Valley Virginian

As we have said before, we like this heading--it gives one such a full range, over the world of matter that necessarily comes up every week, and enables us to give our readers the benefit of our matured opinions, in a condensed form. And a natural modesty; a singular diffidence, about obtruding our opinions upon the public, makes it very acceptable at this time. For what can we say, good, bad or indifferent? We can give an article by any heading, and put plenty of the "bad, or indifferent," in it--but what single word can so fully express the general idea of a modest man, and so unobtrusively show the "good" things he wishes to convey to his readers? We have made diligent search and have to stick to "the situation."

And, somehow or other, we can not take the same gloomy view of "the situation," some of our most valued contemporaries do. The Valley Virginian has not published a circular, emanating from some sneaks and cowards during the war, calling on "Loyal Leagues," &c., to rally in Washington for the protection of Congress; for the simple reason that we thought the whole thing a humbug, and felt perfectly safe, from all harm, from any such men. They talk boldly about war and all that, now the fighting is over, but we have a firm conviction that a "bounty jumper" could make a good pile, if a flee would attack them vigorously--the signers of that call, and Forney who published it, would certainly employ a "substitute" to kill him. Such being our belief, we could not bore our readers with the call, and as the trouble is over, we hope they are satisfied. In fact, we would take a bet that no sensible man, in the South, has been excited about it any way.

Excited! alarmed! terrified! uneasy! such words can not be applied to a people who have gone through the "fiery furnace" of war; who have been ruthlessly devastated by a brutal soldiery, and then stripped by a more heartless set of camp followers, by courtesy called "Government agents." The Southern people, thanks to a "patience under affliction," only equaled by their heroism in war, have still some rights left and their land. The silly gabble of the Northern press; about "Constitutional Amendments," &c.; the degrading counsels of the traitors among us, have had no weight. The magic power of a "passive resistance," and the firm and determined No, to all encroachments on the rights of the States, has dumfounded the Radicals, and given an encouragement, that will tell gloriously in the next elections, to our friends North, and they are a legion. The late elections North are full of encouragement, but we must profit by them and the facts they present to us.

Well! what are we to do? nine out of ten readers will naturally ask. The problem is simple, but its solution is hard--it is "work! work! work!" if not with the head then with the hands and, if possible with both. Never stop. As Governor Wise says, "work until you are weary and still work on!" We must "fight the devil with fire;" we must fight this untiring; this scheming; this practical; this infernally persevering and ingenious race of yankees, with their own weapons. We must bring our master intelligence down to the dull details, the monotonous every day work, and with our climate and country we can beat him in the sod.

If our people will only look this material question squarely in the face; if they will only bring every child, now living, up to be a master workman, and educated mechanic, and a through business man, in ten years this Southern people can defy the world, and they will be begged to accept the rights the mob at Washington now scornfully refuse to give them.

Rights! representation! the freedom guaranteed by the charter drawn by our fathers! And are we so poor; are we so mean; are we so degraded, (tho' overpowered,) that we will submit to the dictation of a yankee to get a semblance of them, when by hard work, by encouraging imigration; by standing up for the law, we can demand them in ten years? Never! two hundred thousand graves say never! The solemn voice of the dead tells us to work, as they did, to suffer and endure as they did; to be worthy of our past and all will be well.

In the language of our able contemporary, the Charlottesville Chronicle:

"Let us turn from politics. It is an old saying that no one can quarrel long by himself. So uninviting is the field of politics to a Southerner now, that we are perforce driven from it. Talking and discussing will not do us any good. Nothing but one thing will help us throw off the heavy hand of the North. The maxim with the North is the maxim of trade, they know no other rule of life. That maxim is, that it is right to get the highest price you can for your wares--that a man may legitimately make all he can out of his neighbors. They regard the South as the wreckers regard a ship which has gone to pieces on their coast. We shall have no pity nor mercy--and no relief until we help ourselves.

The only path to salvation lies through population. We must have population. We must shut our eyes to everything for the sake of population. Let us turn the tide of immigration to the South, and this section will stand erect once more: it may be, in the future, we shall again shape the legislation of the country.

Here we have millions of acres of fertile lands lying idle, yielding nothing. There is the foundation here for an empire, already occupied by six millions of a hardy, brave, intelligent, Christian race. Our territory will maintain several hundred millions. There are (including freedmen) one million people in the State of Virginia. We want ten millions. If to-morrow one million decent settlers could be put down in Virginia, the value of our lands to-morrow, instead of being eight dollars per acre, would be sixteen dollars per acre. The farmer with five hundred acres, held, say, at $10,000, would then find the same farm worth $20,000.

When the title of immigration sets in, Congress cannot hurt us. Constitutional Amendments cannot hurt us. Massachusetts will "dry up." If negro suffrage comes (and it may come,) it will be harmless. In fact the incoming wave will push the negro southward.

This (immigration) is the solution of the troubles which environ us. We must have it. The landholders of Virginia (confining our attention to our own State) hold the key which will unlock our prison doors. Have they the skill to turn it?"

It is a great mistake to suppose that even after this long, bloody and cruel war, in which medicine was made contraband of war and the public archives at the South destroyed, that there is any prejudice against Northern men per se. Many a Northern man fell fighting bravely on our side, and gave up his life in defence of the independence of the South. In the ranks of the famous Washington Artillery, of New Orleans, were many Northerners, and one of the best soldiers we ever saw, who was never known to shirk a fight, was a Connecticut school teacher in the 12th Virginia Infantry. During the war there was at the North, as in England at the time of the struggle of the American Colonies for their liberty, a large minority, respectable by its intelligence and social position, who opposed it, and never would contribute a dollar to its support. There were others who, thinking their section wrong in the matter, still resolved to support it. There were others still, who, believing in the right of the South to withdraw from the Union thought that it was essential to the salvation of the North that the South should be kept in, and, believing self-preservation would justify anything, supported the United States Government. All these different classes were called by their opponents, the Black-snakers, either "Copperheads" or War Democrats.

We Southerners can scarce have an idea of the way a poor Copperhead was persecuted during the war by his Puritan brethren. Their sufferings almost equalled those of the ancient Christians. They were tarred and feathered, ridden on rails, their wives and daughters insulted when they appeared in public, and all in the name of "Liberty." A distinguished Confederate officer, who was in Wisconsin last winter, informs us that he met with substantial farmers there who told him of the indignities and outrages perpetrated on them on account of their opposition to the war. They were not allowed to go to their county town, and were threatened if they did with arrest and persecution for disloyalty. They had to form secret societies for their own protection. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the two boasts of the United States Constitution, were absolute myths. Many of our soldiers will recollect gratefully the kindnesses shown them by Northerners whilst in the United States military prisons, and many a Northern woman nursed our sick and wounded kindly and tenderly in their hospitals.

So we say that there are at the North hundreds and thousands of good, sensible men whom we at the South would be glad to welcome amongst us. We want their industry, their thrift, their capital. They would find no prejudice existing against them, and business and social relations they could easily at once establish with our people. We want them to come among us and ensure them a hearty welcome. For they would come to aid us in building up and fostering the country, and not for purpose of creating trouble and fomenting dissension amongst us. As for the canting, Puritanical Yankee, with his negro affiliations, his "Plymouth Rock," his codfish, etc., we want none of that article, for we detest them almost as much as the freedmen do.--Richmond Times.