The Staunton Vindicator, November 9, 1860, p. 2, c. 2

The fight is over, and the victory achieved by the opposition to the South. Lincoln is elected President through the madness and the folly of the South herself; and it now remains to be seen whether or not the councils of prudence, conservatism and right will sway the minds of the people, or rush with blind indifference into all the horrors and griefs of internecine warfare. The question is plainly presented whether our system of government, inaugurated at so great a cost of blood and treasure, and rising in its results to a position of grandeur the world before has never witnessed, is to prove a failure or not. If wild infatuation shall rule the action of some of the extreme Southern States, and revolution is precipitated upon us, we can honestly lay our hand upon our heart and say we "did it not." We labored arduously, perserveringly and almost incessantly for what we frankly believed the best interests of our glorious old Commonwealth and our common Country, but it has been in vain. The "deep damnation of conscious guilt" must rest somewhere, but it is not with us. We can look at the coming storm with no other sensation than painful sorrow, prepared with a firm purpose to strike only for what is right.

"Thrice is he arm'd who hath is quarrel just
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."