Valley Spirit

Jefferson Davis was brought before the United States District Court at Richmond on a writ of habeus corpus, on Monday, the 13th inst., and released on bail. The amount of the bond was fixed at $100,000, and Horace Greely of the New York Tribune , who had gone to Richmond for that purpose, was the first to sign the bond. Gerrit Smith, another noted Abolitionist, is also one of his bondsmen, together, with eighteen others, mostly citizens of Virginia, including John Minor Botts. This, in all probability, is the last we shall ever hear of the trial of Jefferson Davis for treason. On this point the Lancaster Intelligencer speaks as follows:

The persistent refusal of Chief Justice Chase to try Mr. Davis was not understood by the people; because the majority of them did not know that he feared to trust himself in the position of Judge in such a case. He is a man of some considerable ability, but he never won any distinction as a lawyer. His practice never amounted to anything, and his appointment to the position he now occupies was one of Mr. Lincoln's most unmistakable blunders. Had he felt himself competent to manage the trial of Jefferson Davis, the great State prisoner would have been arraigned within three months of his capture. Mr. Chase's consciousness of his incompetency was the cause of great embarrassment to the government. What to do with Jeff. Davis was the question.

The whole management of this prisoner has been in scandalous violation of all known law, in violation of all fairness, and of every precedent to be found in the history of free governments. It is a blot on the fair fame of this nation which can never be effaced.

What will be done with Jefferson Davis, now that he has been released on bail, remains to be seen. We are of the opinion that he will never be tried. We hope he may be. We would like to see him have a fair and impartial, but a searching trial, conducted as so important a trial should be. We do not expect it, however. Mr. Jeffer-Davis has been set at liberty; and we do not suppose Mr. Horace Greeley will ever be called upon to produce the prisoner or to answer to his recognizance in Court. The scene in the United States Court at Richmond is the last public one in which Jefferson Davis will ever take part.

Forney's press has the following:

"The Secretary of War will be compelled to issue an order suspending the payment of additional or other bounties to soldiers and their heirs, until some appropriation for that purpose is made by Congress, the funds already appropriated being exhausted. As Congress will not in all probability meet again until December, the soldiers and their families must make up their minds to bear some further delay."

This is the direct result of the reckless expenditures authorized by the Radicals in the Rump Congress. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were squandered within the past year for the mere purpose of making political capital for the Radical party, and to satisfy the insatiable appetites of its leaders for plunder. About five hundred thousand dollars were taken from the Federal Treasury to pay the extra "compensation" to the members of Rump No. 1. Several million dollars were taken to pay the twenty percent. Additional compensation authorized to department clerks. About forty-five thousand dollars were distributed to the worthless negroes of Washington City, in addition to the regular support of the negro Bureau. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were wasted in carrying on the New Orleans negro riot investigation and sowing the country broadcast with a voluminous and costly report of "testimony." An equally heavy sum has disappeared in Ashley's insane political project of impeachment. Millions have gone into the pockets of political favorites through a most corrupt system of private legislation. Five hundred thousand dollars were set aside to commence the execution of the satrap bills, but, during the first two months, over twenty-four million dollars were expended by the War Department, and the end of the year will bring the bills up to at least one hundred and forty millions!

These are some of the channels through which the income of the government has gone out, leaving nothing with which to pay the soldiers' bounties and pensions. But the whole trouble does not consist in the enlargement of the channels of expenditure. The channels of income have been clogged and closed up. The exemption list was enlarged, by which less revenue is derived from income. Then, the inauguration of a despotic and destructive policy of government for the Southern States has retarded the material prosperity of ten great States, and kept out of the Federal Treasury millions of dollars which should have gone into it during the past year, and will cause the loss of hundreds of millions which under an enlightened policy, should be realized during the ensuing year. Disfranchisement is paralyzing the hands of hundreds of thousands of Southern men who are willing and anxious to engage in planting and other industrial pursuits. Outlawed and made politically powerless to protect themselves or their property, they can feel no interest in the welfare of the government. Under the negro Radical despotism now in process of formation they will have no rights which a negro will be bound to respect. To add to these disabilities and misfortunes, "mild confiscation" is threatened by one branch of the Radical leadership and "rigorous and universal confiscation" by another branch, so that there is nothing left for the rightful owners of the soil and latent wealth of those States to do but to await in silence and apathy the last blow which is to make them beggars as well as outlaws.

