The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-07-13
Yankee Hesrlooms.

A Just pride in the past is an incentive to
virtue both In q family. and State. We are
not speaking of the pride of noble descent,
for that is o weakness which nations of the
middle classes have no temptation to. When
George the Fourth visited Elinburg in
1sS9, he was 80 struck with the quiet ana
respectful department of the Scottish null
titude that he said, "This is nation of gen
tlemen." Glorious old Christopher North,
agreat admirer of the King, spake as follows
upon this observation: "His Mejesty knows
better than to satirize Us. We are not ma
ZION OF gentlemen, thank Heaven; but the
greater part OF our population is vulgar, in
felligent, high-cheeked, raw -boned, and re-
bgious." Aud yet no people have more
PRIDE, and more reason for pride, in the past
than the Scotch. Pride in virtuous and
heroic ancestry, in the sturdy independence
and incorruptible integrity which charac
terizes the humblset condition OF humanity
in that hand; pride which finds a tongue in
Barns's Manual of the Poor, and which,
when he was dead, assembled eighty thou
sand people at Festival in honor of man
whom they loved not only for his genius,
but because he loved the traditional virtues
Of Scotland, and "because he loved his own
order, nor ever desired for single hour to
quit It."
The old family Bible, commemorated in
Burns's Saturday Night, what an heirloom
to go down In family What an inheri-
4ance is poverty itself when it testifes to a
life Of honestyl What an incentive to
virtue in children is the good name of their
ancestry! Let US behold what kind of
heritage the Yankees of this generation are
preparing for their children!
History will secure them nation Il heir
loom such as no other civilized nation can
boast We know how they falsify history,
but there will be other annalsts of these
times than Puritan writers. So great po-
litical convulsion as this cannot be ignored
even ifthey we're so disposed, by the ph,s
losophers and historians of Europe. The
Yankees may be sure that the process of
preserving them and their deeds for the eve
Of posteritY has already begun in every
centre OF the worlds civilization. The
cruelties, robberies, rapes, murders, and
every variety Of crime perpetrated in the
war, will be daguerreotyped to the minutest
detail for the astonishment and horror of
future ages. Even among themselves
when the passion of this outburst of hell
has subsidized, historians will arise of that
minority In the United States which is now
kept down by the bayonet, but which has
always loathed and abominated Puritanism,
and will hang pictures upon their walls
which future generations will shudder to
look at. Yes, a day is coming when books
will be opened In both earth and Heaven.
and they that read therein will tremble.
Their children will have another heirloom
In the wreck of the old Republic. The
greatest glory of their present generation
is that they descended from the men of rs.
The unspeakable shame of their next gene.
ration viii be their descent from the men of
this Infamous era Their fathers inherited
republic and bequeathed to them despot.
ism. They were heirsIto magnificent ter
ritory, and by their own violence and wrong
transmitted only some worthless fragments
to their postcrity. Never did q race receive
from its aires such legacy of disgrace and
ruin - the Yankees of this day are pre-
pairing for their descendants.
There win be family heirlooms too. no
doubt, though possibly these may afford
some consolation to the offspring Of race
OF brigands and robbers. Rich dresses,
sarefuiiy preserved, which inquiring pos
teriiy wili be informed were pilfered from
the wardrobes Of helpless Southern ladies.
Kings upon their fingers which the mother
will relate with pride were torn from the
fngen Of . wicked female ''sccesh." Silver
plate sparkling upon the sideboard, which
their brave hthers stole from the houses
and churches Of Virginia Chairs, tables,
osdstsads, wogkstauds, guitarsJ pianos,
rhacs caus into the family BY . process