Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-07-22
A MONUMENT To. THOMAS RICHIE.

Graf, ana conceive WITH great
that the Democracy of Virginia should erect mon
unlent to the memory of Mr. Richie. In the sentl
ment which originated the suggestion, we most
heartily concur. We erect monuments to men, to
commemorate great qualities and great achievements
we build cenotaphs to acts and thoughts. 1t is not
only the natural expression of reverence for WORTH
but the recognition of the universally of the desire
for fame and in both aspects is feeling to be cher
shed. He who places stone over the grave OF
another whether in honor of grand achievements Or
like the children of Israel, to commemorate some
signal judgment of Omnipotence on wrong, builds
monument To his own heart and places III enduring
stone the expression of his feeling Nay, more 1t is
tribute to that high incentive to noble deeds to
that tribunal to which disappointed greatness OF soul
has often appealed with the seers eye, when dis
regarded, spurned and laughed at by the world
poSterty We owe it to those who come alter us
that amid the and evils which our habits, our
opinions customs, and our Legislation VIII GER
tainly entail on them, we should leave them aiso
every record of virtue of nobeneS7 and worth when
it may be in our power to Transmits and thus feel
ing, we conceive that more instructive lesson
could be left to the democracy Of Virginia and the
country at large than such tribute to the memory
Of Thomas Richie. .
An active, able and influential politician for hall
century, Mr.. Ritchie went down to the grave with
out ever having filed political station OF any des-
! cription. With talents that would have secured 10
him in almost any other pursuit the coveted boon
of wealth, he devoted his life to career winch mas
never been found the road to ailuence. OF his Vlr-
tues it is scarcely necessary, IN Virginia,
speak His position editor for so long period,
of the leading journal of the State gave nm an mt
macy in every quarter of it, and from the Atlantic to
the Ohio, no county of the Commonwealth is with
out many who are proud of having known and adj
mired Tie nan-Thomas Richie.
1t is fitting then, that we should thus honor him;
it is duty we him, ourselves and posterity.
{" There is, says the correspondent OF the En-
quircr, who makes this suggestion, Z" in the human
heart, natural craving to be remembered by those
who succeed us. 1t is not the first passion which
in strongest
aninlates and the last which leaves it. 1t is sort
of instructive philosophy, which tells us that we who
live, and act, and move about the earth and claim 1t
for own, IRE not tie hunlan race; that we are
but small part of it; that those who are to follow
when gone, and those that lie sumbcrinS
beneath our feet are, with us, but one company, OF
which the smallest part 1t tells us that the
true glory of man is not that which baZes out Tor
moment and dazzles the contemporary spectator; but
that which lives when the natural life is gone; which
is acknowledged by benefited and grateful poster
v, when it gaZes on the marble record, erected to
keep fresh and green the memory OF the virtues ana
achievements of the dead. The monument is mans
most disinterested, delicate and appropriate memo
rial. With what arctionate reverence and sincere
admiration would the Democracy of Virginia gaze
upon a monument to Thomas Richie? How many
instances of fidelity to principle and of disintercsted
continuous labor to promote the cause oil tins coui-
try, would not simple, unpretendng marble shalt
recall a.? How the old as we'll as the young would,
with almost brotherly and lial affection, recall the
rccoections of the man who, for forty years, with
ability eloquence, versatility Of talent energy and
courage, unexampled defended and taught the great
principles which he received from the living mouths
of Jefferson and Madison After few years, we
who may perform this duty of tilia observance, shall
be like those who resting beneath the sod but
children, and chlrcn's children, to the lat
est generation, would prize simple memorial, first
and chiefly for the sake Of the honored name of
Thomas Rchic for forty years the Editor of the
Richmond Enquirer
Let the Democrats of Virginia take this work on
themselves, and let the ntatory step be taken in
Petersburg. laggartl in nothing else, let not the
Cockaic city be behind hand in rendering honor to
this iilustrous Surely we have the will to en-
gage in the work and the spirit to lead in it. The
honor of giving the first impulse in such an under
taking is worth striving for.
Uniting with the democracy of all quarters of Viz
gina, let the patriots grave the living,
speaking marble, and spread thereon the simple re-
cord of his virtues and his deeds. Tell the world
how, for fifty years, through good and evil report,
through honor and rcproach, through darkness and
through light, the rcvcred man who sleeps beneath
chung to the altar that had been erected by Jeer
and consecratcd by Madison, Jackson and Polk;
and as poets seek Helicon and heroes Thermopyle,
so republican patriots will seek with affection and re-
turn with inspiration from the tomb of one whose
labors and life have richly entitled him to the proud
name of
The FATHER DEMOCRACY IN VIRGINIA.