The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1858-02-26
A New Era.

There is something potential-inexplica-
bic as that something is in aught like an
explicit statement of tin the nativities
Of heroes aud in the great dates of history.
There shall always be homilies written
upon New Years day. The moralizing
aad reflective disposition comes over most
men on certain days Of particular months,
when, more or less years ago, something
happened either to themselves individu-
ally, to the nation which embraces them
in its league of political fellows, to the
immediate community they live in, or to
mankind in general. People in the U.
States, whether wise Or foolish, ertdite or
ignorant, lively or dull Of sensibility, feel
kind Of patriotism Oh the Fourth Of
July. Good christians will always OBJ
serve Christmas with some degree Of sin
ccrity while the calendar Of tho piouS
Catholic is full Of festivals and fasts.
The Twenty Second of February, cele-
brated as it has Just been with all the
honors ola magnificent pageant in the
Capital City Of Virginia, offers one Of
these occasions when it becomes us to halt
for little back ward and forward looking,
and, as was the frequent won't of Moses
Marble, to :'generalize." We do not de-
sign, however, as the reader will see by
g!ancing at the end of this writing, 10
make a long dissertation here, but merely
to suggest that now is an suspicious mo
ment to enter upon u new order of things
and to apply the favorable ornens of this
signal event in the annals of our State to
some practical and progressive ends. The
attention Of the whole country has been
turned toward us, and thousands Of Wis
itors have come hither whose feet had
never before fallen upon our soil. These
corners have seen something of the posi-
bic greatness Of Virginia, and they cam
not but have noticed with wonder the
backwarlness of our actual attainment in
the comprising of cur necessary and
eventual destiny. They have looked up
on our splendid harbor, which geography
itself, to seek no further argument, has
indicated as, in all its incidents-its loca-
ton, capacity and accessibility-the great
Ntral port of the North American At
cs, coast; they have seen, for it takes
lan'ic "a '1ness of insight, our unrival-
small shire" for public works which
leo oppoftoi'itle~ ~ the commanding
shall make this POI, ~, country of i'm
centre of trade Of back u ! means.
mase agricultural and minera. -eion
as well as great metropolis Of fo. /,
commerce; and it would be difficult to
tell whether they have marvelled most at
the lavish generosity of Nature, in her
gifts to this favored point of the planet
we dwell upon, or at the stolid inertness
and worse than Judicial blindness which
have kept us from using our unmatched
advantages.
The long pending negotiations towards
the end Of direct trade between Norfolk
and a European port, with the correspon-
dence relating to it and the emphatic en-
dorsemont of the object by the Chief Ma
gistrate Of the State in his Message of
December, have come to the notice Of
throughout the country the
invincible logic of the stubborn facts and |
evident considerations arrayed with more
than the sollaity of the Roman wedge CT
Pyrrhic phalanx, in the lately-publishcd
"Appeal for the Water Line" has AREA
dy touched the springs Of even Northern
Golfers; and it is, at this hour we write,
admitted everywhere, by all who claim
any knowledge of the subject, that this
section Of the Union presents unrivalled
Inducements for the employment of en-
terprize and the investment of capital
Yes, no less than this significant and
fruitful admission is now extorted from
all our neighbors, Let then the new era
be inaugurated by some prompt and ef-
fective action Of our own. tits ourselves
who must take the first steps in the path
of prosperity now opened at our doors.
1t is ourselves who must initiate those
needed measures which shall fulfil the
promises of Nature to us. Its ourselves