Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1866-08-01
A1rx.Snp1A SAFE FOR THE PRESENT

ALEXANDRIA SAFE FOR THE PRESENT
There has been great deal Of the same spirit
in this country, which in Europe found Its ex-
preston in the treaty Of Vienna. This grand
old Commonwealth has been dismembcred, just
rs M Attorney General Bates predicted would
lie th, case. Since then several counties have
been wrested from her; and the State Of Ten
oesyee has been agitated by the same suggestion
Of geographical and political division. The
idea Of parceing out people and dividing terri
rory in defiance Of the Constitution, is plainly
in violation of all our received theories OF Re-
publican Government Not only does it violate
these theories but il presents to the world the
amazing spectacle Of legalzed secession-seces-
sion in its worst and most indefenslble form :;
that of one part Of State from the other.
The suggestions made TO all thoughtful minds
BY the fact to which we have alluded, were OF
The most melancholy character. They impress
ed the conviction on the public that the process
Of State disintegratlon and State degradation
vas the settled policy of the ruling majority,
you'd be fixed to the exactions of the arbitrary
700. in each State, small set of desperate pol
;ticians, who, for the bare chance of possessing
olacc or power, are ready to aid and abet any
5cheme, however iniquitous, which promises
;heir advancement and the multiplication OF
States would have, as q consequence multiplied
officials With the majority Of Congress with
out, and the place hunters within, combined,
i is difficult to conjecture where the schemes
or selfagerandizement would have found an
md but for the wise course of Mr.. johnson,
who, in recommitting the internal stalrs OF the
South in part to their own people, left the
Holdens and Bottses among us without the
Federal fulcrum, on which they had hoped to
est their levers to overthrow State organlza-
CONS to pick UP of the fragments something OF
value These apprehensions on cur part were
by no means i'll founded. The tate of Virginia,
md the agitation of the question OF a terrific
:ial division, not only Of Tennessee but of Ala
oama, gave US good reason to apprehend more
proposition lately before the Senate to wrest
Alexandria from US, showed that these tears
we're but too we'll grounded.
Our anxiety, however, on this point has been
removed, by the rejection OF the bill IL the
Senate, where the Wades and Wilson's of chat
BODY, as a sort Of Holy Alliance, we're anxious
still further to weaken Virginia BY taking from
her Alexandria.
We hail the defeat OF these Radical disor-
sanizers as cheering sign, and trust that the
defeat of this measure will put an end to their
paltry imitation of the autocrats of the old
.7orld These gentlemen were not born IN the
purple, and the assumption OF autocratle pow
u does not set gracefully upon them-beSldes
,hich it is slightly opposed to the theory on
::hich this Government is supposed to rest.
The ground on which the proposition was re-
:2cted, to wit that the theft of Alexandria
light leopard the integrity of West Virginia,
shows that policy and not right controlled the
,:oao, while the motion to reconsider tells US
;::lat even the suggestions Of selt-interest have
aot absolutely evaled.-Novolk Day Book.