Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-07-13
The Name of Our Country.

In pursuance of the hints thrown OUT III our
last number, we again PROFOUND the ques1lon'
whether there is any name by which our coun-
try might be designated without the lneonVe-
nieDces belonging to the name AmeTlcaas sho"n
ali eadv. In order to meet this demand, the
name must be historically suitable and congru-
Gus. The only name of which we are aware d.
answering both these conditions Is the h"ln'
Viroinia. 1t was once, in point OF lact, inc
name of the whole country, or at least 80 iiusi,
lnitely used as to include the whole Ill PROOF Vi
this fact we need only refer to our national h'sto-
rians. and to the contemporary hngiish usage III
tbe DAYS OF your earliest colonial settlements
But independent of this actual usage, there is
the advantage of not borrowing name from
the whole continent to designate part and
consequent freedom from all the Inconvenience
attaching to that practice, as detailed already
In the third place, this name was significant al
first, and is suggestive Inappropriate Ideas, over
aud above those primarily intended by lis au-
thors While it still commentaries the virgin
Queen, under whose auspices, our country was
first colonized, or schemes projected Tor its SET
tlement it calls up the appropriate conceptions
of virgin soil, new world with Its untitled
fields and its untrodden forests. 1t also awakehs
n long train of moral associations, such as purity
SIMPLICITY and innocence, connected with yir-
ginity in every language, and impartlng To the
national or local name beauty wholly foreign
from the personal or arbitrary term Aner'ca'
On these grounds of significance, appropriate
ness. moral elevation, and historical congrulV'
the name Virginia might unquestionably claim
the preference above that OF AmGricd and every
other yet proposed, if the naming process coUia
begin do aocs, or the question were now ag''a-
ted for the first time. What forbids the actual
realization of these ideas, is the fact that While
Americo has already been established as the u
tie of our country, that Of Virginia Is the recog-
nized and legal designation OF single State, so
that its wider application would produce the
very same confusion which arises from the
present usage, though the process causing IL Is
not only different but directly opposite. Inc
only method of avoiding this result would De 10
find new name for the State and give the Un-
ion undivided occupation of the old one
Whether a transfer would be possible, and II so,
whether the local name should be an Indian one
FMS Powbatan Pocahontas, Shenandoah,) or an
English one Gas Old Dominion0 or some mover
combination or invention is question fortunate
IL superseded by the absence OF all praoticai oo
casion or necessity for such change OF names
which we have been considering only as CUFF
Gus speculation or an idle pastme for the enter
tainment of our readers and ourselves, II any
should maciously suppose that, even as spec
ulation, what we have suggested is indicative Of
local pride or syrnptomatic OF provincial AFRO
gance, we are not careful to defend ourselves
from such an imputation, but eontented 10 o.
serve that it demonstrates what it would dis
prove, since no such proposition could proceed
from any State which had not some claim to his
torical precedence Oh the score OF age, celebrity
and a felicitously chosen name. The PROPOSE
ton to call these United States Rhode ISEa"@
or Ne,C Jersey, or Kentucky, would be laughed
at as preposterous; but no such feeling is ezeit
ed by similar suggestion Of the name F'rg''
ia, which must, therefore, have superior claims
to this distinction, whether accidental or intrih
sic. With this apologize and explanatory mint
we leave the subject to our readers, some o
whom may possibly pursue it further and elaO
crate, if not new name for the country, ne"
method of providing designations for its multi
plying settlements, without resorting to the Lat
in grammar or an endless repetition OF familiar
forms.