Valley Virginian

Staunton, we believe, has a body of mechanics not surpassed for intelligence, good morals and a thorough knowledge of their various trades, in the State. Her magnificent public buildings bear witness to what they can do on a large scale, and her private residences, designed and built at home, will compare favorably with any in the South. Her machine and carpenter shops, her printing offices; her tobacco factories; book bindery, shoe shops, harness and carriage manufacturers, &c., are filled by gentlemen of character as well as master workmen. Her mechanics add to her prosperity and have made her the first town in the Valley. Take them out, and all other occupations would languish and die. And still, with a full knowledge of these facts, this important element of our society has no organization; no common center; no union of interests, by which it could protect its own, and greatly increase its power for doing good. We have associations of different kinds: "Medical Associations," "Musical Associations," and "Building Associations," all very good in their place, but no Mechanic's Association. That this is wrong; that the mechanics have done injustice to themselves, as individuals and as a body, by not creating a greater community of interest among the trades, all admit, but, as yet, no one acts.

We have all seen and felt the necessity for a Mechanic's Association, and the success of the Danville Association, started June, 1866, should stimulate our mechanics to like action. In June, 1866, a letter from the Secretary to us, says; "a few Mechanics in Danville, feeling the necessity of a union of the trades for their mutual interests, associated, and now number over 100 members. There was never a question about 'higher wages,' &c., debated, its purpose being simply to aid us in cultivating friendly feelings; a taste for the good and beautiful; and the acquisition of mechanical and general knowledge. To which end we founded a Library; have lectures and debates on various subjects tending to that result. Also to aid each other in sickness and distress."

In a copy of the Constitution and By Laws of the Association, accompanying this letter, we find the objects of the Association stated as follows: "We the Mechanics and Artisans of Danville and the vicinity, earnestly desiring to encourage industry, advance the Arts, promote virtue, elevate the standard of morality, and cultivate feelings of brotherly love and charity--and feeling assured that these ends can be best attained by associated effort, do hereby adopt the following Constitution and By-Laws for our government." A careful reading of the Constitution and By Laws convinces us that better can not be framed, and we invite every man interested to call and examine them. The membership is divided into four classes: active members 21 years of age, regular mechanics or artisans; Junior members, minors over 12 years, regularly engaged in some trade as their future occupation; Life members, any person in good standing by payment of $25; Honorary members, persons of distinguished reputation, friendly to the Association or such as have rendered important services to it. The officers are President, Vice-President, Auditor, Treasurer; Librarian, Chaplain and Steward, also a board of 5 Trustees. The regular meetings are on each Monday night in October, November, December, January, February and March at 7 o'clock, and in April, May, June, July, August and September at 8 P. M. Every active member of the Association pays a quarterly tax of 75 cents, in advance, and upon the death of a member, whose funeral expenses are to be paid, 50 cents. Junior members pay 50 cents quarterly in advance. It is provided that there shall be but one fund in the Association, which shall not be disposed of, except for actual and necessary expenses of the Association, or for the benefit of sick or distressed members, their wives and children. Members desiring to travel are furnished with cards or certificates for six months, and, in short, all needful rules and regulations are laid down to make an Association of the kind a complete success.

And now, mechanics of Staunton, it is for you to say whether you will join hands and aid in working out the problem so successfully started by your brothers in Danville. The few facts we are able to give should be thought over and added to, by older heads than ours. A meeting should be called, to see if an organization, which can accomplish so much good, cannot be perfected in Staunton. As you are now situated, without an organization, without that association so necessary to all great undertakings, you can do little to accomplish the great end and aim of all true Southern men: the elevation and advancement of the mechanic Arts among our people. Then meet at an early day, and, standing shoulder to shoulder, push forwards the great work of regenerating the State.

