The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-08
CONSOLIDATION"


Some of the Democratic journals make
a great ado about the consolidation OF the
states into what they are pleased to call
'grand empire" stretching from the Attain
tic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande
to the Arctic sea. In some miraculous
way or other, there has been a fearful wip-
ing out of Liberty bless the dear innocent
goddess y in the crushing and bruising down
of the American states into this grand
overshadowing empire, over which Presi-
dent in name, but despot in fact, presides
with as unlimited a sway as was ever ex-
ercised by monarch before. This is, in
brief, the grand national tableau, or superb
political picture, drawn by Democratic
journalism all over the country, and es-
pecaIly in Virginia, where Consolidation
is the most rampant thing we have found
to deal with as yet, and where the right of
the people to manage their own local mat
tiers has been more persistently withheld
by the organized ''powers that be'' than in
any other portion of the civilized globe,
where Liberty pretends to have home
among a free people.
We are in the habit Of referring to
Magma Charta as the foundation of all our
civil rights and liberty. But four hundred
years before this grand old charter was
wrung from the unwilling monarch by the
Barons of Runnymede, the true foundations
of Liberty were laid by Alfred in his diyi-
sion of England into "counties and hun
dreds," and the general survey made of
the lands throughout the Kingdom and the
rolls of the same deposited at Winchester.
In this division and survey, our Anglo
Saxon ancestors hit upon the true princi-
pie of government underlying the democ-
racies of Greece, and inaugurated system
which rendered the suppression of Liberty
forever afterwards impossible in England.
The people of the Hundreds" correspond
ing in measure to our "townships'') had
conferred upon them certain rights Of local
self-government which lifted them out of
their serfship into independent subjects Of
the Realm, while the people of the "coun-
ties" exercised legislative powers OF a still
broader scope, and drank in still deeper
sentiment of Liberty, and one more likely
to be abiding because of its universally
as extended to the 'hundreds.o Before
this time the Kingdom had nc
other or lesser divisions than the
seven heptarchies, which were in fact
so many absolute monarchies, with nt
recognition of individual rights beyond what
it might please each separate sovereign to
extend to the people. In this condition OF
the people of England, they were invaded
by the Romans, ravaged by the Picts, con-
quered by the Saxons, put under the yok'
by the Danes, recovered by Alfred, and b,
him divided into ''counties and hundreds
as we have stated. In this division, WI
have the origin of Anglo-Saxon liberty
and the true secret Of England's powe
and greatness afterwards. A people VIII,
enjoy the right of local self-governmen
have the essential elements of liberty a
their command, and will never entirely los
its spirit till this right is successful
wrenched from them.
In this State the system of local sci
government has been persistently Withheld
by legislation from the people, so that
the simplest matters Of local administration
such as the laying out and keeping in n
pair of roads and bridges, they have had a
little voice in fact, as their ancestors ha
under the old heptarchies Of England
The people had no right even to organic
themselves into school district for tn
education of their children, without coin
to county court for permission, and the
the court, and not the people, designate
the person who was to have the chief supe
vision and management of the same. !
this way the power to do the simplel
things in the matter of local selfgoverl
ment, was removed as far as possible frol
the people, as if there was some dangerou
contagion to liberty in their very presenc'
No wonder that schools were brougl
under the ban, and that so large numb,
of whites could neither read nor write
the State.
Jefferson was among the first to disco
er the great advantages Of these local sci
governments, secured by the division
counties into townships, and he desired
extend the same system to Virginia tn
naturally sprung up in all the Northel
states with such large accruing benefits