This course of the Radical leaders towards the Southern people has not only prevented the flow of revenue from the Southern States but has largely cut down the income from the Northern States. At this time-two years after the final close of the war-every Northern factory and workshop should be busy, employing every willing pair of hands to be hired, in turning out machinery and fabrics for Southern consumption. But such is not the state of affairs. The people of the outlawed States, crushed and threatened as they are, have no need of farming implements or machinery, consequently thousands of Northern work people are idle and less revenue goes from the Northern States into the Federal Treasury. Hence, with these drawbacks and the reckless and infamous squanderings of the Rump Congress, there is no money to pay soldiers' bounties and pensions, and "the soldiers and their families must make up their minds to bear some further delay."

Had the Constitution been taken as a governing principle by the Radical leaders, there would no necessity for delay. The Union was restored by the Federal soldiers when the last rebel army laid down its arms, and from that time forth the Southern States were entitled to representation and a share in their own government, through men of good character for truth, honesty and patriotism. The Constitution grants authority to Congress to determine the "elections and qualifications of its members," and in that grant the government possessed every safeguard against a renewal of secession in high places. The resort to the unauthorized and destructive plan of reducing States to a territorial condition, as a punishment for individual crimes, has resulted as disastrously as was to be expected from a scheme of so unlawful, unjustifiable and despotic. These facts should be carefully pondered by not only those who suffer from delayed bounties, but by every Northern manufacturer and workingman.-Patriot & Union

The slight threatening are beginnings of riots in Richmond, on Saturday, do not indicate serious trouble. There seems to have been white men in that city who have given the colored people bad counsel, which some of them have been foolish enough to take. Contrasted with this local and partial disorder is the general excellent and moderate behavior of the freedmen throughout the South, by which they should rightly be judged.-Tribune

In spite of the Tribune's attempt to belittle the riots, authentic intelligence from Richmond makes it evident that a saturnalia of carnage is prevented in that city only by the vigilance and alertness of the United States troops. That the negroes need to be overawed and terrified is proved by the speeches made in the African Church, on Sunday night, by Judge Underwood and Horace Greeley. Judge Underwood warned them, by repeating what one of the general had said to him during the day, namely, "that there was a possibility of a riot being made by the negroes to-morrow, and that if there was, he would plant cannon and swept the streets with grape-shot"-When the rabid and ribald Underwood finds it necessary to go into a negro church and utter such a warning, the volcano of riotous passions must be on the point of a great eruption. Mr. Greeley's speech, as reported, consisted almost entirely in a dissuasion from riots. The fact that the Eleventh United States Infantry is to encamp permanently at the City Springs Park, within the city limits, shows the necessity which General Schofield things himself under of using vigorous measures of repression. The arrest of the Massachusetts Radical, Hayward, for using incendiary language, and the putting him under heavy bonds; the beating of the policemen by negroes; the patrolling of the streets by mounted soldiers; the stationing of squads of policemen at all the churches on Sunday to protect the worshippers against negro outrages; and the excited threats made by the negro populace, are evidence of a most violent and inflammatory state of feeling.

The contrast suggested by the Tribune between the conduct of the negroes in the Southern cities and the great mass of them on the plantations, is instructive. It affords a correct clue to the cause of the riots.-The negroes on the plantations came into contact only with southern whites, and reports from all parts of the South concur in showing that in the rural districts the freedmen are increasingly orderly and industrious, and there is a gratifying friendliness of sentiment between the two races. Why is it different in New Orleans and Richmond? For no other reason than because in the cities the raving and incendiary Radicals have easy access to the negroes, and are exerting all their energy and ingenuity to breed mischief. If the torch-and-turpentine Radicals would forbear to stir up strive, the great problem of Southern society would solve itself in a peaceful, order, fraternal manner.

These plotters of disorder refuse to let the South alone because it is apparent that, if things are left to take their course, the freedmen will recognize the identity of interests between themselves and their section, and that their vote will not go to strengthen the Republican party. Perpetual discord and dissension between the two races is necessary to enable that party to reap the crop which it has sown. When the Radicals find that, through the freedmen vote, they are not likely to vote with them, they begin to conclude that their advocacy of negro suffrage was a political blunder, unless they can detach the negroes from the Southern whites. The South will have a larger representation in Congress and more power in the government in consequence of emancipation. Unless, therefore, the South can be divided, and the negroes organized as a wing of the Republican party, the Radicals have been fabricating a weapon for their own destruction. It is for this reason that they are making desperate efforts to array race against race. In inflaming the passions of the negroes up to the point of riotous outbreaks, the more considerate and crafty Radicals are sensible that they have overshot the mark. It is their policy to foster hatred, but to make it run only in the political channels. The instigation of the riots and the inauguration of a war of races tend to recoil which will bring the party into odium. Hence, the energy with which the rascally Judge Underwood, whose infuriated charge so powerfully simulated the present dangerous state of feeling, is exerting himself to prevent an eruption of negro violence. -World