Much can be done in an association of this kind to aid in the great work Virginia now demands of her people. Relying on her hardy sons of toil, the mechanics, the laboring men, to defend her honor in war, she calls on them, with a confidence renewed and increased by their devotion then, to stand by her in her hour of desolation and distress. She calls upon you to leave no stone unturned, to take no step backward in great movement for material prosperity and progress now so necessary. By the association and combination of capitol and labor, she urges you to elevate and educate yourselves to the highest standard of mechanical excellence--and can you resist the call? The times have changed and it behooves every true son of Virginia, especially the mechanic and laboring man, to show they are the strength and power of the State. To this end we must meet together and learn to know each other better; the brave and strong must help the timid and weak; the educated must devote a portion of their time to teaching the young. We must confer together; new improvements in machinery, &c., must be discussed, and the inventive genius of our people stimulated. With the fund that can be raised a Library can be bought, which will be an education in itself. In fact Virginia, destined as she is to be the greatest manufacturing State of the Union, must have educated mechanics and farmers, men who can make her a power never dreamed of by the most sanguine; men who can represent her great working interests in the Halls of Legislation, as well as in the workshop and the field. Then, possessed as she is of the greatest extent of territory, the most salubrious climate, and the major amount of intellect embraced within the limits of the reunited States, she has but to arouse her dormant energies, utilize her master intelligence, and wealth and political power will soon place her, as a State in position as the dominant, rather than the subject portion of the reorganized republic.

"Ah, never shall the land forget
How gush'd the life blood of the brave
Gush'd warm with hope and courage yet,
Upon the soil they fought to save."

The fourth anniversary of the death of Stonewall Jackson occurs next Friday, May the 10th. This is the "sacred day" set apart, by common consent in his loved Valley, to pay fitting tribute to his memory and decorate the graves of our honored dead with flowers. There is something peculiarly appropriate and touching in this ceremony, and how any can neglect so sacred a duty, or object to it, seems strange to us, when even our late enemies allow it. The programme of last year will be carried out. The procession will form at the Methodist Church, after Col. O'Ferrall's address and, headed by the Stonewall Band, will proceed to the Cemetery. No person need fear any interference, and Old Augusta should turn out en masse. Let us devote at least one day to honoring the memory of those who died for us, and let the tribute be paid with full and grateful hearts. The South, in her agony, cries:

"Voice after voice hath died away,
Once in my dwelling heard;
Sweet household name by name hath chang'd,
To grief's forbidden word!
From dreams of night, on each I call,
Each of the far remov'd;
And waken to my own wild cry,
Where are ye, my beloved?"

Ladies of Augusta, you, whose fair hands tended and whose kind voices cheered, the last moments of so many that lie unnoticed in your Cemetery, by your action next Friday answer. Let the South and the world know that "her beloved" are cherished and held sacred in your hearts, and that your tears shall forever water and revive the flowers with which you decorate their graves.

In response to a most complimentary vote of thanks, by the House of Delegates of Virginia, and after returning his heartfelt thanks, Mr. Baldwin said that he never looked to a future more threatening and less full of promise. He, and all present, had passed through the greatest of civil wars; and in the darkest hour of that disastrous struggle he never saw so much occasion for despondency and depression as at this time. It was impossible for any one to foresee the result of the present dangerous experiment in Virginia.

Although, said Mr. Baldwin, we cannot claim to be free, nor claim that Virginia is a State, yet we are an organized community, and have a right to expect to be free, and that Virginia will be a State. But the situation of public affairs at this time, with the new element introduced by the United States into the political arena, presents a problem whose solution justified great anxiety for the public tranquility and welfare. This new element, under the most favorable circumstances, would be a matter of concern; but when subject to the maddening influence of party spirit and agitations of partisans, it became a subject of gravest consideration and apprehension.

