Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1858-07-20
Coy. Wise,s speech at the pubIIc Dinner
bS In Richlnonfi,S on the 6ttl

Fellow citizens 81 think can call ourselves 10
witness that the most cheerful meeting that
ever gathered together. fLaughterl We are. told
in the toast to which have been called upon to
respond, that il is first given to virginia. next to
her sons of the past and for her oft pres
ent, tley can speak for themselves; and Think j
can Call yourselves to witness, that every of
us can speak at once. (Laughter. There was ina-
was notified duly that would be called npon this
day 10 respond TO this toast ;apd when came to.
look at it, very little reflection taught me that 1t
wonld take a whole ife-time to respond to it
Once when the State of Massachusetts, the older sis
Ter OF Virginia, was alluded TO with sneer-all
that that master of feloquence-no other than Dan.
iel Webster himsclf-did say, was, there Massa-
chusetts stands and in respect TO Virginia. would
take hp the sentiment of his words and say, here
Virginia stands (APplause.l But are you pre-
of herself and biography in speaking of her sons
of the past 1t would take volumes to speak or to
write her history and their biography. Mol you
have not the time for either now, aad are not
prepared for the task But Virginia has her histo-
ry of her settlement And there stands jamestown
with al the romance of the history of Pocahontas-
and Captain Smith. (Applause.) Virginia has
her colonial history, and there is n yeEme in the
first rebellion against British tyranny on this eon
tinent, in Bacops rebellion. And here near you, is
Bloody Rum; and, besides this, there is Point Pleas
ant; and beyond that is the march of Geo. Rogers
Clark to Kaskaskia and Vincennes, that beats any
march of the ten thousand in Grecian or Persian
history. (Appluase.) And then, Virginia has her
revolutionary history. Go to the old magazine at
Williamsburg; and there you will find was the first
ball of the revolution which Patrick Henrys eo,
quence gave the impulse. (Applause.) Go to the
very hontlspiece of the first work of the first Com
vention of our athersan there you will find the re-
cord of the first Bill of Rights not excepting Magma
Charta (APplause.1 am, fellow-citizens, not
alluding TO events like those which threw the tea
into the harbor of Boston-that, and other deeds
OF like kind, were done by masked men-men who
had to assume the costume of the red rnan-of Mos
hawks. But speak of open and organized action
Go to the Old Raleigh in williamsburg, and you
will there find, that without putting ON masi
Virginia, through her legislators and representa-
lives, the first that ever sat in the world of sovers
eign constituency, was the FIRST openly daringly in
organized conclave, to proclaim freedom and inde-
pendence the Goth of June l77e EApplausel
She alone proclaimed herself solely without
knowing whether any sister State would back her.
free, sovereign and independent. (Applause.) r.
Go then into Carpenters Hall and see tho sovereign
States meet !; see them assemble there. Oil what
scene My God, it you can only picture that
scene this day in an assembly like this Charles
Carroll signing the risk of millions and Stenhen
Hopkins, with palsy il the hand but none IN the
heart, sign ng-signing what Signing the great
Charter, the great National Declaration (which said
that the Virginia declaration of the goth .of June
shall not be left alone, but that the 4th of july,
shall be added to the declaration of the Goth of
June and that the whole nation shall be united in
one declaration, written by the four fingers and the
thumb OF one of Virginia's sres. (Tremendous
applause.) Look to Virginia's part in the forma-
on of the articles of the Confederation which led
to the formation of your Federal Constitution Lis
ten to me now, and to what / am going to say-I
wish that there was noise, and that there was
silence in all the earth-and that1 had the trum-
pet of an Angel to sound it everywhere. When
your fathers attempted to form this Union they did
not know, before hand, what sort of Union It was
to be-They set to work to do the best they could
under the circumstances. What they would ac-
complish no man could tell There was. not head
upon either that had the human wisdom to foretell
what 1t was to be; but they went in for union,
for unions sake. [Applause1 By all the Gods,
by all the al arE of my country; go for union for
unions sake. cloud applause, which continued for
several minutes) They set to work to make the
best Union they could, and they did make the Union
and the best Government that ever was made. Gap
pause) Washington, Franklin, Jefferson all
combined, in Congress or out of Congress, in Con-
vention or out of Convention never made that Cons
stitution-God Almighty sent it down to your ia.
thers: 1t was work too of glory and work of nspi
ration (Applause.) believe that as fully as be-
Heye in myHBible. No man, from Hamilton Jay
and Madison-from Edmund Randolph, who had
the chief hand in making it-and he was a Virgin
inn-lhe writers of it, the authors of it, and Won
who have lived under it, from 1889 down to this
year of our Lord, l85S-none of yonr fathers and
none of your fathers sons have measured the heipht
or the depth, or the lenghth, the BREADTH of the
wisdom of that Constitution. cloud applause)
virginia Virginia speaks for herself She gave
you the'tather OF your Country, [Applause;1 she
gave you your revolution; she gave you your lib
erty she gave you the author of the Declaration of
lnde pendence she put the ball of revolution in mo-
ton and was the first that gave 1t impulse. Zap
plause. She was the mother of your Constitution
in the persons of Edmund Randolph, and Madison
And then she the mother of your Judiciary in
the person of John Marshall. [APplauxe1 Mother
of the Father of the Country; mother of the Consi
tion mother of the Declaration of Independents
mother Of the Revolution mother of the Judiciary,
which is the great bulwark of the Constitution
mother Of us all 1t is Unnecessary for me- to riye
you list of her sons s?-They are moro numerous
than the mighty pillars OF this mighty fabrick and
they just staunch in their historical renown
as these pillars their firm Easements. ELoud ap-
plause]
And now, after all, they talk about Virginia's
decay! She never has decayed. She has not pro-
gressed in mechanic arts, in mining and manufac-
turing and commerce; but she has ten times the
field of fPennsylvana in iron and coal; and she can
have mechanics or miners or manufactures and COM
me-ce, whenever she chooses; and, as have said
often before, every river has its water fall which
murmurs the music of her power for machinery
APplausel
/ thank you addressing himself to Mr. Cochrane)
for the honest truth which you have told them this
day, as witness of what have been preaching for
twenty years TO my constituents. 1t is time Virgin
ia was turning her attention to manufactures, me-
chanics, to commerce, and TO mining. No country,
no Stale, can live upon one only of the five cardi
nal powers OF production She mustreso TO an
the five combined land Virginia is doing it. Go,
before you leave here, my friends from New York,
and look at the iron factories that glowing up
around this noble scenery. say, that labor is not
the 'mud sill" ofsociety and thank God that the
old colonio aristocracy of Virginia. which despised
and manual labor, Is nearly run out
thank God that we are beginning to have miners,
and manufacturers who will help TO raise
what is left of that aristocracy up to the middle
grade of respectability. (Laughter and applause.)
Look at the Tobacco factories here that factory which
is every day stealing my life away with the very
lUeed of luxury. But tits worth some FIVE or six
millions now And if you ask me where Virginia
is to-day, will tell you 1Chere you Grein Warwick
& Barksdale's mill house, that grinds out II mean
all our mills) about five hundred thousand barrels
of aour.per year. (ApPlause.) And, sir, we are
reaching Briarian arms to the big bend of the
Ohio. We are running a dead straight line of rail-
road from Hampton roads to the mouth of the Ohio,