The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-30

hNdl laOLOnlsbsj pfelefTlnB 10 sPo"N VI "N~'
should be rather than of what may and pro
| badly will be.
Virginia is naturally-by position and by
the tradition of nearly century, State Oi
strong Union proclivities. Were she otner-
wise. her soil would be no fit abiding place for
the bones of Washington, of Madison, and oi
Marshall. She has the most obvious reasons
for choosing to be a central rather than a
border state. and TO have large portion of
the products of the Great Valley take the
shortest and quickest way to the ocean across
her territory, rather than to see it meander to
the seaboard by Baltimore, New York, or New
Orleans. The madness induced by slavery
and rebellion swerved her temporarily from
her balance; but the culpable folly of 1861 and
It's terrible consequences are likely to be held
evermore in burning remembrance by her
people. She is far less likely to err again
than though she had always been loyal. We
confidently assert that there is far more of the
secession virus to-day in the blood of Mary
land or Of Kentucky than in that of the Old
Dominion.
EsVirginia enainently needs peace. Her entire
area has been overcome and devastated; her
buildings, fences, bridges, ETC., burned her
cattle devoured, and her population more than
decimated, by civil war. We estimate that at
least a full tenth of her white men and boys
day Of her insane secession have perished in
battle or hospital, and that an equal number
are crippled or disabled for life by diseases
resulting from the privations, exposures, and
hardships of campaigning. While her natural
resources of every kind are immense, her pre-
sent dearth alike of wealth and muscle will
long keep her poor and inefficient. Ten times
her present moneyed capital or movable
wealth, with five times her present popula-
ton, would find profitable employment within
her limits--far more profitable than can now
be obtained for what she actually has.
When we pray for peace, we do not mean
abJect submission to her unhorsed chivalry on
the one hand, nor the unchecked domination
of her emancipated and enfranchised blacks on
the other. The peace we plead for will con-
cede to the blacks every right and relieve the
ex-Rebels from every disability. Virginia has
urgent need of the wisdom and energy of all
her sons.
We plead, then, with the Convention about
to assemble at Richmond for peace-not that
peace which is wrought by irresistible power
acting upon abect helplessness, but that which
flows from mutual consciousness of reciprocal
need. A prOtraoted struggle between the
whites and the blacks of Virginia is fraught
with incalculable damage to both classes, to
their State and to the country.
And there is no decent pretext for any fur
ther struggle at all The Reconstruction acts
reason for one. The freedom of the blacks is
secured by their Acknowledgement. Hence
forth they can only be reduced to a second
vassalage through their own apathy, heed
lessness, or treachery. And they are neither
apathetic nor false to themselves, nor are they
likely to be.
What wea ask, then, of the approaching Con-
vention is the proclamation of peace which
shall be no mockery, no snare, no transient
illusion, but hearty general, abiding. We
want peace that will increase the market
value of every Virginian's property and labor,
be he white or black. We want peace which
shall truthfully say to a rejoicing country
''Tbe great civil war is ended; hencefOrth we
are brothers, and an attack ON the rights of
any class will be resented and resisted by all.'
Such are the aspirations which will impel us
to watch with lively interest the doings of the
pending Virginia Republican Convention.
They are not unshadowed by fears; but our
hopes predominate and impel belief that
platform will be framed and ticket nomi-
mated at Richmond on Thursday which will be
overwhelmingly successful, and will largely
conduce to the establishment of national in
tegrity, fraternity, and solid prosperity.