The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-02-02

Inc Weekiy Dfspatch 10 issued this morning. II
hss cnpices details Of the late foreign newsail Tie
impossant or interesting current domestic news
entertaining miscellany, 10 which y ineladed .
highly entertaining account Of "Iion Baitings" 10
London come years aince with capital lsater from
. ossker, demonstrating against the exhibition
Editosisls On the leading topics of the dAyand the
weskly report Of the markets carefully prepared.
Prics u The counter THaER CENTS q copy-mb-
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4-
The SPRING ELIcTIoSs.-The people OF
Virginia will soon be called again to the bal
lot box to elect Governor. members of Con.
gress, members of the State Legislature,
and ia this District Commissioner of the
Board of Public Works. The public attention
seems to be principally occupied by this cleo
ton of Governor. and bids fair to be diverted
from thatsubject only by the election of mem
bers of Congress, whilst but little thought is
bestowed upon the elections to the Legisla-
ture or the Board of Public Works, elections
of thousand fold more importance to the
State Of Virginia, than the Governorship and
members of Congress combined. The Co.
vernon of Virginia has but little power he
has no veto; not much official influence; no
great amount of patronage The members
of Congress Kill represent us on federal
arena, field from which Virginia has hitb.
erto gathered more tares than wheat, and
from which she is not likely to reap golden
harvest under the most propitious circum-
stances. But to the members of the Legisla.
fure her nearest, dearest, most vital interests
are entrusted her laws, her finance, her pub
lie works. They cannot act or neglect to
Act without direct and powerful influence,
either tor good or evil, upon thousand IN
ferests which come home to every mans door.
They have the prosperity and honor of the
State al large, and much of its future pro-
gress and destiny il their keeping. Especi
ally, in connection with the public works
which Virginia has commemorate is of the last
Importance that the people of Virginia should
look well to the materials of which the next
Legislature is to be composed. We now call
their earnest attention to the subject, and we
respectfully invoke the cooperation of our
contemporaries throughout the State, in
bringing before the minds Of the voters eve.
rywhere, the vast, the overwhelming ilnpor.
lance of sending their best men to the next
Legislature of Virginia.
Even under ordinary circumstances, even
if the financial condition of the State and the
situation of her public improvements were all
We could wish, the course we recommend
would be of infinite value. Every one re-
members that, at the close of the last session
of the Legislature, session limited to the
brief period Of ninety days, the great mass of
the public business was left unfinished
Hundreds upon hundreds of bills, among
them bills of the greatest importance to the
interests of the State at large, slept the sleep
of death upon the clerks table. There has
been no extra session, and this vast amount
of public business, will be thrown, with the
heavy accommodations oftwo additional years.
npon the next legislature of Virginia, with a
session limited to ninety days 1t must be
perfectly obvious that, under such state of
things. if the people elect ordinary men, or
mere takers to the Legislature, they will be
completely overwhelmed by the avalanche
of duties which will be hurled upon them;
everything will go by the board, and, at the
end of ninety days, they will adjourn, leaving
an undisputed reign of chaos, and confusion
worse confounded,' in the affairs of the State.
Men of wisdom, men of experience men of
action, must therefore be sent to the Legisla-
ture,-workers and not takers quiet, indus
trious, conciliatory, disinterested men, who
will be willing to unite in "a long pull, a
strong pub, and a pull altogether to clear
the decks of the accumulated load of public
business, and to place the ship of State once
more on an even keel.
But there is another and more powerful
consideration for such course This is found
in the present state of our internal improve.
ments. The last Legislature left unaided and
unfinished almost all our important public
works. They are stopped in mid PROCESS, and
as the constitution prescribes biennial SEES,
sions, they must remain as the Legislature
left them for two years from its adjournment.
and, unless the people send men of the right
stripe to the next Legislature they will be
permitted to remain in the same condition for
two more years, and so on, if the people man
ifest the same neglect of their best interests.
till the end of time. What Yirginian is there
who can contemplate with composure such
result It's universally agreed that the only
possible mode to save the State and her peo.
pie from great and crushing loss, is to urge ON
to their completion, those chief lines of i'm
provement which are now about half finished