Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1864-03-09
STATE REPUTATION.

dDOut ny lhiS wal hi'i w sna' Va 'nS AZ
herited reputation attaching, to several of
the Southern States, Who now, for in
stance, thinks of Virginia, the Old Do
minion," the +" Mother of Presidents and
Statesmen" in the same light which he
did four years ago. We do not refer
merely to the necessary consequences of
the States lapse from loyalty to treason,
which are the same in the case of all the
seeded States, but the pecularities and
coloring of the change in her case. By
traditional repute and local association,
Virginia long enjoyed a signal prestige in
the Union, so much so, indeed, in her own
estimation that, on the approach of this
crisis, she assumed to stand on different
plane from other States and to assume the
solemn office of mediator. However
this assumption was regarded further
North, she was still the land of Washing
ton and Marshall, of Jefferson, Madison
and Monroe, the land of even baronial
halls of woodland sports and of overflow
ing hospitality. The Virginian was ever
gentleman in the popular estimate,
who had his full rights accorded TO him
in every circle, not even his invariable
claim to belonging to the F. +. VS. being
too curiously scrutinized. Now what is
Virginia? The State whose indecision
made her condemned by the holder con-
spirators of the cotton States, who drag
ged her out just in season to make her
shield for three years to fend off the raw,
ages of the war from their beloved plan
tations-the State that is trampled down
under the tread of contending armies, de-
spoiled, laid waste, ruined for half a
century. All the romance belonging to
her name is worn off, and she can only
take new life from new population
brought in by the defeat of the old.
Again, there is Kentucky--the dark
and bloody ground" home of Daniel
Boone and Henry Clay, whose sons were
foremost in Jackson's victorious lines at
New Orleans-have we not always asso-
sciatcd her with community of unus-
ually stalwart men, half horse and half
alligator whose promptitude in every
crisis was equal to their proves But
is this the Kentucky we have seen during
the last three years? Have we not rath-
er seen State, in some respects. the very
incarnation Of Walter the Doubter bowed
down for nearly two years between the
opposite extremes of loyalty and treason,
sending her son into both armies, and
only held in the Union by the energetic
efforts of the Government, which the ma
jority of her representatives in Washin-
gton spend their time in abusing? 1t is
true this equivocal position and wavering
line of conduct so unlike her traditional
reputation-are owing to the admixture
of slavery with the free elements of Ken
lucky, and it is also true, that the loyalty
of the common people, not yet adequately
represented by the leaders, is swiftly over
coming all opposition, but still the devel-
opmcnts of the war have been such as to
make the Kentucky of the future essen
TALLY different from that which has hith-
erto fourished in the popular magma
ton.
A quite dissimilar change promises to
ensue in the case of Arkansas-the home
of the bowie-knife, of lynch law, and of
all the other forms of Southern violence
which have made it, in the popular esti-
nation, the very opposite of New England
culture and the Botany Bay of the West
This idea may have been quite unjust,
but it existed. But now it appears incon-
testible, that while the proud Virginians
were rotten at heart against their country,
and the "chivalry" of South Carolina
We're stepped in malicious plots for the
downfall of their Government, stronger
love for the Union has been nourished
among the border population of Arkansas
than In any other Southern State. No
sooner were the rebel armies beaten and
dispelled, than the people voluntarily
rushed forward werevcr freedom of action
was secure to them, and engaged in the
task Of resuscitating the State Govern