The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-19

Duty of This Hour.
We must never give up the ship. That
Is to say, the citizens of State must not
abandon the sovereign right Of that State !:
must not acknowledge by any act, or by any
omission on their own part, that their Con-
stitution and law are abolished, and that
the community in which they live stands
as naked Of all civil government as horde
of savages in the Rocky mountains. So
long as commanding general, with suf-
fcient force At his back, docs not actually
dispense the elected Legislators Of the PEG,
pie, and shut up the courts Of JUSTICE anu
supercede all civil law by oraers ,oni
"these headquarters" we arc oounu W
assert practically our civil and political
ex;s,e,cs. 10 stand upon the guarantees
brt, Of the State and Federal Constitu-
tions. precisely as If there were no "cau-
Gus" now celebrating in Washington upon
the best and surest method Of trampling
upon sill rights and running all organized
human society in our fair land. We must
do more we must not only regularly elect
Adjective officers to carry one very depart
ment Of government and legislation, but
elect also the very best and most upright
citizens, and those most in harmony with
the true sentiment of the State, and on
whose tried honor and capacity our people
can rely as men who will certainly, In all
pcrils, take care, so far as they can avail
nc ouid respubiica detrinenti capsa1.
And vet more must be done. Not only
r,,st the frame work Of our civil govern
ment be kept standing, and all its functions
IN full operation, but the citizens, in time
like this, above all other times, must support
and strengthen that government by their
confidence and respect, aid it to MAINTAIN
order and tranquility and to deal impartial
iu,tice: SO that no excuse may be found in
orr own lacaes, in our own despairing self
abandonment and disorganization, for the
monstrous outrage that is now meditated.
Let all the world see when the blow does
come. if come it must, that it is on a
peaceful and orderly community, quietly
striving to rebuild its shattered fortunes,
and cheerfully obeying the laws--though
shut ont from all the higher functions of
citizenship-this unnatural outrage has
been perpetrated. Let US have not only
the testimony of our own consciences,
but that Of all civilized mankind, that
there was no provocation given on
our part, and no pretence of necessity to
provide for peace and security to justify a
relentless revolutionary power in WASH
ington in finging us suddenly into wild
anarchy, and ruling us by simple barefaced
brute force. Let the awful brigadier find
us planting and building; whites and
blacks living tremendously; our Legisla-
ture considering measures for preserving
the credit of the State and developing its
wealth; Judges on the bench administering
the laws of the land with universal accept
alton to all alike and then let him, before
the face Of earth and heaven, by one order
from headquarters, deprive whole people
of all this order, and peace, and legal pro-
lection, and rule them with bayonet at
all their throats, and no law over them but
the edge of the sword
We know not yet that matters will come
to this. There may be some considera-
lions mot of law or justice, certainly that
will stop the furious career of those relent-
less anarchists. They may find, after they
have welded together their Stevens Bill,
their Eliot Bill, and their Wilson Amend
ment into one trenchant and tremendous
tomahawk to strike us all down to utter
ruin at one swoop, that after all there are
perhaps reasons why the blow should not be
struck. In the mean time we cannot, must
not, abandon our own cause and the rem
nant we still possess ofthose liberties handed
down to us from better times and better
men. One day the whole North may thank
US that by dignfed passive resistance to
the present torrent of lawless rage that
sweeps over the land we saved those pre-
cious liberties from utter shipwreck; and
that in the loudest and widest Of the tenn
pest we did not give up the ship.