Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1851-09-25


efthe an,hor.
~ The Editor will he absent during
the week.
The Old Dominion aud her Young
Wen.
II is admitted by all that we stand upon
the threshold ola new political dispense.
ton. Our new Constitution will introduce
new order Of things, new institutions,
new habits ofthought and action, and they,
in their turn will work out new social char
acteristics We all feel and know this to
DO true as general proposition; but we
have not examined the matter in detail; we
have not considered that all or nearly all Of
the influences. which grow out Of our po-
litical institutions, and which must ever
exercise a most important bearing in the
formation of national character. are soon to
bo exchanged for others which are new
and untricd. We shall soon cease to be
virginians in most Of those respects which
made US proudly distinctive and peculiar
And what are to be the marks which shall
individualize coming generations is prob
lem intensely interesting to every lover Of
his native State, but one which the wisest,
and most far-reaching prcscience cannot
solve; atleast with any degree of minuteness
and accuracy. Yet we can, after analy-
sing the influences exerted by policies
and institutions hitherto extant amongst
us, and comparing them with those whose
reign is soon to be ushered into existence
by the voice Of our people, approximate
the true solution.
We have placed at the head Of this ar
tclc caption, which with these remarks
sufficiently indicate our purpose. We wish
to inquire what has hitherto been the poll
cy of Virginia, socially as well as political
ly-wilh reference TO her young menl
What care did the authors Of our present
organic law take, so to shape our institu-
tons as to engcnder and educate in the
minds of our youth abiding and gene
rous devotion to the land Of their nativity I
Why has emigration so weakened, nay
paralysed our best and hcalthiest energies!
Why are SO many. so very many Of the
honorcd, justly honored sons ofsister states
exiles from Virginia honest
We may be rash. we may gcneralize
hastily when we ascribe all these results to
the fixed and constitutional policy of Vir
einia herself; but we have long been con
vinced that such was the fact We have
become by-word of ridiculc with every
other state. The Old Dominion" is by
her own citizens proudly styled the "mo,h-
erof states and statesmen, while with others
sheis synonyme Of Improbable and un-
progressive love for aostraction;-par en-
cellence decaying and dotard common.
wealth.
But let US cease to be general
| No one will deny that political institu-
tons exercise u most weighty influence in
the formation Of individual character
They become premises from which we
deduco conclusions and ends in reference
10 which we act aud think. We cntrusr
the discharge of public duties to men to
whom we habitually confde our pri-
vate interests. And, rice rersa, we look
upon those, who are unqualified for office,
whether by sloth inexperience or inbccili-
ty--as unsafe repositories Of every other
responsibility. No where is the truth of
these remarks more fully illustrated than
in the history Of Virginia. She was settled,
especially eastern Virginia, by most con
sentative race fmen. In Gus revolutiona-
ry Struggle. they demonstrated as long as
hope of remedy remained, and hen re-
monstrance failed, they mourncd TO ex-
change it for the harsh voice of rebellion
Just so soon as they were called upon 10
form Constitution and system of laws
for their government, we find them trans
planting nearly all the old common-law in
s''tutions, and proclaiming that Coke and
Hale and Bacon were their law givers still.
Not only were their laws thus moulded az
ter those Of their trans atlantic ancestry.
but they engrafied upon their organic law
many of the leading features Of the English
Constitution. They made our govern
men, deeply republican, it is true, but they
did so by taking every precau,ion to leave
the representative body an aristocracy of
age and wealth, and, by their restrictions
upon the right ofsuffrsge. to make the con
s;ituency to all intents and purposes,
landed aristocracy.
Time passed on; our State filed up
with other races, and another generation,
whose conservative tendencies were not SO |
strong. and in 1929 we see the body Of the
people rising up and calling together
Convention of their great men to rcorgan-
ize the Constitution. But these great men.
were for the most part treasured and vene-
rablerelics Of the "oldentime, they were
deeply imbued with the education, the pre-
JUDGES, principles and habits Of thought
which obtained in the times of our revolu-
tion, and which had moulded all the in
stitu,ions then established. They were
forced by the tumultuous outcry of the
people agains, the then existiw restrictions
upon the rightof suffrage to modify that
feature of the government very materially.
Yet they did not establish universal sui.
frage, nor did they altar the restrictions
relative TO The au., re,r;s;, IF