Valley Virginian

At a meeting held recently by the soldiers of Anderson District, for the purpose of forming a soldiers' association, General Wade Hampton was waited upon by a committee, and in response delivered the following speech:

Brother Soldiers of Anderson: I deem myself fortunate that accident has given me the pleasure of meeting with you today, and of participating in the laudable objects contemplated by your meeting; and that pleasure is greatly enhanced by seeing around me many of the brave men whom it was my good fortune to command during the war. These mountain regions gave to the armies of the South some of our best soldiers, and it is due to them that I should declare what I do here with infinite gratification, that I had in my ranks none better, braver or more devoted, than the men of this and the adjoining districts. In your presence I desire to tender to them my heartfelt thanks for their conduct as soldiers. They have the proud consciousness of having performed their duty to the State, and this will be some compensation to them for the result of the war. And, brother soldiers, whilst we acquiesce in the result, let us not admit that the cause of it was unjustifiable or wrong. I accept the terms upon which we laid down our arms, in good faith, and it is our duty to observe these terms faithfully; but whilst I do this, I shall never say that we had not right on our side--I shall never hold my State as guilty and her sons as traitors. The cause is not to be judged by success or failure. Success does not inevitably make right, or truth, or justice, nor does failure always imply evil, wrong or falsehood. If the justice of a cause always insures success, Poland, Hungary, and Ireland, would not now groan under the heel of the oppressor, nor would the South be reduced to the sad condition in which she finds herself to-day. But sad as is the condition of our beloved land, we must not forsake it. She has need of all her sons. You know that in years that are just passed, you regarded it as your highest duty to stand by your colors. So now it is your duty to stand by your State. Her colors are nailed to the mast, and let us stand or fall with her. Give her all the aid you can, and if she sinks, at least let us go down with her. For these reasons I have discouraged emigration. I believe it is our highest duty to assist in the re-establishment of law, order, peace; to help the widows and orphans made by the war, and to endeavor to raise our prostrate and bleeding country. We may not be able to do much towards alleviating the suffering and sorrows of our people, but we can at least take our share of them, and thus lighten the general burden by distributing it amongst us all. To the accomplishment of these objects--the highest that patriotism can inspire--I invoke your earnest co-operation. It will require all your energy, all your strength, all your endurance, to restore hope to our people or vitality to our State.

We can expect nothing from the Government of the United States, whatever party may be in power. The Convention at Philadelphia--where the North and the South, burying the past, were to re-establish liberty, equality, fraternity--has declared the platform upon which the Conservatives propose to enter the next canvass. In the delusion of principles which compose that platform, I see it announced that the brave soldiers and sailors who suppressed the rebellion are entitled to the thanks of the nation; that the debt incurred in that holy crusade is to be sacred, and that all Confederate debts are null and void. We pension the men who forged our fetters; but the soldiers of the South--men with empty sleeves or on crutches, such as are seen around me now--are to be branded as outlaws, rebels and traitors. No fostering hand of a paternal government soothes or cares for their widows and orphans. The country and the government for which they fought, like their hopes, are dead, and they are thrown on the cold charity of the world. It is our duty to open our hearts and our hands to our brave disabled soldiers, and care for the families of those who fell in our defence. Whatever may have been the result of the cause in which they fell remember that they died for us, fighting, and they honestly believed, to make us free. They offered up their lives a willing sacrifice for their country, and shame upon the man who would not help those who have lost their all in our behalf. I shall never turn my back upon any brave soldier who stood by his banner to the last, though that glorious banner may be forever furled; though now

"There's not a man to wave it,
And there's not a soul to save it,
And there's not one to lave it,
In the blood which heroes gave it."

Tis true that we have but little left us; that we are impoverished; but we can at least share our pittance with those who have lost all.

To record the names of those who fought for us; to perpetuate the history of the gallant troops given by our State to the common cause; to extend our aid to those who are disabled, and to those whose protectors fell in the war, are the noble purposes of your proposed Association. I wish you God speed in this good work. I congratulate myself that I have been permitted to participate in these holy objects, and I pray that God may bless them to the fullest extent of your wishes. I thank you, gentlemen, for the courtesy you have extended to me, and for the kindness with which you have received me.

