Staunton Vindicator

In the Presidential Campaign of 1856 and 1860 the Republican party made their great point against the institution of slavery, as keeping in "depraved ignorance" millions of colored people and preventing millions of Northern whites from removing to and settling in the South, the fairest and most productive portion of our country. To-day slavery is removed, but this party have attempted to raise a greater barrier to the migration thither of Northern whites, by the elevation of that "depraved ignorance" to the franchise and law making privilege.--The object is patent. Power, that omnific source of evil. To retain that held at the surrender, by preventing Northern immigration and by enfranchising whites, has been the cue of Radicalism for two years past. The effort, however, will fail. This fair land of ours will not be given over to that "depraved ignorance," so much denounced in the past, and lauded as so "comprehending of loyalty and law" in the present.

The unsettled condition of our country at first deterred many from coming thither, but the immense advantages of our soil and climate, the magnitude and variety of our resources and the character of our people will draw thither a desirable immigration.--Already are we selling our Forges, Furnaces, Mineral and Grazing lands to enterprising Northern men of capital; who will bring others, industrious, energetic and sober like themselves, to assist them in their business. The welcome these sturdy immigrants will receive will dispel the illusion of our hatred to Northerners, and will occasion many messages to friends at home to come and dwell with them in this land abounding in rich resources, and among a sociable and hospitable people.

No! the day is not distant, when our forests, silent for hundreds of years, will resound with the woodsman's axe, and our water power set in motion Machinery, which will add immeasurably to our wealth and occasion the continued influx of a healthy population, which will partake of our feelings and interests and dispel the dark cloud, which some, at present, think portends the sway of ignorance over enlightenment and reason.

An irrepressible conflict is upon the country, not that proclaimed between white and slave labor, which was never possible, but a conflict between capital and labor, which have ever been somewhat antagonistic. More than ever is it the case now. Capital holds the bonds of the Government, has taken and sounded the alarm. She feels the burden of taxation yet draws comparatively no interest from the bonds. New England, in the main, holds them and is to that extent exempt from taxation on her capital. A little cloud arose in consequence in the West, from which could be heard an earnest cry for equal taxation. It has spread and increased until not only equaly taxation is the cry, but payment of the bonded in greenbacks and even repudiation is heard on all sides. Just now a brisk canvas is going on in some of the Western States on these issues. The Democracy are making a strong effort with the over-burdened tax-payers, and even some Republicans, fearing the popularity of the payment of the bonds in greenbacks, are claiming it as a Radical measure. While we should dislike to see repudiation, yet the conflict between bondholders and taxpayers of the North is interesting. It is a fight in which we can take no hand though the relief from taxation to the amount necessary to pay $150,000,000 of interest on the bonds would be great indeed to us. Interest, therefore, places us on the side of the taxpayers and we wish them success and a "God speed" to the day when taxation will be less and money -- even greenbacks more plenty.

Do the friends of negro suffrage take into consideration the probability that every negro vote will be a vote in favor of repudiation? In their anxiety to confer the franchise on the freedmen, that circumstances may have been overlooked. The negroes, as a race, are neither by nature or experience qualified to appreciate the relations between debtor and creditor in a moral point of view; and it is not likely that they will neglect an opportunity to vote themselves free from the burdens of taxation. The negro rarely works voluntarily, except to provide the necessities of life, and to gratify his daily appetite for little luxuries. When he finds that he has to work so much the harder to assist in redeeming the financial pledges of the government, he will not be found on sensitive in regard to the sanctity of the public national debt as to sacrifice his personal ease and comfort before that crushing financial Juggernaut.

But, perhaps, the Radicals, in so zealously urging negro suffrage, have in view the probability of a popular sentiment in favor of repudiation. They see, perhaps, that the masses are beginning to chafe under the pressure of enormous taxes. They appreciate, perhaps, the difficulty of preserving the inviolability of a debt that the debtors have the powers to cancel by a given number of slips of paper thrust into a ballot-box. It is yet to be demonstrated that a government controlled by the popular will, in which the people are sovereigns, will continue, throughout all the changes of partisan sentiment and fortune, to acknowledge a public debt that drains every ounce of revenue and swallows up the best part of the profits of labor. It is fair to presume that, sooner or later, the rallying cry of some political party will be repudiation, and in that event the partisans of that measure may rely upon the negro vote.--New York News.

Gov. Peirpoint addressed a large crowd of white and colored persons in the Court House in this place on Monday last. His effort was not marked by any great degree of ability and was almost entirely devoid of politics save and except an effort to impress upon the people to reconstruct under the military bill. He laid down as the basis of Republican Government the three points, a general system of education, that labor should be made honorable and that the avenues to employment and office should be open to all without regard to color. He proclaims himself of building up manufactures, erecting a diversity of labor and thus developing the resources of the State.

The Governor's tour through the State is not so much, we think, to develop the State, build up manufactories or establish a general system of education, but to place himself prominently before the people as a candidate for the position of Governor of Virginia at the next election. We think that he fears a contest with Hunnicutt, from the manner in which he advised against the "Wicked" being placed in office. If that is the case, he need not have visited these parts, for, as between himself and Hunnicutt, the Governor has the inside track here, but then we prefer, if possible, a representative Virginian as our next Governor, and are not yet prepared to believe the contest narrowed down to Messrs. Peirpoint and Hunnicutt.