Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-06-09
THE DAY BOOK.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, June 9, 1869.
A Large and Enthusiastic Meeting.
SPEECH OF W. H. G. ELLIS, ESQ.,, AT PRINCESS
ANNE COURT. oUsE, IN FAVOR or
STITUTION

Yesterday was memorable time in old
Princess Anne county, and as it had been an
nounced that our fellow-townsman, w. H. G.
Ellis, ESQ., would address the people, in favor
of the Walker ticket and the expurgated
Constitution, very large number of the
voters were in attendance at the courthouse
After the transaction of some business by
the county court, that body, on motion of
Thomas M. Woodhouse, Esq. adjourned in
order to give the people an opportunity to
hear the address of Mr.. Ellis; which motion
was unanimously adopted.
Maj. w. H. Burroughs then introduced
Mr. E. to the audience in a brief but telling
address, and concluded by announcing his in
tention to vote for Walker and the expurga-
ted Constitution.
Mr.. Ellis held the audience, which was a
very large one, in perfect attention for two
hours and half, and every one felt that he
had accomplished great good, and that the
people of Princess Anne now fully alive
to the great interests involved in the present
contest, and will give good report on the
9th of July. We regret that our want of
space will not allow full report of this able
address.
At the conclusion of Maj. Burroughs in
PRODUCTION, Mr.. Ellis said -
FELLow-CITIzENs OF PRINCESS ANNE.-I
appear before you to-day. in pursuance of the
announcement heretofore made of my inten-
ton to address the good people of Princess
Anne, in favor of the "Walker ticket" and
the "expurgated Constitution" | am in DO
sense of the term Il stranger to the people OF
Virginia; for | am "native and to the manor
born" But you my friends and neigh
bors by all the ties that bind men to ench
other, not the least of which is that of mutual
interest. | am resident of that beautiful
city by the sea" that an account of it's elgi-
bic position on the map of our country, its
deep, safe and commodous harbor, the genial
cline in which it is situated, the fertility and
adaptability of its surrounding soil, its means
of easy and rapid communication by land and
water with vast, rich, but undeyeluped, ter
rltory. is beginning seriously 10 attract the
attention of the commercial world; and which
is destined, in few short years. to be The en-
porium ofthe Southern Acknowledgment Union.
The county OF Princess Anne is II portion of
the environs OF my OWE home, where you are
daily visitants; and when Norfolk begins in
earnest the accomplish ment OF her great and
certain destiny year fields and gardens will
bloom they have never bloomed before,
and the comparative wilderness on which NV
eye now rests will blossom like the rose
My interests your interests; what is
good for you, is for my good also, and shall
share with you the good or the evil to come.
In what shall say to you, then telowciti
zens, ON the subject to which | earnestly in
vite your attention. believe me to be, at least,
sincere and honest. My heart ia III the right
place, although, perhaps. my bead is none OF
the best.
| take it for granted that it is the ardent
desire of the people OF Virginia to see the State
restored to its normal relations with The
Union, that the blessings of peace prosperi
ty, and happiness, may once more. and more
than ever. dwell within her borders. A desc
lating war has swept our fair land as with
the bosom of destruction. A revolution gi-
gantic in an age of revolutions--a physical
revolution-a political revoution-a social
revolution-has been going on for more than
four years in our midst, and its sOrcr is not
yet spent. A mighty change has been wrought
in all things to which we have been accus-
toned, and which familiarity had endeAred to
us. The change is distastefnl to us. but what
of that: changes are not to be affected, By our
tastes they have come in the past. they nre
coming now, and they will come in the fn
ture. hidden or unbidden, welcome or unwe-
come. The physical, the moral. the political,
the social world, 0200es, and if in nmr blind
ness or stubbornness we deny or refusr to re-
cognize she fact, the world will still move ON
as conplacently as before. We cannot stop
the motion of the world; but there IN
that which cam do, with more profit
and satisfaction: We can accompany it
in its annual revelations around tn
sun. and whirl with 1t on its axis in its
diurnal rotations. len We cannot .nnir.
circumstances, We can practice The AT, #
adaptation. 1t is menll ned in history. h.
leve, that when the mountain refused TO
come to Mahomet, Mahomet, like a sensible
man, as he was. forthwith went to the noun
tain. If we are compelled to heav- a sigh
and exclaim, "alasl the times are changed" .
is it not philosophical to be able to add land
we changed with them?" What is there
that is fixed or stable in this world, either in
situations or opinions
Men change with fortune manners change with clin.s
Tenets with books, and principles with times
The principles of science are eternal and
interchangeable, like the attraction of gravita
tion, and the centrpetal and centrifugal
forces; but in politics, principles are neither
eternal nor Interchangeable. | believe TINT
the doctrine of State sovereignty" is sound
as political principle. So thought Thomas
Jefferson, and SO thought the American
people but the doctrine of State sovereignty
had its beginning. and it looks to me az
though it had had it's ending. 1t does not
bear about it the ear-marks of eternity
Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were
the stern and honest advocates of Federal
supremacy as the true principle of our gov
eminent. They did not live to see the
triumph of their principles, but noD they are
in the ascendant. and will continue 80 until
the majority Of tile people change their MINDS
We need not be over apprehensive of the
abandonment of political principles Their
ghosts will not be likely to rise up in judg
ment against us. The experience OF pnli,-i
clans in all ages and countries, and especially
in "the land of the free and the home of tn.
brave" assures us that frequent changes of
front do not necessarily involve political de
struction. Political principles are utterly
IL, .,,,l. II no la