The question of prime importance before our people now, is the great Valley Railroad. In the hurly-burly of the times past, our people were so intent upon the achievement of one great object that the benefits of railroads to the material interests of the country were necessarily over-looked. And the pressing necessities of the day occupy their whole time and attention so closely, even now, that few look upon the matter as they should. In fact, some still cling to an old and obsolete idea that in some way or other, any great improvement in machinery or locomotion, necessarily diminishes the demand for labor, or for other machinery. Hence it was that the introduction of printing was opposed in Europe on account of its supposed tendency to diminish the employment of writers and copyists. It is now an established principle that anything that diminishes the amount of labor, increases the amount of labor required. This is done by cheapening the products of labor so that more will be consumed and more labor be required to produce them. This is illustrated by the fact that more women are employed in sewing than before the sewing machine was introduced. In regard to railroads, there was once an idea that the transportation of agricultural products by them would decrease the [unclear] of horses, wagoners &c. But from the United States census of 1860, we find the result precisely the contrary. [Unclear] we multiplied more rapidly than before the introduction of railroads. In 1850, the year railroads began to be generally introduced in the West, the increase of horses, asses and mules was 12 percent. In 1860, ten years after the general introduction of railroads, the [unclear] was 51 per cent. In the five great States of the West, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 1,155,255 horses were employed in agriculture in 1860. In ten years 3,000 miles of railroad were constructed in these States, and the number of horses employed in agriculture, and for other purposes, in 1860 was 2,381,671, an increase of 106 percent. These facts and figures show that the more railroads built in a country, the greater facilities there are for reaching the great markets and hence the great number of animals required to carry on the enlarged operations in agriculture, manufactures, and the general business of the country.

The report before us states, that so great are the positive advantages which all departments of agriculture have derived from the construction of railroads, "that if the entire cost of railroads between the Atlantic and Western States had been levied on the farms of the central West, their proprietors could have paid it and been immensely gainers." This is evident, first because the railroads enable the farmers west to do what they could not have done without them. Instead of their products rotting on the ground, the railroads at once gave them the prices of the great markets on the Atlantic, and this enabled them to increase both the settlement and productiveness of their States. Railroads carry two-thirds of the surplus products of the Northwest to the Atlantic, or to foreign markets, and have caused the enormous increase of agricultural products noted in this report. Where there are no railroads and no competition, the cultivation of grain, beyond the immediate wants of the people, must cease, or the surplus perish in the fields. Between 1850 and 1860, the increase, caused by railroads, in the production of animals, grain and vegetables, in the five States before mentioned was, wheat 100 per cent., corn 58, oats 50, potatoes 100, and cattle 59. This increase is decidedly beyond the increased population, showing that agriculture in these States is profitable, and in this you can read the cause of so many of our best young men emigrating to these States, and leaving our richest lands uncultivated--all for want of a market.

One instance of the influence of railroads on the value of lands ought to be enough to convince our people of the importance of voting for the subscription to the Valley Railroad. The Illinois Central Railroad received from the U. S. government a large body of land, which it could not sell for $1.25 per acre. That company constructed its road, and sold part of the lands for $11 per acre. The wealth and population of Illinois now show the benefits derived from one railroad, but the advance in the cash value of farms in five States, in ten years, show it more conclusively. The aggregate value of farms in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, in 1850, was $671,678,075--in 1860, $1,738,394,188. Increase in ten years, $1,066,716,113.

In giving the facts and figures from the census of 1860 in regard to these States, we, of course, cannot state positively, the value to that country of railroads since, but one great fact must be apparent to every man, that is such results were obtained from railroads, in ten years, in a new and unsettled country, that a country possessed of the resources and the enterprise of our Valley, cannot be injured by a great railroad, extending through its entire length and connecting it with all the great markets of the continent.

