The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-05
VIRGINIA AND THE v1RG1N1ANs.



an early day. and yet there is vast difference
between the two Texas is a new country; her
people have never claimed anything for her, ex-
cent her almost boundless prairies and rich
grazing lands; while, on the other hand, Vir-
ginians heretofore, and even now, claim that
thev have fair share of all the intelligence
cultivation, and ability of a great people, and
noint To the past as an index to the future. Let
us see how she stands now
Virginia among the last to withdraw from the
Federal Union is also among the last to return
Essentially political i'm character and endowed
with n stubbornness almost amounting to OBJ
tuseness, she has up to the present time utterly
and fatty refused to re-enter the Union under
any other terms than those she thought proper
to dictate herself, and hence to-day her politi-
cal condition is TO say the least of it, uncertain,
unsettled, and deporabe: her own people, who
have the privilege of voting q refer to the
whites), are divided among themselves and each
adheres to his theory with a dogged determine
ton to win, or die in the last ditch. But all
can't win Virginiaus are like other people:
they have been elevated to degree almost uu-
pardonable by the romancists who chose to pick
their heroes and heroines from among her peo-
pie, and they even find it troublesome to disa-
buse their individual minds, that each and every
one who commenced to breathe his first breath
on the soil of Virginia is not in reality one of
the genus homo so vastly superior to his fellow
being who didn't commence to breathe in Vir-
ginia, that they are at a loss to know how the
stranger can be so absurd rs to look upon them
as he would upon the people of any other
State
Like the people of other States, the Vrginians
have fair amount of learning; yet they will tell
you, without the slightest hesitation, that their
climate and soil contain elements which improve
the mental and physical condition of her people,
and hence she is superior in point of culture to
her neighbors. This | regard as q mere theory,
which has no foundation i'm fact. Having spent
some very pleasant days among the people of
that State, have no desire to be unjust towards
them; but it strikes me that there is more abso-
lutte ignorance in the big State of Virginia to-
day than there is in the comparatively little
State of Connecticut. But look ut our states
mem Well, you have produced some great
men. And what has made them loom up rs
great men? 1t is a notorious fact that the
greatest and wisest men that ever lived did not
rise on the political ladder; it is fact
that they were surrounded with so much
Ignorance that their theories were absorbed
by the people, and they themselves were
placed in position to make themselves heard.
Washington and Marshall are the only two men
who have made a mark in the world who
did not do so by politics. jefferson great
man, but his greatness was almost exclusively
political. At this moment l know of no Vir-
ginian who was ever distinguished - except
those l have mentioned-in the arts, sciences,
or literature, MS compared with her Northern
neghbors: and yet the Virginian will tell you,
with q compacent assurance which amounts to
egotism, that her people are great, an honest,
and talented race. If he should assure you
that he is essentially more fit to make laws and
to govern, he will merely give you a reflex of
the secret thoughts of the people who surround
him.
Heretofore it has been necessary for a man to
have sprnng from the first families who settled
ON the banks of the "Jeems" in the days of Pow
hatan, for him to have any considerable weight
in the social scale. His value depended not so
much upon himself as upon his family. The
man himself might be, and frequently was, Il
worthless idle sot, but the fact that ''he belonged
to one of the best familes'-a favorite phrase
in Virgna-was enough to keep him within the
pale of responsibility, and give him that intlu-
ence which only moral worth should command.
'That the sin of the parent shall be visited on
the children" is n fayorite quotation when
mans worth as a citizen is in question: but it
sinks into utter insignifcance should he have
indulged in the respectable and lucrative bust
ness of slave trading or slave breeding. This
theory is fast loosing ground among the think
ing men of Virginia, and the fact that the Rich
mond Dispatch has seen proper to adopt the
negro-suffrage platform, is evidence that new
light has commenced to reach u hitherto very
dark spot and that hereafter men will be held
at what they are worth, not at what their ances-
tors were worth, in some circles of Virginia
society. am sorry to say that fear these
circles are strikingly in the minority, although
wish it were otherwise.
Touching upon this question reminds me of II
conversation between gentleman OF ''very
old family" and myself on politics. had been
endeavorng to draw his attention to the condi-
tion of things MS they existed, and to wean him
from the everlasting theme of how he'd like to
have them exist when he remarked:-'You
people in the North must think we are parcel
of - hypOcrites." l asked why it was neces-
sary for us to think so? "Well," he continued,
''these politicians and newspapers can say
what they please, but tell you, sir, the people
of Virginia have not lost one lot or little of the
ideas they fought for and when men say we are
sorry for what we have DONE they lie The time
will come when you will find this out to your
own satisfaction, if you are not satisfied now"
made no reply, but am free to confess thai
my own thoughts we're travelling in the same
path as his, and facts which were developed il
intercourse with other men verified my owl
conclusions and the gentleman's words, and thi
is prevailing idea among the white men OF th'
State who are native and to the manor born.
H..I. -,