Valley Virginian

This question is often asked now by our people and it is a serious one, so serious to us that it is painful to attempt an answer to it. If President Johnson's policy had been carried out by Congress, our Country, the South, would have now been on the high road to prosperity and some hope of repairing the devastation of war could be entertained. It has not been carried out, but, has been opposed by the Radicals with consummate ability and spite. When the armies of the Confederacy surrendered and our people accepted the pledges of Andrew Johnson and Gen. Grant, they expected to be restored to all rights and privileges of citizens of the United States, to which they renewed their allegiance. They accepted, in good faith, the results of the war; gave up slavery and were prepared to work out the problem of free negro labor, as best they could.

And now after doing all that was asked of us by the President of the United States and Gen. Grant, and more than was ever claimed by the "so-called" Union party North, "what's the times?" We elect representatives to the Congress of the U. S. and they are refused admittance, and we are told that our oaths to support the Constitution are false and we are not to be trusted. A new interpretation of the Constitution, for them, is given by the Radicals in Congress, and they practically assume the position held by the States rights men during the war, i. e. that we had a right to secede. They declare us out of the United States and demand new guarantees before the "Territories of the South" can be admitted to full representation, as States of the United States. At first we hoped that the Conservative element in the North was strong enough to check the Radicals in Congress in their mad career, but since they have been home and come back to Washington, more bitter than ever we can see no hope for the South, except in the nerve and firmly expressed purpose of Andrew Johnson to oppose their ruinous measures.

It is a very simple question with our people. They were promised certain things, by the only power of the U. S. Government authorized to grant them. The Congress of the U. S. refuse to approve the contract and, in fact, repudiate it. We have honestly done our part, and it remains for the people in the United States to force their representatives to aid Andrew Johnson in doing theirs. If they do not we can see very little in the future of this continent to look forward to hopefully--but a people who have gone through four years of such a war as ours can certainly look the future bravely in the face.

The Jacobin Radicals, in Congress, are doing their utmost to make a war of races; their speeches and their votes show it. Negro suffrage is to be enforced and the negro placed not only on an equality, but made superior to the white man. When the contest opens, as we hope it never may, the "times" in the South will indicate the extermination of the negro race. All this and the confiscation laws make the times look very black, and we can see but one hopeful sign that is in the old saying, that "the man who killed a dog for spite never saw him buried."

But still there is something to live for in this desolated land of ours. It is something to feel that you did your duty in the past four years; that your people made a name that can never perish; that the glory and the heroes of war are acknowledged to be yours by the world. It is something to feel proud of, when you can say you were with Stonewall Jackson at Kernstown and Lee at Appomattox. Hecatombs of martyred dead tell you you did no wrong, and a world forever applauds your glorious deeds. The wives, the mothers and the orphans of our dead, demand of us that we make a brave effort to secure "better times," such an effort as they made on the battle field to secure independence. They lost all. We still have life and a duty to perform to those they left a "sacred heritage" to us. So let the Radicals in Congress do their worst, if we but do our duty, no more harm can come to us than has already. To develope our resources; to raise this country from poverty and weakness to wealth and strength; to feed the widows and the orphans of our dead is the only duty, of "the times," for us to attend to. And if President Johnson's nerve, and his kindness to the people of the South, and General Grant's pledges avail us nothing, then, we can say we have done our duty, in war and peace, and looking the world honestly in the face be prepared for all that comes.

The President on the 28th stated to a distinguished Senator that the agitation of the negro franchise question in the District of Columbia at this time, was a mere entering wedge to the agitation of the question throughout the States; that it was ill-timed, uncalled for and calculated to do great harm. He believed it would engender enmity and strife between the two races which would result in great injury to both, and the certain extermination of the negro population. Precedence, he thought, should be given to more important and urgent matters of legislation, which were essential for the restoration of the Union, the peace of the country and the prosperity of the people. The above is strictly true.

Below we continue the list of Confederate Soldiers buried in Thornrose Cemetery.

North Carolina

B. Skinner, 2; J. A. Long, 14; H. Potter, 30; W. R. Phillips, 33; A. Sigman, 18; Geo. Bridgit, 23; A. Poore, 2; C. T. Taylor, 48; L. A. Caswell, 3; J. A. Stallings, 30; P. B. Tlanger, 30; G. F. Jones, 2; S. Henderson, 38; J. S. Barker, 4; E. Ritchie, 28.

South Carolina

T. Shayler, 13; A. R. Hurley, Phillips Legion; D. Errand, 3; W. A. McDowell, 12; R. M. Gills, 17; J. M. Chissley, 3.

Georgia

B. A. Stonaker, 21; S. Fields, 35; J. W. Baker, 13; J. Aultman, 6; J. W. Harris, 51; W. F. Watly, 45; W. W. Burges, 38; W. W. Keen, 31; H. Grimes, 49; B. S. Green, 38; C. R. Stevens, 44.

Alabama

W. C. Atkins, 12; W. M. Hunsucker, 11; W. Radon, 17.

Virginia

S. Kalam, 9; J. Clary, 21; J. F. Heperis, --; H. H. Amos, 47; J. Hults, 42; J. W. Willson, 1st Va. Art.; M. A. Bodgers, 5th Va. Cavalry.

Mississippi

W. M. Tate, 2.

An old gentleman remarked the other day that in 1776 we went to war on account of the stamp act, and got the nigger; while in 1861 we went to war about the nigger and got the stamp act.

The following lines were written upon the back of a Five Hundred Dollar Confederate Note, by Major S. A. Jonas, subsequent to the surrender:

Representing nothing on God's earth now,
And naught in the water below it;
As a pledge of a nation that's dead and gone,
Keep it, dear Captain, and show it.
Show it to those that will lend an ear
To the tale this this paper can tell
Of Liberty born, of the patriot's dream,
Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

Too poor to possess the precious ore,
And too much a stranger to borrow,
We issue to-day, our "Promise to Pay,
And hope to redeem on the morrow."
Days rolled by, and weeks became years,
But our coffers were empty still;
Coin was so rare that the Treasury'd quake
If a dollar should drop in the till.

But the faith that was in us was strong indeed,
And our poverty well discerned,
And these little checks represented the pay
That our suffering veterans earned.
We know it had hardly a value in gold;
Yet as gold the soldiers received it;
It gazed in our eyes with a promise to Pay,
And each patriot soldier believed it.

But our boys thought little of price or pay,
Or of bills that were over due;
We knew if it bought our bread today,
'Twas the best our poor country could do.
Keep it! it tolls all our history over,
From the birth of the dream to its last;
Modest, and born of Angel, Hope,
Like our hope of success it passed.