The Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1869-1872, 1870-03-16
sun,s. Coz on the Virginia csnr.n,ion Of 1855

We commend TO our readers the following
beautiful extract from the speech of Honor
able 3. 5. Coz. on the Virginia Convention OF
HesS. That Mr.. Cox treats the subject
Tin the right spirit will not admit OF
'sersus argument. The idea that in govern
NEST 81 the people, all future ages and gene
rratiszs are TO be bound By the acts of their
predecessors Is simply ridiculous, and the fact
that the Congress OF the United States should
not only sanction such provision, but make
ut acondition Of the admission Of her repre-
sentatives TO q xerz in the counsels Of the na-
ton is notifying. .......t. ...r
In the light Of progressive political philoso-
9hy, where is the man to rise mp and say that
''all goodness and greatness all policies Of
right, and all genius of statesmanship" be-
longed to that miserable mockery Of Mosaic
convention which wintered in Richmond in
l367-S2 Who will say that O convention made
up OF the Underwoods, the Wellses, aud
Chambers. (the successors of jefferson, Geo.
Mason, and hadisonO who incubated that
system Of iron-clad tests which even the mill
tary Scho6eh derided, and the people rejected,
were at legislators Of all the ages? Oh, yes,
they knew II all, and for all time! Your bill
says "neverH' ''neyerl'' shall their work be
changed 4 convention where ignorance vas
representing intelligence, and where spite pre-
vailed and not charity; and even the mulatto
BARRIERS and field hands, who had sharpened
their minds on the razor straps and cudgeled
their brains With their o1-goads (aughterJ ,
and had learned some lessons of kindness to-
wards tketr old masters, were constrained to
beffe thar loviEg natures 10y white bravado
rnd cunning-such = conv ention work bet
ter than Providence? His heavens are 10 be
rolled up like scroll. but we make the work
of these men eternal. The seasons shall come
and go in their beautiful procession along the
blue-tinted mountains. but this Radical struc-
ture shall outlive their rocky ridge! In that
grand future, down which tho historian, Alii-
son, gazed when he saw british greatness
sitting in the Old, to rise renewed In this New
Wofid; when the name Of England should sur.
Viye, under the shadow Of ancient renown,
Through hundred and fifty million men In
North America, speaking its language and
glorying In its descent" when from ocean TO
ocean, and from equator TO pole, the ocean.
bound republic of our dreams should arise,
sounding down this gorgeous. prospective cor
ridor of the future, we bear the voice Of this
Virginia convention Of 1868, squeaking out
its little treblc, "Yez shall never never
change the work Of this tesselated black
and white convention Of 1868" And when in
that future tho tceming valleys and hills of
Virginia Hsali smile with cultivation, her pop
nlation of twenty-five millions shall be ele.
waited in the culture Of the advanced century;
her magnificent rivers bear her produce 10 the
sen with inventions undreamed Of by us; her
cities rival those OF the Genoese, Venetian,
Dutch and Spanish in commercial enterprise,
then. methinks hear the penny whistle OF
this Congress still sounding down the Gorgeous
prospective, "No changei Never disturb the
work OF the Mosaic statesmen Of 1857