The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-08-10
Revolutionary Ra dicaIism.

in the Convention Of Virginia called to adopt
and ratify the Constitution of the United
States. PATRICK HENRY saw with the vision
OF political seer that the powers of the States
and of the people would become absorbed in
those entrusted to the General Government,
and that in the course of time so thoroughly
centralized would that power become that
the rights OF the States would come to be re-
garded not only as subservient or secondary
to those which they had relnquished to the
EXCISE OF the great Central Government Gre
atsd by the Constitution, but that these rights
would be regarded as derived from the Gov
eminent itself, which the States had created.
These prophecies of the great yirginian
have come to be realized, and all the appre-
tensions which be entertained and expressed
for the safety of bis State and the preservation
OF her autonomy, may be said to have been
literally fulfilled. The time would come, he
told the assembled Convention in Richmond,
when the guns of the Notifications which the
great Central Power would erect within our
borders for the public defense and protection,
would be turned against ourselves; and that
so great would the accumulation of power be-
come in the central head, so irresistible would
be the influence of its vast patronage SO colos-
sal would become its proportions, as the
country grew and State after State should be
added to the Union, that it would be all utter
impessibility to resist the epcroachments of
this political Frankenstein; SO that, in adopt
ing the proposed Constitution the State of
Virginia was hazarding her autonomy and
binding herself with ligature of union which,
should she ever desire it, she would never be
able to unloose, nsr from which to extricate
this golden -mouthed and eminent son of the
Old Dominion, has lived and areliving in the
times which he foretold would come to pass;
and looking back through the long vista of
the bygone years, we can view him in that
celebrated Folkmote, and in Imagination be-
hold his manly form and hear the eloquent
tones of his voice utteriag the words of truth
and sobernsss and warning to the people
Wncln ne LheSt lOVeu. .-t.+t-'
Our forefathers bound Themselves and MT
withstanding the caution they observed ia
the ratification, which was virtually condition
al, their successors have been unable either by
argument to obtain recognition Of their State
autonomy, as they have understood it, or by
force to sunder the political ligature by which
they bound themselvesin the perpetual Union
The appeal to argument and to force has alike
failed-and both the ingenuity of the one and
the ''last reason of the other have been Mt
tsrly powerless.
We are to-day like Lazarus bound hand
and foot in grave clothes, with no master to
say, "loose him and let him go" DANIEL
WEBSTER, the "great expounder," the peiti-
cal seer from an opposite section, who once
was held in NEST profound reverence by the
aamiring people Of his section, has likewise
uttered a prophecy whose wonderful fulfill
meat is also witnessed in our day and gener-
alton To him we are indebted for a term
which we might have hesitated, perhaps, to
use, but which we are fully justified in adopt.
ing, because it is perfectly descriptive, as a
characteristic, and may be regarded as in
Guiding every phase of the character of the
party it is meant to describe We allude to
the term "internal" For, if there ever was
hellish party, malicious and dabolicsl
faction, actuated by the temper of an infer
nal spirit that party is the party of Radicals
Oh 10 hont fl.a a oh IS
the South, and will leave no stone unturned to
defeat the efforts and the aims of ANDREW
JOHNSON and the conservatism of the entire
land, towards the re-establishment of the
Union and the nntrammeled representation
of the Southern States in the councils of the
''nation" in their rights, and dignity, and
equality in the Union-all solemnly guaran-
tied in the instrument of the Constitution.
This is the party which Mr.. WEBSTER
more than fifteen years ago, characterized as
the "infernal fanatics"-the same set Of polit-
ica hypocrites, which, after the memorable
defeat of Bull Run, in 1861, soemnly de-
clared by Congressional resolution, that the
war was not prosecuted in any spirit Of OPP
preston, nor for any purpose Of conquest or
subjugaton, nor purpose of overthrowing or
interfering with the rights or established in
stitutions of the Southern States, hut to de-
fend and maintain the supremacy Of the Con
stitution, and all laws made in pursuance
thereof, and to preserve the Union with all
the dignity, equality and rights of the several
States unimpared; that as soon as these OBJ
jects are accomplished, the war ought to
cease--appealing to the God of Battles in
the midst of disaster, when their appeal