearful warning against the acquisition of more territory as an united people.

We have implicit faith that it is the "Manifest Destiny" of this country, under Providence, to absorb the chaotic, torn and tattered powers of the North American Continent, and bring them under the genial sway of Republicanism and Christianity. If the union of these States lies in the way of the accomplishment of that end, then we believe there will be a peaceable and permanent separation, each Confederacy contributing its quota to carrying out the grand scheme of reformation.

It is very evident, too, that the moral and religious conviction of the South is better adopted to the dissemination and inculcation of the simple truths of free government regulated by law, and the Bible, than the North. There, the great substratum of society is corrupt and polluted, sending forth a stream of infidelity, heresy and blasphemy unparalleled in the history of the world.--With no permanent rule of moral action, but liable to break out in the assertion of some monstrous doctrine of religious and political fanaticism, such as Millerism, Foreurism, Woman's Rightism, &c., the respect and confidence of an inferior people could not be commanded, for the example of immorality and radicalism would successfully estop the enforcement of virtuous precepts.

The social and moral status of Southern society is of more substantial character, and better adapted to the great work of implanting the living truths of free government and christian religion and virtue, in the minds of an inferior race. The steady political conservatism, the firm morality, and elevated conscientiousness of Southern character, would at once revolutionize, by the silent, yet potential agencies of precept and example, the social structure of that unhappy and misguided people.