The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-08-05
To the People Of Virginia.

The Conservative members OF the Legs
laturc have i'll conference resolved that the
organization of the Conservative party,
maintained during the last gubcrnatorial
canvass, be revived and perfected for ac-
ton in the approaching fall elections, and
to that end have constituted "Thc Central
Executive Committee Of the State OF Viz
cinia" to continue in office until super
seeded by q regular convention OF the pco-
pie. In assuming its responsible dutlcS, the
committee deems the occasion suitable Tor
some brief reflections on the condition ana
!uture prospects of the Conservative party.
In the chart laid down for the committee
it will be seen that no new political combl-
nations are conceived, nor is any new poll
tical policy avowed. We only resume the
work of the Conservative organization rs it
was in 1869, and seek to perfect it. We aim
to perpetuate the triumphs of that year to
consolidate the strength then acquired !;
to secure in the hands which then won, and
now hold it, the political power Of the
State.
In a conjuncture like this it may he of use
to review the past and draw from it, as we
may, encouragement and nope Tor the fu-
turc. The opening days of the past year
were heavy indeed for our beloved State.
Thick gloom covered her like the pail
thrown over the dead. Turn where the
eye would, " darkness was on the face of
the deep" Military power WAS supreme.
! Her Government had been stricken from
existence, and by the blow, us by the shock
of paralysis, her very animation seemed
| suspended. Her sovereignty, which for
! centuries had bound up in suspicious
| union the. blessings of freedom, law,
and order, had been suffered to pass
into new body politie-her former
| slaves, allied with set Of wretched adj
ycnturcrs, seeking profit from their igno-
| rance and suggested crimes. 4 convention
sprung from this source, and fifty repre-
senting it, had dccrecd the political slavery
of the mass of her white population. Taxa
ton secured in such hands would have been
organized robbery, and Government itself
Il standing conspiracy against the public
peace. Civil law, which for a time had
been permitted to speak with hated breath,
was now wholly silenced. All the officers
Of the State, elected or appointed by the
| will of the people, went out of their Offices
| ut u fixed day, and the people were thus left
without law, because without officers to
execute the law. Power seemed to have
passed beyond recall into the new dispen-
sation, which, defiant and secure in or
yanized strength, stood ready to intlict on
| its old posscssors, divided in council and
| almost apathctic from despair, the fate, OF
all the most intolerable, to live in slavery to
their former slaves. Anarchy or the buyo-
net seemed the only alternatives to the
threatened iniquity.
But with the incoming of new Admins
tration ancw policy towards the States then
excluded from the Union and lying under
military restraint, was Swallowed forth.
General Grant had already declared the
opinion, that these States were entitled to
be restored to civil government and to re-
first message to Congress held out the first
sign Of conciliation-thc first olive branch,
oyer the yet unsubsided waters of civil
strife. 1t recognized the political cnfran-
chisemcnt Of the negro (now an accom-
plished fact in all the States), but to the
whites was yieldea the opportunity to Sc