People of Augusta county! this is a question of vital importance to you and yours forever. Every man should talk about it to his neighbor and ignore national politics; every man should work for the road, regardless of what portion of the county it runs through, for by voting for this subscription, you give strength and solidarity to the Valley Railroad Company, and you insure the success of the enterprise. Vote against it, and the influences, so hard to overcome in Eastern Virginia last year, will take it as an evidence that you do not want the road, and the charter will be revoked. Vote for the subscription, and you enable the company to borrow the amount necessary to complete the road, and the stock necessary to build it will be taken by capitalists, anxious for good investments. Everything depends on this vote, and the larger it is in favor of the subscription the better. In business transactions confidence is everything, and the vote for or against the subscription to the Valley Railroad, by Augusta county, settles that question.

We have heretofore presented the great advantages to be reaped by this county and the Valley so fully, that the Virginian can say no more. Every energetic, practical man, every man devoted to our glorious Valley, should work for the railroad, and make the Valley in improvements, in prosperity, and the happiness of its people, worthy of being called the Shenandoah--"the laughing daughter of the stars."

Staunton, August 20, 1866.

Nat. B. Meade, Esq:

My Dear Sir--I have received your letter, and I thank you for calling my attention to a construction of my testimony about the trial of President Davis, which does injustice alike to my opinions and my feelings. My testimony was taken in short hand, and was not read over to me or submitted for my revision. I am surprised at its general correctness; but I find that, in several instances, my meaning has been inaccurately stated, or wholly misapprehended.

The point of inquiry was as to the probable result of a trial of Mr. Davis before a court and jury, if one should be had, and not as to the propriety of subjecting him to such an ordeal.

It was my purpose to state my belief that our unsuccessful attempt at revolution must be regarded as rebellion, and if judicially considered and applied to individual cases, must subject each offender to the penalties of treason. Such, I presume, must be the opinion of all who do not believe in what is called the "right of secession," and such must of course be the view of the Government of the United States. Every pardon granted and every amnesty offered is an assertion of this principle; and every pardon sought or accepted admits at least a doubt of the defense to be made before a court and jury.

While my opinion as a lawyer is what I have stated, I do not at all intend to admit the propriety of attempting to deal by judicial trials with transactions whose national proportions place them beyond the proper reach of court and jury. Each individual case, if brought into court, must, in my opinion, be held to constitute treason, and be dealt with accordingly, but each case is so thoroughly a representative of all that a trial of any one would, to all intents and purposes, be subjecting the conduct of a nation to the review of twelve jurors.

If this would be true of any one Confederate, how much more must it be felt to be true of President Davis, who, in his prison, is this very day more emphatically the representative of our cause than he was when Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate army and navy.

To subject a man occupying this position to a trial by the narrow rules which limit judicial construction, and to the mockery of a jury trial, would, in my opinion, be an outrage too gross to be anticipated of any government in Christendom.

Every day that he is kept in prison is a peremptory adjournment of all real reconciliation between the North and the South. Any attempt to subject him to further humiliation must be regarded as a personal wrong done to every true Southern man; and if he shall be permitted to die in captivity, his name will become the watchword of Southern hate! It is to be regretted that the Convention recently held at Philadelphia did not recognize the necessity of amnesty for the past as a basis of good will for the future; but I trust that this omission will be set right by President Johnson, and that he will by the prompt discharge of Mr. Davis, give practical point and vitality to his recent declaration that "unless we forget the past we can have no future."

Yours truly,
John B. Baldwin.

"Who've ye got there?"--"Only a dying brother,
Hurt in the front just now."
"Good boy! He'll do. Somebody tell his mother,
Where he was killed, and how."

"Whom have you there?"--"A crippled courier Major,
Shot by mistake, we hear.
He was with Stonewall--"Cruel work they've here.
Quick with him to the rear!"

"Well, who comes next?"--"Doctor, speak low, speak low, sir;
Don't let the men find out!
It's Stonewall."--"Oh God!"--"The Brigade must not know sir.
While there's a Yank about."

Whom have we here--shrouded in martial manner,
Crowned with a martyr's charm?
A grand, dead hero, in a hung banner,
Born of his heart and arm!

The heart whereon his cause hung--see how clingeth
That banner to his bier!
The arm wherewith his cause struck--hark! how ringeth
His trumpet in their ear!

What have we left?--His genius inspiration,
His prayers in council [unclear].
Living, he laid the first seeds of a nation;
And dead, he builds yet.