Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-10-05
TUESDAY MORNING, Oct. s, 1869
THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE.

THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE.
This body meets to-day for the pur-
pose of organizing, ratifying the Fiji
tenth Amendment and electing United
States Senators. We see it surmised
that the session is likely to be stormy
one, and probably continued beyond the
time the people generally expect. Why
this is anticipated we are unable to say,
as we anticipate no such thing ourselves.
The gentlemen who constitute the Leg
islatute, we presume, are all intelligent
men, and have the interest of the people
at heart, and the amount Of business
they have to transact, 1t seems to us,
should under no circumstances hold
them together week.
No Legislature in this State was ever
convened before under similar cireum-
stances; and these gentlemen must see
that they have chance of eliciting the
appreciation of the whole people of the
Commonwealth, by simply performing
with alacrity precisely what they have
to do and closing up at once. Like tak>
ing dose OF nasty physic, they should
80 at it like good children. It is useless
for them to get up there and spout out
speeches about the former glory and
power of the Old Dominion, and what
she is now. We have all had enough
of that sort Of thing for a season; and a
rather painful condescension now pre-
sents itself to us and we have got to
condescend. We went into 'muss, and
got badly handled, with black eye or
two; and as sensible men 1t Is not neces-
sary we should be parading our wounds
before the public. Let them accept
the situation fix up the business with
as little palaver as possible and go homo.
BY pursuing this course they will show
to their constituents that they UNDER
stand their designs fully In sending them
to Richmond.
There is not one of the members of
the Legislature but must have long
since realized JuaU yOU
emerged from military rule, and that
dictates that certain things shall be
done and certain other things thall not
be done. Organization shall take place,
the ratification of the fifteenth amend
ment shall follow, and the election Of
two Senators shall wind up. This
then binds the whole proceedings up
into small compass, and leaves really
nothing for them to haggle over except
as to the mere choice Of two men to
send to the United States Senate, and
even that choice is materially circum-
scribed by tho fact that none are eligible
for that purpose except those who can
take the ironsclad oath. Now, what is
best to be done when matters are fixed
up on us in that sort of style ? Why
Just follow the lead set them by the
people of Virginia since the war. Our
record is probably the best of any oflthe
unreconstructed States since the war,
and it has not been made so without an
effol5. ., ....,,.-
Virginia suffered moro by the war
probably than any Of her Southern
sisters, and this suffering should proba-
bly, cause her to be least submissive, but
she has not been so. She has heroically
set an example to her Southern sister
States of quiet submission to the dictates
of her conquerors. Has she done this
through fear or cowardice ? Surely
not; her record is proof against that.
The courage, bravery and suffering of
her people during the war, enables her
to stand forward boldly in the position
of submission she has assumed. Then
let her Legislators fully realize the
moral grandeur of her position. Let
tn ON understand it thoroughly, and
determine to act up to it.iu full Let
til EN- know that she has fully nerved
herself up to let by cones be by cones,
but to buckle on her armor for progress,
and power, and glory in the future, the
beginning of which cannot be, until she
'stoops to conquer" They must no
Spoil her record. 1t is one she has
earned by continued struggle and
though it is one of patient suffering and
endurance Of hardships still it is one
she can be proud of; though she aims
to make q brighter and more enduring
one in the future, when they shall lay
the foundation of her future, by opening
up to her an access to the Union. by
which the shackles at present binding
her limbs shall be knocked off and her
energies given free scape and play. If
they are good men and true, they will
not throw obstacles in her way to her
future freedom, but will remove those
that at present incumerber her, and
let her speedily enter on to her desired
career of material DEVELOPMENT.