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Staunton Vindicator: March 12, 1869 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

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Summary: Expresses a low opinion of Grant's inaugural address, and feels there is no hope for the South in any of its passages. Especially dislikes Grant's plans on the public debt and his endorsement of the 15th amendment. Believes Grant will just be the pawn of a Radical Congress.

Full Text of Article:

We lay before our readers in this issue, the inaugural address of President Grant. As all anticipated, it is brief and has also but few salient points. Its silence must speak louder than its words or we can draw but little comfort therefrom for our oppressed South.

From the announcement, that he had taken the oath of office without mental reservation and would commence the duties incumbent upon him as President untrammeled, as the office has come to him unsought, we expected like bold and independent expressions to characterize the address throughout and a bold line of policy, so much needed now to convert the political chaos of the present into light, and bring method out of confusion. In this we were mistaken. Although he threatens with a veto, yet he becomes suppliant in the next sentence, and expresses his willingness to execute all laws whether he approves them or not, constitutional or unconstitutional, his oath to the contrary notwithstanding. His plan for getting rid of obnoxious laws is faulty in the extreme. The obnoxious laws of the last administration have been and of the present, in all probability, will be passed simply because they are onerous upon a section of the country which has, in reality, no voice in their enactment and which the dominant section desires to keep in its present powerless condition. How his plan will relieve from such obnoxious laws Gen. Grant may have an idea, but we venture the assertion that no one else has.

As to the public debt he seems to have no very clear conviction. That it must be paid he asserts, but how and when he fails to give an opinion. He declares for economy in expenditures, the faithful collection of the revenue and a strict accountability for every dollar collected. We hazard the assertion that the carrying out of this proposition will be the biggest job he or any other man, or set of men ever undertook. He has thousands of wily partizans, and their aiders and abetters in Congress, to contend with single handed. If he opens a fight on this line it will consume his entire administration and with no better result than the contest he once waged on a certain line which took all summer: In the fall he was almost as near the goal as he was in the early spring. We shall however wish him better luck in this than in his famous summer campaign.

His counsel, to consider the questions to arise without prejudice, hate or sectional pride, sounds oddly enough, and especially when taken in connection with his recommendation of the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, which is but the offspring of prejudice and sectional hate. As a means of securing "the greatest good to the greatest number," we think the recommendation concerning the XV Amendment, the only recommendation he makes, is sadly deficient.

As a whole the inaugural must be unsatisfactory to thinking men of all parties.--We confess that we arise from its perusal with little hope of the restoration of peace and prosperity to the country from the administration of President Grant, and reluctantly inclined to the opinion that Congress will continue to be President for the next four years.

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Summary: The paper denounces bills designed to strengthen the public credit. The editors assert that greenbacks are now the strongest currency and should not be "tinkered" with. The best way to improve public credit is to re-admit the southern states to the Union.

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Summary: The Rev. C. Beard has held a meeting in his Salem congregation, Augusta County. It resulted in 55 professions of religion. Participants ranged in age from 10 to 75.
(Names in announcement: Rev. C. Beard)

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Summary: Ridicules the attempts of blacks to celebrate Grant's inaugural by burning tar barrels.

Full Text of Article:

On the sight of the 4th inst, about twenty of our colored Republicans, including the big and the little, essayed to celebrate the inaugural of Grant. They burned several tar-barrels in the streets and shot off half a dozen rockets and yelled. It failed to be the big thing those who subscribed expected. In fact, as a colored looker-on said, "it was a fizzle."

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Summary: The Virginia Annual Conference of the M. E. Church has been meeting in Richmond. Charles King has been appointed for Augusta.
(Names in announcement: Charles King)

Married
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Summary: George H. Fox and Miss Mary M. Hanger, both of Augusta, were married on February 25th by the Rev. J. M. Shreckhise.
(Names in announcement: George H. Fox, Mary M. Hanger, Rev. J. M. Shreckhise)

Married
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Summary: Charles Wynn and Miss Susan M. Heizer were married on March 1st by the Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: Charles Wynn, Susan M. Heizer, Rev. George B. Taylor)

Married
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Summary: William H. Beach and Miss Emma J. Day were married on March 4th by the Rev. George B. Taylor.
(Names in announcement: William H. Beach, Emma J. Day, Rev. George B. Taylor)

Married
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Summary: John B. Deter and Miss Julia A. Hill were married near Mossy Creek Iron Works on February 25th by the Rev. John Pinkerton.
(Names in announcement: John B. Deter, Julia A. Hill, Rev. John Pinkerton)

Married
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Summary: J. W. T. Graham of Greenville, Augusta County, and Miss Lizzie J. Thompson of Missouri were married in Missouri on March 4th by the Rev. Mr. Pearson.
(Names in announcement: J. W. T. Graham, Lizzie J. Thompson, Rev. Pearson)

Died
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Summary: Mrs. Rachel Bush, wife of James S. Bush, died on March 5th at the residence of her husband near Waynesboro. She was 78 years old.
(Names in announcement: Rachel Bush, James S. Bush)

Died
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Summary: Miss Peamelia F. Fry died at the residence of her mother in Waynesboro on March 2nd after a lingering illness. She was 30 years old. A mournful poem accompanies the announcement.
(Names in announcement: Peamelia F. Fry)