The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1861-06-22
VIRGINIA. AND HER FATE.

Destiny is slowly but surely involving
the South" in the calamiLies her madness
and folly have invoked. The blockade by
sea Is creeping from harbor to harbor along
her coasts, while the armies of the Govern
ment are hemming her in landward. Her
commerce is cut off from the ocean, and her
trade is stopped with the interior. Kepu-
diation has ruined her credit, and her ex-
chequer is empty of coin. Her commercial
men are driven into bankruptcy, and insol-
vency is going the rounds of her trades
people. Forced loans have lost their eff
cacy, and the means of furnishing food and
clothing for her army are becoming more
and more precarious. With a scarcity of
provisions at home, and her sources of
supply from abroad cut off, her cry will
soon be for bread.
The boosted power of the South has as
yet achieved only the stealing of undefended
Notifications, the plnndering of arsenals and
mints intrusted to its honor, and the cap
ture of a single fort, defended by less than
a hundred starving but gallant men. She
promised her soldiery the plumber of the
Capital, and, rushing to achieve its con-
quest, recoiled before few regiments of
volunteers hastily collected there. From
being boastful and arrogant aggressor.
full of fancied valor, marching onward to
glory and renown, painting for battle and
certain of victory, she has suddenly wheel
ed into the defensive, cowed and subdued
by the real courage that confronted her.
dreading nothing so much as an attack, and
ready to run away at the first charge of the
enemy.
OF all the Southern States, Virginia is
reaping the richest, while it is the most
just, harvest of retribution for her wicked
ness and folly. Three months ago she
assumed to be neutral, above North and
South, but identified with neither. She
boasted of her past renown and present
power, claimed to be arbiter, and, while
commanding the peace, assumed to dictate
terms Of reconciliation to the Government
at Washington, and the Cotton Confederacy
at Montgomery. To-day she is patronized
by South Carolina, and her ''sacred soil''
made the tramping-ground Of JEFF. Davis's
soldiers.
Nearly half her territory, catching from
her the infection of secession, and prompted
by spirit of loyalty to the Constitution.
has run up the banner of the Union, and
cut loose from her sway. Her substance is
being eaten up by foreign soldiery, and
her people becoming demoralized by their
ruffanly contact. Her commerce is ami
hilated, her trade Destroyed, her treasury
exhausted. and her credit gone-and State
and people are sinking together into gov
ernmental and individual bankruptcy.
Such is to-day the once proud. noble,
chivalrous Virginia; and the depths of her
humiliation have not yet been sounded
the end of her degradation is not yet. The
order to march will soon be sounded along
the Potomac, and the ''sacred soil'' of Vir-
ginia will be trodden by contending armies,
and perchance drenched in blood. Who
shall conquer. or who suffer defeat. whether
the loyal soldiers of the Union or the myr-
lnidons of JEFF. Davis shall triumph, will
matter little to Virginia. She will garner
the horrors Of war, while victor and van
quished will alike spoil her of her substance,
her honor and her fancy y Times.