The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-28

y distinguishes by hsfoic aot1sns AMI practi-
onl sense, and second % NO mnn but one In tne
annals Of virginta's illustrious sons. TIC NJ
ure Of this man stands out Ia bold relief upon
the page Of history-the most energetic, the
most intrepid, the most chiva1ric, and yet tho
most common sense and practical man OF mis-
time. The truth that, for all great move
ments and changes in human society, Provi-
denee has ever In reserve some man chosen 70
carry out its designs, was .Qever more striking
Nv illustrated than in the life and labofs OF
Captain JOHN SMITH, but for whose individuai
strength of character and complete adaptation
to the work be had to do, the settlement AZ
jamestown would have been disastrous fall
ure.
We have no disposition to detract from the
merits of any of the other pioneersof civil
ization in the Western w9rld. Nearly all
the great nations of Europe made varf'-
GUS attempts to plant the germ OF empire
upon American soil. In addition TO the re-
representatives. at Jamestown and Plymouth OF
the Anglo.Saxon race, there were the Swedes'
French, Spaniards, and those Dutch OF New
Amsterdam who in the veracious and charm
ing chronicles Of DIRDR1cH KxIcKERBocKER,
are embalmed for Immortality. The descend
ants of those last still keep up, as well they
NAV. an annual festival in honor OF the days
of PETER SruYvEsANr, WoKrER VAN TwILLER.
and the broad -bottomed and many trowsered
hurghers who laid, with much deliberatlon
and the patient industry u beavers, the foun-
pdation of what is now the Empire City But
none of all these European settlers of America
have higher claim to the admiration ana AZ
faction of their descendants than the founders
of the Virginia colony and the class OF En-
glishmen which they chiefly represented.
With the royalist principles of the Cavaliers
and their undying devotion to the mouse OF
STUART, we may have no sympathies. Wemay
wish that the objects of their loyalty had been
worthy of such fidelity and attachment, and
we dare say that wish was no stranger TO
their own bQsoms when JAMES the Second
succeeded in alternating from himself the Old
est and best friends of his family. We have
nothing to do with their politics, which were
errors of the head rather than the heart, but
we cannot consent that their intelligence, their
fidelity to principle and their social and house
hold virtues, shall be thrown into the shade
by the superior homage which is now paid to
another, and more progressive portion of the
found upon examination that the Cavaliers
contributed as much to the literature, the phi
losophy the eloquence, the craftsmanship, the
soldiership, the intellect of England in every
depar tment, as any other class Of her people.
Nor were they the dissolute and reckless race
that it has been customary to represent them.
MAcAULAY observes of the Puritans that it is
unfair to Judge them by the sanctimoniOus
hypocrites and evil men who were found in
their number, because power always attracts
to it's support adventures and soldiers of for
tune, who will embrace any cause and make
any profession, political or religious, which
will advance their personal success. We
claim that the Cavaliers shall be Judged
by like charitable standard, and that the same
influence of power, which they possessed
so much longer than the Puritans, shall
be permitted to relieve them, also, from the
odium which has been brought upon them by
the licentious and unprincipled sycophants
and retainers of rank and authority. What
ever the revelry of the times and Court OF
CHARLES the Second, (and an era OF more
shameless dissipation in the immediate circle
of the Court could not well be found the great
body of the country gentlemen throughout
the kingdom was a simple, virtuous, manly
and noble race, pre- eminently distinguished by
1rINkueSS, uOutSty, AOSPAIAhtJ
and courage. There was as much purity, hap
piness and religion in their households as in
any other British houses, and the contribu-
tions of their divines to the cause of Christi
anity are among the most cherished books in
all theological libraries; reservoirs of thought
and learning, from which generation after
generation have drawn, and which will con-
tinue to supply the Christian world with ar
gument and exhortation for ages to come.
Such was the character which was stamped
upon the Virginia colony, and whose destinc-
tive features are yet visible in Virginia house
holds The country life and its home virtues,
of the England of their day, was transferred to
a new continent. OF this race, Captain JOHN
SMITH was a noble type, and from it sprang the
greatest of mankind, GEORGE WAsHINaTON, and
a long line of the most illustrious men of this
hemisphere-men who not only inherited the
social and domestic virtues of their forefathers
but who, with pen and sword, achieved the
liberties of America, and whose sagacious
craftsmanship, practical wisdom, and trium-
plant energy, advanced this country upon a
march to prosperity and power unexampled
in its rapidity and magniflcence in the history
of mankind.
If we would keep more continually before
US the memory Of our forefathers, we should
not only do honor to them and ourselves, but
find an incentive to enterprise and hope in our
present condition. Widespread as the wreck
of fortunes which has followed the war, it pre-
sents no such difficulties and discouragements
as served only to nerve the resolution and de-
velop the energies of the men who rescued
this country from a Rowling wilderness and
made it bloom and blossom like the rose. We
have only to emulate their enterprises, their
perseverance,, their constancy, their faith, to
restore the fallen fabric of our prosperity, and
to make Virginia what she was in old times
a star of the first magnitude in the American
armament.
Governor Peirpoint and the Land Tax.
We learn that Governor PEIRPoISr will this
morning proceed to Washington city for the
purpose of making an arrangement with the
Secretary of the Treasury whereby the Legis-
lature of Virginia may assume the payment of