The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-02-11
evening State So''r'sa''
SATURDAY EVENING, FEB. II, 1871.
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS.

mBob-tailsn and the "Bucktails, -or,
the Norfolk Journal had it. "Betsy and IL
Bear" The debate in the Legislature o
granting the charter to the Bucktail raj
road yesterday was quite exciting, long an
interesting, and fills the first page OF tn
Dispatch and also of the Enquirer. In tn
former it is seasoned to suit the Bob-ta
palate.-while the latter gives the dis
plain as il comes from the hands of th
cook, leaving the public to season it 10
themselves. We can't for our life Sc
why all this fuss should be mad
over SO plain and simple pro
position. The only question il
"Shall we or shall we not have cheap anC
quick line of communication to facilitate
trade and travel between the North and
the South-between Richmond and Wash.
ington % The people of Virginiasay Yes.
But the soulless corporations OF McCready.
Moncure Robinson and p. V. Daniel say
I" No it will ruin our business. We now
do all this trade at our own prices, and a
rival line would deprive US of the monopo-
ly." They demand that wall shall be
erected on the north side of the James that
nothing may pass North except by the
way of Norfolk and Portsmouth. Rich
mond is to be dwarfed, while Norfolk will
not grow, under the baleful shadow of
Baltimore. Shall we be placed within
four hours ride of the Capital OF the
nation on an all-rail line, at half the cost,
or STILL under Baltimore auspices, content
ourselves with the amphibious, maitland
and half-water, terrapin-paced concern Of
the bobtail's who
"By land and water, still renew the charge,
Stop short the chariot and board the bargef'
The Dispatch and Wing because they
are s'men Of peace" think mere soldiers
have no business meddling with political
philosophy or economy and therefore both
sneer at President Grants recent message,
in which he showed that the institutions
of Germany under the united Empire,
are in many respects similar to oar own.
The President is right.
The two countries, though widely diff
fering in the mere forms OF government,
are ia soul the same 1t is a little toe
much the fashion with us to take it for
granted that all who are not trained up as
pettifogging lawyers, know nothing about
craftsmanship. The Dispatch should be
the last to indulge in this cant. Its edi-
tors are all practical men, who, like the
President, have learned their political phil
losophy in natures own school of practice,
and worked out the problems of State craft
by dint of their own inherent powers of
mind, without the aid of a master, even as
did the first statesmen, sages, and phlloso-
pliers, Who were their own teachers. Such
are natures statesmen, and 10 such a
school our best American politicians have
graduated. President Grant, however,
has not, like great many of our best
statesmen, been left to his own resources
entirely. His training as soldier also
fitted him for craftsmanship; and during
his brief career in politics, be has shown
that what he did not already know, be has
been an apt scholar in learning. If we
can teach men nothing but tactics and |
mathematics at West Point, the institution
might as we'll be abolished. Because the
President was plough-boy in his youth,
and trained farm horses, and was not |
afraid to work with his hands as well |
as his head, these editors, who hold |
to the Virginia notion that to soil ones
fingers with common work is degrad- |
ing,-laugh at the idea of backwoods
rustic discussing matters Of State policy |
and the philosophy of government. How
does the Dispatch or the Wig know that
President Grant is not as great statesman
as any editor in Virginia. or as we'll
balanced in mind, and level in head Has
either of these editors ever had converse
ton with him en- the subject that they
know SO we'll what be does not know? Or
do they merely say he is no politician be-
cause he is great soldier, and it is
the silly fashion to look upon
all soldiers as mere machines, who should
not 90 beyond the articles of war and the
army regulations Had General Grant
only read the code of practice in some
backwoods lawyers Office, and received a
license to practice in a county court, made
Fourth of July grafton, been elected to
a State legislature, and then sent to Con-
gress, instead of following the banners of
his country to Mexico, doiag good service on
foreign soil, and later by his great military
genius, saved the Union from destruc-
ton, by such Democratic enemies as our
Richmond editors, he might have been
statesman worthy of their highest admirs-
ton. We know hundreds of men who
have regulations for craftsmanship, which
they have made by sucking the brains
of others-by storing their memories with
the axioms and aphorisms Of great men.
If books could make statesmen and
civilians, we should have no lack of them
But, unfortunately, it requires mind as
well as matter.
For our own part, we put more faith in
President Grants iGtuitive, instructive,
practical, soldiery craftsmanship, and in
the correctness of his notions of political
and economic philosophy, than in all the
book of a whole Senate
house of built-up and made-to-order poll
ticians, statesmen, and economists.
Apart from these sneering illusions to
the Presidents ignorance of State craft,
for likening the German Union to our own
Union-and which we hold as a truthful
omparison--there is nothing in the Dis
patch or Wing OF special interest,
except the heavy skirmishing of the
Bucktails and Bobtails." They
both fight on the Bobtsil side; but
as the smoke Of conflict is very dense
all along their line, we cannot yet
discover what effect the fire from the