The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-08-14
Address OF the Conservative State Com
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Address of the Conservatives State Com
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| To the Conservative Voters Of Virginia:
In discharge of the duty devolyed on the
State Committee by the late Conservative
Convention, we present list of assistant anu
senatorial electors for the presidential cam
paign. 1t has been prepared with much care,
after consultation with such of our consult
ing members as recently assembled with VI.
in council, and on such information rs could
be procured from the districts not repre-
scented on that OCCASION. The list Of county
canvassers will be published Us soen RS it is
completed.
Another Office was assigned to the commit
tee OF d still more delicate and responsible
character-that of redressing the inequalities
which existed In our plan Of organization III
regard to voting in nominating conventions.
The original plan by which representation
in nominating conventions was regulated by
townships and precincts had been con-
demned as un[ixnd and uncertain, because
liable to constant change ih their number and
bounds; as arbitrary and unequal, because
of the differences in the number of their
Conservative population respectively, and us
atlordng no test of their relative Conserva-
tive voting strength.
Two other bases of arrangement suggested
themselves--population without regard to
color, and the numerical Conservative voting
strength. The first presented this inconsfu;
ity that those would have practically weight
i'm the selection Of our candidates who, so far
from having any Weight in electing them,
make it their prime object, as party, to de-
feat them; aud it was felt that until the
blacks shall become citizens in fact Is well as
in name, and act upon some more rational
ground of public conduct than blind and
tanaticll opposition to all that the whites
propose, they can never be counted properly
as a part of the Conservative body, any more
in the selection than in the appointment Of
those deputed to represent it. That plan being
discarded for these obvious reasons, nothing
remained but the method adopted by the
committcc-a nominating vote in conven-
tons by each township and precinct scaled
by it's Conservative vote in the next precc-
ding State election or election for the Legis-
lature, as the conventions may determine.
Counties having large. rltgfo population
may regret the loss of representative strength
by the operation of this rule, as compared
with the strong Conservative counties, and
prefer the population basis: but s,ireiy the
latter might complain with more justice of a
system by which their Just influence would
be dwarfed and weakened by the accidental
presence in the former of that antagoniZing
and ininical element.
1t is gratifying to perceiIr tile ready ap-
proval and adoption In NIL the conventions
which hnrp since been held of the rule
adopted by the committee, and il is believed
that the more it is examined and tested the
more it will grow in public estimation.
The campaign on which we no% enter
opens with brilliant auspices everywhere.
Nothing is wanting to complete triumph in
our own State but diligence and energy in
the ,rorE of organization, and for this we
earnestly appeal to our whole party-our
electors, our county superintendent and as.
sistants, our rank and filc-in word to all
who sigh for deliverance from the House Of
Bondage.
There are some considerations which, so
far rs the future can be safely reasoned about,
would seem to make the success Of the Gin
cinnati movement secure.
1t is the first real honest prbffer OF peace
to the southern States which has been made
since the Mnr, and we, instead of meeting the
offered grasp of friendship with the shut
hand raised to strike, receive the offer
with heartfelt cordality. 1t is not too much
to say that the whole South will 50 respond
to it, except where oppression, military and
civil, has stiiet the public !oice beyond the
power of expression. Indeed, the desire for
peace, real peace, is growing-hay, has
grown--into a national sentiment. This
feeling, which, with other causes, originated
the movement, will guide it's progress antl
govern its issues.
1t is the first Instance in our political an
nails when nearly all the wise and good of a
great party in power, cutting loose from party
trammels, have come out from their recent
associates, aDjured their policy and practices,
proclaiming broad, liberal, and national
statement Of principles embracing all the
important needs and wants of the country,
and without concert, ruther BY spontaneous
impulse, have been joined in their action by
another great and powerful party in com
mon war against abuses and evil practices
which awaken the indignation and censure
of both. The cause of this anomaly lies
deeper than in the practices OF politicians
and party leaders. 1t is Il popular move
ment, the impulse of the popular heart, and
finds its tit expression in that declaration of
principles which make up the union policy
of the great Liberal Republican and Demo.
cratic parties.
1t is therein declared that the changes in
the Constitution which came in place or p
treaty of peace between the warstnH Sections
are transacted things-belong to the irrevo.
cable paSt-aad raM never be disturbed and
that amnesty, forgetfulness, forgiveness, on
both sides, without any sting of reservation
to mar its generosity and grace, is alike the
right and the duty of all.
That the rights of the States to their pro.
per autonomy Shall be sacredly preserved,
and the rights Of the citizen, particularly az
guarded by the great writ of habeus CORPUS,
shall be equally respected, It demands i for
the individual the largest liberty consistent
with public ofder, for the States self.goy-
ernmeht, and for the nation return to the
methods of peace and the constitutional
limitation of power" Here is wholesale
rebuke and condemnation of those abuses
which have literally tralnpled our southern
people into the dust, Of that cealraliSna
which, by absorbing the rights Of the Suites
into the General Government aiid the coJr-
dinate powers OF The other departments OF
that Government into one, and by afr0ga'
ting for Congress control over matters OF
minutest local concern, threatens the chai
racter Of that Government with permanent
and disastrous change. 1t will become, if
resistance be unsuccessful, q merely personal
Government, and even the representative
principle itself. instituted by Its trainers,
will be lost. &
II demands reform in the civil service,
from the President down; denounces its
disgraceful yenality, Its nepotism, gil t-taking,
and the bestowal of patronage On the giyers-
practices abhorrent with the people of Yir-
-, fta ,,;no apa foot; d;c,Io canoa of