The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-26
evening State scurnal.
THURSDAY EVENING, JAN. 20, 1871.
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PREss.

SPIRIT OF THE MORNING. PREss
The Dispatch hopes much from th
tinkering of Congress with reconstruction
The re-opening of the question or tn
adoption of any further measures lookin
to the control of the elections in the South
it thinks will cause reaction in th
North favorable to the Democracy, where
by the Republicans will lose more in tina
quarter than they will gain here. In tn
course Of leader headed the "New En-
croachment," through which the abov
idea prevails, it says:
The South is, perhaps, less interested In thi
new measure of Federal usurpation-s SO hos
tile to public liberty-than any portion of tht
Union. 1t is hardened to wrong and outrage
1t had reason to hope that day of peace ane
harmony was at hand but it has experienced
frequent disappontments, and can stand this
last one. We speak especially OF this State
when we say that we are conscious OF no act
which should excite national distrust Of fealty
to law or constitution; and while familiarity
with wrong and outrage prepares US for this
fresh measure of injustice, we are none the less
Impressed with its unjustifiable and atrocious
see its real motive?
Virginia has certainly been a compare
lively well-behaved State. Barring certain
extreme partisan measures-the stealing of
ballot-box, the cheating of a few thou
sand Republican voters out of their right
to vote, and the establishment of the whip
g-post---nothing can be urged against
her. This last is not Southern out
rage" but an outrage against civilization
and humanity. In his closing article, our
contemporary concludes to resign himself
to any fate that may be in store. He
says:
The progress of events after all seems quite
natural. A certain amount of oppression is
indispensable to rouslng of the popular will
Ito a revolution Of the public sentiment, and
a firing of the public mind to the grand act Of
roah were necessary to drive the Israelites to
resistance aad flight from Egypt SO is the
manysheaded tyranpy of the country grywn
more and more intolerabe, so that ultimately
the people may be driven to hurl it from power
and re-establishl peace,and harmony in the land.
Upon the whole, then, we rather like the
hypocrisy of the Republicans, whose ears are
so ready to listen to the stories of rebel cruel
ties, and we are quite fascinated with the cold
and heartless measure, based upon this hollow
pretext, for giving to the Federal administra-
tion entire control over the elections, which
upon the administration ITSELF 1t is but an
assurance that the revulsion will all the sooner
take place.
We believe everything will come right.
We know we are suffering most terribly,
but still we are not so hard up yet as the
people of Psris. Things will soon work
smoothly enough. The reelection of Pre-
sident Grant next year, will put an end to
all these doubts and fears. They would
be ended now if you would only wisely
admit this inevitable conclusion, which is
as sure to come to pass "as eggs is eggs"
You are now living on the miseries of ina
gination, and should be on our guard
against dying in the joys of realized hope
when your political millennium arrives.
Ths Enquirer is all the time scolding
and finding fault with somebody. Nothing |
goes right. Everything is done wrong.
We know plenty Of people just like it,
who will have it that things are always |
going from bad to worse,--and they sit |
themselves down in saek-cloth and ashes, |
and howl over the degeneracy and cor
ruptness of the times. Their whole life is |
a protest against everything and every |
body. They know all the evils we are
suffering from just as well as we do our
selves, and their sole delight is in keeping |
them constantly before us but they never |
think of indicating a remedy for any of |
them.
Our Democratic contemporary loves to |
make everybody as miserable as it would |
have them think it is itself,-a then
when it has filled them with gloom and |
dependency it leaves them in despair,
without Offering one ray of hope for the
future, one word to console them, or bright
en- their hearts.
1t only informs them of what they know
that they are in debt and ruined in for |
tune, and tells them how it all came
about; but it does not tell them how they |
may pay their debts and retrieve their
fortunes. The physician who claims to
know the cause of the disease, ought to be
able to provide the remedy, or he is but |
half doctor, and that the worser half. |
Here is paragraph of complaint--most |
piteous and plaintive--of this kind:
What is yet done to relieve the people of |
Virginia from the great distresses that are on |
them7 Taxes are heavy, debt is oppressive, |
* ~
voters. We sit and look at these things, and |
make no effort to improve the general condi-
ton. Men in office whistle idly as they gaze on
the scene. The people are told they ought to
be wonderfully thankful that things are no |
worse, and that they have not government
that puts them to more real torture.
Well; now make a practical suggestion.
Give US "sure cure" Propose some
thing that will bring speedy relief, and
don't discourage the patient by telling him
that he is certain to die. 1t is the easiest
thing in the world to grumble, and growl,
and find fault, and say what we would
do, if we had the power in our hands.
The Enquirer should be more practical,
and calmly point out the true path to per-
feet political happiness in this world, even
a. our preachers do to perfect bliss in the
world to come. Politics should be reduced
to mathematical certainty, and regulated
Shy the book Of arithmetic that we
might know at all times just where we
are, what we are, and how we ought to act.
In fact, we should have scale or measure
for the political pulse, that we might rsgu-
late it as we do the weather by the ther-
mometer-that is, if we do regulate the
weather, or how
But the Enquirer, like Pandora's box,
has hope still left--and we trust 1t may
enjoy its pleasures although Louis XIV.