The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-25 00:00:00

POLITICS IN VIRGINIA.

Although there still are doubts as to the nature
of the triumph in Virginia outside the State, there
are few inside the State. The Radicals declare that
there is no more proscriptive party than this one
now triumphant ; that no true Republicanism will
be tolerated by them. They " proscribe, ostracise,
and cordially hate,"-says a Radical writer, " and,
left to themselves, will divest the present Constitu-
tion of every Republican feature, and will act with
the Democratic party in the next Presidential elec-
tion." This is the key-note to much of the enmity
against the Conservatives. The party which most
loudly professes liberty is frequently the most
narrow and exacting as well as intolerant of the
opinions of others. What the writer desired was
so to frame the laws that he could force Virginia
if permitted to vote at all into voting as he and his
party dictated ; that is, he required, on high moral
grounds of course, that what once was a great State
of the Union should either have no voice in the
affairs of the nation whereof it formed part, or
that its voice should be a mere echo of his own.
Can he give any fair reason why Virginia should
not support the Democratic ticket at the next Pre-
sidential election ? how does he even know that he
will not support that ticket himself ? If he were
not so absorbed in his own little issues he might
see the changes occurring in parties. The objects
contended for, perhaps even the names, may all be
re-cast before the President is elected for the next
term, while nothing in the future is more probable
than that the change will date from the re-entry
into the Union of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas,
with the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Most men, aware of what is going on around, would
like to await events before committing themselves
to any course ; but a Radical of the War-horse school
in Virginia can only see the negro and the unrepen-
tant rebel, no issues apart from them being to him
visible. A Jesuit arrives at something like these
opinions, and would justify them by the same rea-
soning as the Virginia Radical, though the two are at
the extremities of the line, proving the truth of the
old saying that extremes meet. Mr. KEILEY, a dele-
gate to the new Legislature, who describes himself
as an unrepentant rebel, his written an able letter,
giving the Conservative view of the situation in
Virginia. lie enumerates the hardships the Old
Dominion has had to endure from the hostility of
the Republican party for the last four years. But
one native Judge ; her three Judges of the Court of
Appeal, strangers, as well as her Governor; her
Public Auditor an Army Quartermaster, her Secre-
tary a Staff-officer of the General ; without, Lieut.-
Governor, Attorney-General, or Legislature ; trial
by jury at the General's will ; the municipal officers
everywhere turned out to make room for carpet-
baggers ; the Post-office given to a lady as a reward
for being a spy in their midst during the war ; the
Treasury department under a man indicted in the
United States Circuit Courtfor perjury, and UNDER-
WOOD in the Judicial department. Many counties are
without a sheriff, a clerk, or a constable ; for six
months, no Circuit Court could be held in Pe tersburgh
for want of a clerk. Notwithstanding throughout
the whole Union there is no more orderly and peace-
ful community than that of Virginia, an assertion
Mr. KELLEY thus aptly illustrates. A New Yorker,
a Circuit Judge, by military appointment, lately re-
turned to Richmond after a tour of his circuit, hav-
ing found but one criminal in custody in all the
counties, and him he could not try because there
was no clerk of the Court. This he holds effectually
to settle all pretence "about the guarantees for public
order," as no proof could more completely show how
thoroughly the people restrained themselves, resist-
ing the strong temptation to take the law into their
own hands. 'rho only case of lynching was by
blacks upon their brethren who voted the Conser-
vative ticket, while a man guilty of an aggravated
felony in a certain county who could not be al.-
rested, as there was no legal machinery there to do
so, was allowed to escape, rather than that the law,
even in its mere forms, should be violated. While
we admire this attitude of the citizens of Virginia
little le-ss than we do their gallantry and efficiency
in the field, we maintain that Mr. KELLEY is not
justified in advancing such trials as an almost intol-
erable grievance. It may appear intolerable to such
a self-willed people as Southerners iu general, that
they should thus have to endure ; yet we venture
to assert that no great war ever cl.osed in so com-
plete a defeat without the vanquished being com-
pelled to submit to much more than has been in-
flicted on the Virginians, and of this Mr. KELLEY,
unconsciously to himself, furnishes a very forcible
example. Ire writes to the leading Radical paper,
proclaiming himself to be " an unpardoned and un-
repentant rebel," yet he it a delegate elect to the
new Legislature ! That is, a man who not only was
in open rebellion, workinghis worst for the destruc-
tion of the Union, after fcur years when elected to
the State Legislature, writes to advise the trium-
phant party, prefacing bi 3 remarks by the state-
ment that they are from ore, still a rebel. Let peo-
ple in Europe realise this case, and they will cease
to talk in England and elsewhere of the cruel injus-
tice, of the rule of tyrann3 and oppression to which
the Southern States have leen subjected. If Euro-
peans want to know how tie Russians suppressed a
rebellion they ought to vish Poland ; how the Aus-
trians crush a revolt, they should look up their re-
cords in Italy ; how the Sptniards act, may now be
seen either in Cuba or in S)ain ; and what the vir-
tuous and enlightened Engliali do under these cir-
cumstances can be gathered from a truthfully writ-
ten history of the Indian Uutiny. It appears in-
t .ilerable to such a community as the Virginians to
be denied the rights to wlich they were born, and
exercised till thus interrupted ; but when they made
their appeal to arms sow, of them must surely
have calculated on what would follow a defeat, and
if they expected to get of at less cost than they
have after expending their last man and musket,
their faith is great in hum) nature in general, and
in Yankee nature in particuar. The war may have
inflicted a terrible punishmtnt ; the Southern cause
may have been just or unjist, this we do not now
discuss, but taking the kW fact that Virginia