Valley Virginian

We have not forgotten the promise we made to our readers some time ago - nor do we intend now to impose upon them a political article, but the time and the occasion is soon, that we feel constrained to discourse them for a moment on the Peace which we have to day!

Old Webster says first, Peace is harmony; concord; a state of reconciliation between parties at variance - freedom from internal commotion or civil war, public tranquility; that quiet, order, and security which is granted by the laws * * *--and may we add--of a just and pure government, such as the United States Government is not! Yes this is Peace. We are quite sure that in taking him as our guide we will not be far from the right track, and it is surely to be regretted that his interpretation does not exist in these days and times, and at glancing at the Peace of 1779, and this Peace of 1870, there is a marked and painful difference, that we are almost disheartened before we have regarded it in any light. We are well aware that we cannot realize any of the hopes which were pictured to us, after our successes in Maryland and Pennsylvania. We know full well that we are never to have the peace which we believed would be the final result of those successes. We know to our regret, that the quiet which we hoped for after the "seven days before Richmond" and the horrors of the "crater" has long since been taken from us, and all of our castles have tumbled down and are now mocking us with their unnatural smiles, but we had hoped that when in good faith we had accepted the situation there would come to us that tranquility, that quiet, that order, that harmony, and that security, which is granted by the laws--of our just government of which Mr. Webster speaks. We had hoped that the time was not far distant when there would be a peace for our country which would raise up and cheer every heart, in every State, which have for so long a time been manacled and bound down to the earth and spit upon. We had hoped the present session of Congress would be one which would be handed down in future years filled with magnanimous actions and marked by good deeds and resolutions towards those who have so long been oppressed. We had hoped that the re-admission of Virginia would be a sign of peace for which we have so long prayed--but alas! there is little peace for us yet. We are told that it was reported of two noble Lacedarmonians that being at mortal hatred, were met by Arahidamus, their king, in the temple of Minerva; he required them to put the matter to an indifferent umpire; they chose the king himself, he makes them swear to abide his order, which accordingly they do: Now saith the king, I order that you shall not go out of this temple until you be friends. And so they parted friends (for an oath taken in that temple was unlawful to be broken).--Surely we have sent a sufficient number of umpires and arbitrators to treat with Congress and with what result?

There can be but little doubt that Mr. Sumner will never be reconciled to the southern people, his hatred has grown and increased to such an extent, that time can scarcely effect a change in his hardened heart, and until this time, his sway in Congress will promote every thing else but peace, and our friends need not expect any good ever from him.--We have recently seen in an exchange, a short paragraph describing a meeting which took place in Savannah, between Admiral Buchanan, Commodore Tadnall and General Joseph E. Johnston who had been comrades together in the services of the United and Confederate States; and also on the sea.--The meeting was a chance one, and is described handsomely by the Savannah News. Could we have such hearts as theirs in Washington, perhaps there might be some peace for us.

We had hoped before another session of Congress closed, to be able to chronicle in our columns such work of theirs, that we could rely on that body as a just and patriotic set of men--liberal in all their views, but our experience thus far is of a different sort, and the peace that will come from them will only be read to us through bars and sounded by the tinkling of our chains which each day bind us closer and closer.

Where, oh! where is the peace that comes to the widow's heart this New Year? Where, oh, where is the peace for which she prayed as the tide of battle drew near to her mountain home, which alas has never been seen by him who paid his quota to the war? Where is the peace that comes to her heart as she remembers the vine covered Porch, once hallowed with tender memories and now a pile of blackened ruin, and laid low by the hand of Hunter's heroes? (!)Where is the peace that comes to the gray hairs of him, who has long since given his only son, and now sadly gives out breath by breath the remaining life which was once blessed with the comforts of a smiling home? Where is the peace that comes to the young men of our land who toil day after day, and at the death of each year, pay their last earnings to the Revenue and State officers of the "best Government the world ever saw?" Is this peace--is this the tranquility and rest which we long for? If so, we have enough peace, we ask no more of this sort of concord! Coming generations may see the peace which we were promised when Grant offered his terms to Gen. Lee on the 9th of April 1865; and the boys of 1900 may have the peace we expected when the little band of eight thousand were paroled on that memorable 10th but there is no peace in our day for Virginia!

There is a pleasure and a comfort in spending a life in peace, which is far more easily imagined than described. Would to God we might in our declining years realize that comfort, alas! a few more chains! a few more groans! a few more sighs--with no Peace, and we will be gathered hence to our Father where there is a peace that passeth all understanding!

The bill to admit Virginia as published elsewhere, has passed both houses of Congress, and we are once more in the Union. Of course the emigration which we have all along been told was repelled by the Canby government under which we have been for some time living, will now commence and continue until there will not be "room to contain them." All that capital which has been so long futilly seeking investment in this State will now glide in with such rapidity, and in such vast quantities, that our delighted citizens will be compelled to cry, "hold, enough!" for, don't you see, we are in the Union, and there, too, upon such easy terms. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, and two nice little streams have commenced rippling down our cheeks, because of the beneficence and magnanimity of Congress and the great I Am, Grant. The question will no longer be with the citizens of the Valley, "where shall we raise a sufficient amount to complete the Valley R.R.?" but who shall we allow to build it? In point of wealth and population we may confidently expect soon to see Staunton ahead of the great metropolis New York, and the queen city--not only of the Valley--but of the great glorious Union which we very naughtily tried to "bust up," and for which little peace of naughtiness, we have, for some months past, been doing penance, eating a little dirt, and kneeling, for absolution, before the great Commoner, spoon dealer and "soger' Hon. B.F.B., of Bethel celebrity.

We've actually been down on our knees praying Congress and the "Young Napoleon" for admission on "those terms," and we guess it was in answer thereto that we got in so soon.

Every body now ought to lift up his voice, and cry, great! great! art thou, oh! magnanimous Congress! and do please excuse us for not recognizing this fact before!

We're in the Union!

We make the following extract from an excellent article in a recent number of the Richmond Enquirer:

"With the passage of the Virginia bill by the Senate we have also the announcement that a negro named "Luther Lee" has been appointed collector of customs at Norfolk in this State. Notwithstanding this announcement, our impression is that Luther Lee is not a negro--but a carpetbagger. We already have a negro postmaster in Manchester; and General Canby has just appointed some negro justices of the peace in Amelia county.

We learn also that General Ames, a Yankee officer, has been selected to represent Mississippi in the Senate along with a coal black negro, named Revel, as his colleague.

This is the mild system of "reconstruction" to which the South is treated, and which seems to delight some of our people so much that we understand the admission of Virginia is to be signaled by the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon--and we suppose illuminations. We left the Union with salutes and fire-works and festive demonstrations; and we suppose it is meet to atone for that sin by the most thorough abasement and by destroying our work with the same brilliant emphasis which we gave to the doing of it.