The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-28
evening Stats Sollraal.
SATURDAY EVENING, JAN. 20, 1871
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS.

oil Norf0lk5 1ndlSputaDle Claims 10 CON
'mercial pre-eminence on the Atlanti
coast-with every line of which we agree
but at the same time, we think our littl
coast cityought to be content to let Rich
mond have some facilities for growth an
expansion. The natural advantages G
Norfolk are superior to those Of any othe
port on the Atlantic, and but for the ours
of slavery that city would have been til
commercial metropolis of the country in
stead of New York, and our grea
water-line would have been completed
before the Erie canal was ever thought of
Indeed, but for slavery, thats canal neve
would have been constructed, and tht
South, instead of the North, would now
TEEN with population and wealth. But
that milk is split, and regrets are useless
1t is sad to reflect, that here, as elsewhere
in the world, the places most favored and
blessed by heaven, have been most ne
elected and cursed by the sloth aud indo-
lence of man; while those spots upon which
the very gods did seem to set the seal Of
their condemnation, have, by his energy,
and industry, and skill, been reclaimed,
and their barren hills and desert wastes
made to blossom as the rose. Confront our
race with difficulties, oppose barriers to its
progress, and you at once challenge it TO the
combat, and call all its energies into ac-
tivity--and, aroused, it will defy nature
itself, pile Ossa upon Pelion to reach
Olympus, or hurl both into the ocean and
bridge it Ger but let US only discover
that nature is willing to provide for our
wants, and we cease that moment to do
anything for ourselves. Tine first has been
the picture of the rude and inhospitable
climate, and unproductive hills of the
North, the last is partly proved by the
history of our own South, and fully
established by that of the tropics every
where. There, the more nature has
done, the less has man accom- plished.
Norfolk stands halfway between these
extremes, and is, therefore, somewhat in
the condition of Mahomet's coffin--it will
neither go up nor come down, but remain
suspended between heaven of hope and
hell of dispair. It was sad day for
our stout-ar1ned and hard. working fore
fathers, when that first cargo of slaves
entered the capes in Dutch ship to teach
them the dolce far nieate of tropic
Incidence, that vile Gree, who turned their
strong Saxon sinews into feeble Latin lutte
strings, to whose lascivious pleasiogs
we now recline in splendid poverty |
beneath the fragrant orange trees
slumbering in wakeful dreams of delight, |
produced by the poppy-like influences,
which pervade the very atmosphere. Evil |
was the hour when the robust Teuton found |
substitute in weaker arm for the labor
of his own, and learned to eat the bread |
of idleness, unjustly wrung from the I'M
paid toll of humber and feebler race.
Tt was grievous error and grievously
have we answered it.. The earlier, what
poor atonement we may have it still in
power to make, be offered, the sooner will
we escape the wrath of outraged justice.
The Nemesis still pursues us with the
avenging sword. 1t is already glutted with
the slaughter of our first born, land yet
that fell deity is unsatisfed. Tears of re-
pentance alone can propitiate his rage.
But we have wandered far away from
the Wing and its subject We think we
recognize, even through his closed visor,
the Nor Faeneaat, whose stout lance
comes to the rescue Of Norfolk Virginia,
among all her proud chivalry, boasts none
more gallant, bold and lion. hearted--one
who can shape our ends no matter who
rough hews them who has done the State
much service, which will yet be acknow-
lodged and rewarded, despite the pro-
verbal ungratefulness of Republics. We
would make some extracts from this
article; but as it will be copied in full by
all the Norfolk papers, we will not nangle
its fair proportions, or mar its beauties, by
the ignoble and vandalic scissors.
The Dispatch has a good desl to say
about the present year, which is still too
young for even 50 good and true prophet
as our contemporary to base prediction
upon. But even though his vaticinations
may not all be fulfilled, or his hopes real
iEed-which are ours also, it is a
good thing to look at the brightest side,
and hope for the best. In the language
of the great Martin, "Strike high if you
lose your Ratchet"
The Dispatch, after referring to the ca
lamities which came upon US by the bat
talon in 1870, ceasing only with the year
itself, without attempting the foolish task
Of accounting for them upon any other
theory than that taught in the abstract
philosophy of common sense, that "acci-
dents will happen, proceeds. to cast a
brighter horoscope for the future.
Our contemporary thinks we are about
entering upon our promised era Of pros
perity, which the completion of our rail-
roads, and peace in Europe, will fully
he might have added,
"Peace at home, and good will among all
Americans" Referring to its darling OBJ
ject-the near completion of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railway, and the effect it
will have in reviving the trade Of this
city-the Dispatch says:
With the prospect of the early completion
of the road which opens for US communica.
ton with a people of great enterprise, un-
burthened with the social anomaly which
bears us down--with the prospect OF inter-
course with the great producing section of this
Union-we may look to a large increase of the
enterprise and wealth OF this city. We see
the movements of railroads which indicate the
interest felt in Virginia, and the foreshadowed
activity and enterprise that will be displayed
within her borders, and should derive from
them stimulus to our own energies and hopes.
Only eighteen months lie between us and the
contamination of the important line of inter
course which has been the absorbing theme
with the greatest men of Virginia for nearly
q century, and we should be filled with sense