If an election of any kind were to be held in the South within the next month there is no reasonable doubt, that three-fourths of the negro vote would be cast with the Southern white vote. There is a perfect accord between the larger portion of freedmen and the white population. This is but natural. The negroes were as ardent enemies of the North as their masters during the war. They had no theories to sustain, and no special care as to what questions were involved in the contest. They sympathized with the people who surrounded them; and if the oath of allegiance were distinctly understood by the freedmen when it is administered to them, nine-tenths of them would be unable to say that they had not lent willing aid and comfort to the rebellion. Having stood firmly by their masters in the trials of the war, they are still likely to stand by them in all public questions. It seem to be from a knowledge and appreciation of these facts that the men who are seeking to use the negro vote for partisan purpose find it necessary to delude the poor fellows with promises of a division of the lands among them. The question for the freedman now serious ought to be how to establish a regular and permanent system of paid labor, and how to fix the rate of payment so as to approximate as nearly as may be to the old rate-namely a support for the laborer and his family, in sickness and health, childhood and old age. But the interference of politicians is operating to prevent the determination of these questions and postpone the day of calm settling down. It is impossible to regard the speech-making missions of Northern politicians to the Southern negroes as anything but injurious to them. It is, in fact, adding the final blow to their ruin as a people. Unless they settle down to work, and take the position of laborers whose labor is necessary, and must be cherished and cared for, they will rapidly perish. The suffrage is in danger of providing the destruction of the race. It would ordinarily take a generation to learn the requirements of the new order of things. Where the interests of the employers are so deeply involved in the education of the employed, the process of accommodation to the new system might be much more rapid. But the temptations to idleness which political speakers are offering them are too strong to be resisted by their feeble intellects, and they are easily led to ruin. They would go much faster if the promises were fulfilled. If the lands were divided among them, and they were made to depend upon their own labor for the product of their own farms, the race would melt away in two or three generations.

The Southern negro is very much like a hot-house plant. He needs constant care and advice. Exposure is dangerous. It is astonishing to observe how many of them seem to be ill, how few are free from coughs and indications of disease. They know nothing about taking care of themselves.-They require advice, watching and constant help. These are the general truths, while the exceptions serve by contrast to make the common rule more visible.

The future, therefore, looks doubtful to the Southern people. There is reason to fear that the negro race will disappear. Already it is plain that it will not be able to supply the demand for labor which is sure to be made within a few years. The indications are that they will diminish from year to year, while the demand will increase in more rapid ration. If these questions were left to the management of Southern men they would be considered with great care, and the utmost attention would be paid to the comfort and well-being of the freedmen. The best friends they have in the world are Southern employers, and their worst enemies are those who, however honestly, are seeking to divert their attention from the primary question of bread and clothing, and shelter, to the work of governing a great nation. Unfit at present to feed themselves, they ought to be spared the miserable delusion of thinking they are fit to make laws for the world or the greatest nation in it. The direction of their minds toward such subjects results in their absolute destruction, physical as well as moral.

There are many reason for believing that the tendency of things in the South is toward the breaking up of the old system of large plantations employing many hands. These will continue in some sections because no other system can be made to work successfully. But it will not be strange if the general rule shall hereafter be more like that at the North; where the farmer cultivates a small farm, requiring but a few hands. Here comes in, however, the question of emigration-wether it can be turned to the South, and how. The world's history as shown that emigration does not tend warm climates. But here are inducements such as were never before offered. A land once teeming with abundance, rich soil which rewards labor ten-fold, the prospect of crops which are more valuable than mines of gold, the certainty that the soil will yield support to the laborer and his family from the time that the seed grows, these and other reasons may tempt the emigrant.

While the Yankees are making such a "big fuss" about negro equality, Nature is doing more to make, Titus Pines a colored "gemmen" in our town, a white man with "verbatim et literatim" than all the ingenuity of New England ever can do. During the "Seven days" fight at Richmond Titus noticed a white spot on his arm, which was at least skin deep, as water and soap would not take it off. Since that time this spot has been increasing in size and the same change has been gradually progressing on different parts of his body, till about one third of the surface is white. And strange to say: where this change has been effected the skin is as soft and white as that of an infant. Titus says "he is going to be a white man before long. He experiences no unpleasant sensation, is not sick but enjoys as good health as ever he did and "peys incaf" at his trade every day. Come down Mr. Barnum, take Titus around and show the Yanks the only way the negro can ever be made a white man.-Page Valley Courier