The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-08-13
Richmond-Her Young Men.

There are causes now cooperating, ROUTES ttsai
OF transportation eitaseSE Oh the part Of the
.p peeiSI Of Richmond, make their city one
of the greatest inland cities on this CONT
nent. But without that energy and saga
city all these agencies cannot secure for
Richmond such destiny.
In the measures and in the commercial
activity which is to make very great city
here we must look to the young men for
the chief motive power. And when we
think OF their character, their fortitude,
and constancy, we feel that they will be
altogether equal to the responsibility that
rests upon them. We are proud of the
young men of Richmond. We love to
behold them in their pride of youth,
symmetry of form, manly action, wear
ing the hue of health and vigor, and
gay with the spirit of self-reliance and
hope. No generation was ever better
disciplined by private teaching and public
events, the trials and hardships Of war, for
the battle of life, than the young men of
this city and Virginia. They are capable
of physical endurance, patient struggle
against misfortune, and beroism in the
highest degree. And here in Richmond
the opportunity is approaching for the dis
play of their virtues with advantages to
themselves, which they richly merit~after
the lives of trial and hardship to which
they have been subjected. They want
neither force nor talent, and their love of
country is established by the most brilliant
examples.
In expressing our profound faith in these
glorious young men we must appeal to
them to enter the arena of the struggle for
the Improvement and growth of their city,
and the increase of the power and wealth of
their State. The old men have passed
through the scenes that tried their physical
energies severely, and their mental powers
yet more heavily. A great part OF them
sustained shocks from which they will never
fully recover. Worn and wearied by dis
appointed hopes, and FRUSTRATED by wicked
public policies which have ruined thou
sands, the energies as well as the hopes of
the men advanced in age, are be-
yond question, seriously crippled. 1t
is the duty, rs it should be the pride,'
Of the young men ta-Rsrshsinto the arena,
and infusethe body polite with their young
blood and the rising spirit and bright hopes
of their young hearts. They should more
than ever mingle in public affairs, and take
upon their stout shoulders the public bur-
thens. Their State and their city are es--
dowed by nature with blessings hardly to
be paralleled. With-ttfheir energy and de-
votion and ceH8fdence those blessings may
he SO employed as to make their city one OF
the most flourishing and the State one of
the greatest in her resources, in her actual
wealth, and her weight and influence in the
Union.
It is happy condition Of this noble
State that at a period like the present there
is such generation, now in the pride and
reflection of its natural forces, so educated,
SO disciplined to bear the burthens Of life,
and carry their State onward to the grand
destiny for which she is so beautifully fitted
by nature. That generation has but to feel
its responsibility and put forth its power to
achieve this great end for the Common
wealth, and for itself the richest rewards.