It becomes us, said Mr. Baldwin, to look well into the circumstances which surround us, and to brace ourselves for the duty before us. He anticipated that a people who had passed through such a war as we have had, and had borne themselves with such fortitude and constancy under its severe trials, do not now intend to give way to useless repinings or to timidity and alarm. I take it, said he, that you mean not only to give way, but to perform your duties to the community and the State. He urged them by every consideration of public and private duty, by every obligation that belongs to good citizens, and by their love of order and obedience to law, to forego no opportunity to avert the difficulties which threatened the State, and, if possible, to control and guide her destiny amidst the dangers that lowered upon her. He urged all to avail themselves of whatever opportunities of choice or selection that might be offered. He conjured those who could to register their names among the voters, to advise all others to do the same, and to take such participation in the proceedings relative to the reconstruction of the State as prudence and discretion may suggest when the time arrives. If, said he, we take care to exercise the privileges accorded to us with discretion--with a proper sense of our responsibilities to God and man--we shall at least discharge our duty, and will do the best that can be done for the State in the great emergency in which she is placed.

Mr. Baldwin expressed the hope that he had over-estimated the peril and over-stated the dangers of the situation. But he had said what he thought proper, and with a view to arouse gentlemen to the necessity of the earnest discharge of all the duties devolved upon them at this time. For himself, though he considered the peril great, he was not without hope. Even that element which occasioned apprehension had offered proofs of fidelity and good conduct under excitement that commanded admiration and confidence. Through the darkest hour of the war, amidst all the elements of strife and confusion, and all the contrivances to excite them against their friends and masters, the colored race rose high above those who would have tempted them to deeds of outrage and of wrong. He was not without hope that we shall again find them superior to those who would excite them to outrage and mislead them to their own injury. Mr. Baldwin advised that the whites should practice towards them the same kindness and consideration which had characterized the conduct of our people in their past relations to the colored race.

A most remarkable comment on the morals of the late Confederate Army, is represented in a recent report to the Trustees of Mercer (Ga.) University, by Rev. H. H. Tucker, D. D., President of the University. The facts set forth will be read with interest by the Southern people, and cannot fail to impress those who are not Southern people with the belief that if we have been sorely chastised of Heaven, we have also been surprisingly blessed. The following is an extract from Dr. Tucker's report. After stating that the University is in full and successful operation, and after some remarks on the general good order of the students, the President reports:

In a few instances a number of them together, owing not to evil intent but merely to the natural exuberances of youthful spirits, have been a little too boisterous, and somewhat disorderly. A mere suggestion of the impropriety of this, not accompanied by reproof, has been sufficient to restrain them. As to diligence in study, I have never had occasion to incite them to it; on the contrary I have felt it my duty in some instances to restrain them and advise them to devote more time to recreation. On the whole I may say that a more docile, gentle, tractable and dutiful body of young men I have never seen. A number of these students were soldiers in the Confederate army, and I desire to put it on record as one of the remarkable facts of the times, that these war-torn veterans--veterans in arms, though young in years, who served through the whole or a large part of the war, are not only among the best we now have but among the best that we ever had. It is touching to contemplate the almost incredible combination of heroism and gentleness. They were lions in battle--at home they are lambs. I need not say that it is a luxury to teach such noble youths, and as an honor and a privilege to prepare them for future their career.

The facts in the case seem to contradict all our preconceived opinions and theories. We supposed, in common with all, that the influence of the army and of the camp would be in the highest degree hurtful to morals; that mere youths of unformed character, removed from the restraints of home,--away from the sweet influences of the sanctuary, and associating with company the most unselect and witnessing and taking active part almost daily in horrid scenes of carnage and death, would lose all their finer sensibilities and become the victims of the worst passions of human nature. Indeed to the pious parent, the risk to life and limb in battle was less to be dreaded than the more fearful perils of character. The facts are precisely the reverse of all that our fears anticipated. Whether this is the case in all armies and in all wars, or whether the late Confederate army was an exception, with or without parallel, and if so, what were the causes which made this case exceptional, are questions which I shall not attempt to discuss. It is enough at present to record the surprising fact that the influence of army life seems to have been for good. It should excite our heartfelt and tearful gratitude to God, that if He has slain many of our sons, He has in His compensating Providence improved the character of those that remain.

About two-thirds of our present students have been in the army, and about one-third of these, equivalent to one-fifth of our entire number of students, were wounded in the service and wear the scars of battle. From the facts set forth I leave the world to draw its own conclusion.