The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-03-02
Gpeaiag State go'1rsal'
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS.


of its dead Confederacy, grooming like q
"poor lone Irish wilder" over the loss o.
her sixth husband. For goodness sake
take your harp down from the willows and
let the little stream flow on without your
unavailing laments. Close the book OF
jeremiah for at least one Sabbath, and lei
poor Job, whose former end was more af-
flicted than his latter, rest amid his scabs
and sores, while we are banquettlng.
Sing the songs of our own loved King
Solomon, and let the toast be
woman--hat and paunier all. We do
hope the young man who edits the COL
umns of our neighbor, will rise from his
humicubations, or that at least he wild let
the people rise, and not Cypress them
more with his gloomy "hind-sightedness. !"
Let his "fore-sightedness" but equal the
latter quality in him, and we think the
Dispatch would not only be the best paper
in the South, but the most useful in
its day and generation. We hate to
take up that journal now, for fear
it will have something in it that will
chill the young blood of youth which
is SO frantically rushing through our
veins and wants railroad like outlet. Ev-
erything that is good it says, is surely to be
disgraced by something that is evil. In this
respect the Dispatch is like Sol Smith Rus
sells old sexton, who begun all he had to
say with laugh and ended it as solemn
as one of his own well-dug graves. Cheer
up, old boy, the spring of the year is upon
us, and we should all be joyful in the
bright prospect before us. Let us plant a
few apple trees, though we may never en-
Joy the fruit let us drop by the
wayside seed here and there, which will
in the future spring up to shade trees, that
at least the weary travellers who come
when we shall have passed by, may rest
and refresh themselves. Let us, for Gods
sake, be not entirely given up to self; but
like provident fathers, leave something for
our children to quarrel over. If Scotland
and England had never had differences and
bloody and terrible fights on the border,
they would not now be enjoying the grand
fruits of their harmonious Union we
should not now listen to the songs of
Scotia with the same feelings we lis
ten to britannia Rules the Wave"
Both fought on bloody fields and both |
fell like men. Shall we carry out forever |
this war Of the roses No ; our children |
at least will forget it. And as we know |
Henry stood at Agincoart with his grand |
old English Knights, and carried through |
that day the banner of sold England and |
France and England now are friends, why |
cannot we look at the new future, when |
even In our own loved America we will |
drop the red rose and the white, link York |
to Lancaster, and again be friends. We |
hope so,--aud we know SO; and therefore |
do we write to the accomplishment Of that
desirable fact
1t is with such feelings we approach the |
leading article in the Dispatch this morn
ing. And as we read it through, we
mentally say, What have we to do with
France, and what has France or Germany
to do with us? In the course of a lengthy
argument, our neighbor comes to the con-
clusion, which we will not say is lame or
impotent, because the world is too young
yet for us to give any such OPINION
we will say it is despairing aud uDtimely.
We quote from our contemporary, 10 his
advice to the Bourbonism. to the Napo-
leouism, to the Orleanism, aud to the sans
culottesism of France, and appeal to our
common sense ideas of general informal
ton, and say this is all "bosh: =
1t would be a useful thing to the French
people to recur to the history of our sufferings.
1t would make them much more contented with
their lot, and strengthen their resolution in the
great work of restoring their country to its
former prosperity and its position as the head
of the civilization of the world We inhabt.
With us, we had and have no escape from
the relations we bear to the government which
rules us. 1t is not only our policy, but our
duty, to make the best of our situation, and to
make the government we live under the best
we can. Yet it is q lesson which ought to
strike deep into the hearts of the men who rule
the public affairs of this country, that the
condition of the Southern States after the war
was made infinitely worse than that OF France
after the war with Prussia, which is just
ended. 1t was made so for us, too, by mis-
guided policy of the Federal government.
That policy placed upon US set OF leeches
and vampires more horrible than Sherman's
bummers or Sheridan's torches. 1t was a
policy cruel in the last degree, and altogether
blind. 1t was intended to prolong the ex-
istence of the war party, while it was really
fraught with the seeds of the downfall OF that
party. Its cruelty and injustice was like the
blood of the martyrs, which cried aloud for
redress. 1t was more than the nation could
sustain, because all people were not office
holders, and nothing short OF the greed and
selfshness of ofice-holders could sustain such
injustice; meme but office-holders could regard
it with anything less than adherence.
For the sake of heaven, and we good
christians all, let us with the rites of Holy
Mother church bury our differences. We
have lost as much and won as little as you
have in the last ten years, and, therefore,
as an old bore we dismiss you, Mrs. Dis
patch.
The "Devil is here right at our elbow
now, and wants copy; therefore, our Fa-
Der No. 2 has to rush through this strange,
eventful scene. What comes next? The
Wing She is talking to-day--old woman
like-about public morals. That is a thing
that long ago we ceased even to think of.
Public morals now are the same they were
in Rome two thousand years ago. And
that is all we can say about them. Cato
brought it down to fine principle, but we
have yet to live and to see that even Cato's
austere ideas of government have more
than survived their father. 1t is, therefore,
with regret that we find our neghbor of
the Wing still "crooning" over the dead, de-
parted, buried, and never-to- be -relurned-to
past On, bury tout of thy sight for
ever bury .it--in the tombssof all the post