The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-06-17
From the Amherst Enterprise.

While it never greatly benefits us to trust
to the great deeds Of our ancestry, or to boast
of the plst resources and wealth of our State,
still retrospect of Firginia's history and
the deeds of her great men and her past aSrl-
cultural and mineral products will, in these
DAYS of social confusion, agricultural dcpres-
sion, and political oppression, be productive
of some good--at least, prevent despair, and
perhaps put stop to the Tin our opinion
silly lubit Of running away from Virginia
TO better their condition. ..
What infant republic or kingdom ever fur
nished such history in every respect as the
"colonial dependency, the Old Dominion"
No people in the United States to-day have
as correct ideas of real liberty and true State
sovereignty--the duties of the citizen to the
Government, and of the Government to the
citizen-us these old colonists. Conquering
q wilderness, subduing savage tribes, ell
during every hardship. few in numbers,
weak in resources, yet such was their idea Of
true loyalty and good government, and the
right of the people to choose their own GOV
ernment, that Virginia refused to acknoW-
ledge the powerful protectorute of Oliver
Cromwell, and was baptized the sold Do
minion - for its faithfulness to the Stuarts.
In few decades its fertility, the richness
of its mines, the value and various qualities
of its agricultural productions, the perfection
OF its labor system, and its cheap, durable,
and effective government, were fast enrich
ing its landholders. On every occasion her
sons, on the field or in the council, had
shown themselves brave and wise; and on
every field from the West Indies to Canada,
against the French and Indians, they were
UNFOLDING the cross of Saint George.
The people had grown agriculturally
great, and her great mineral resources were
being developed, when the troubles preced-
ing the Revolution were brewing. Every
interest of the Virginian landlords (men
tainted as Virginia alistocracy) was on the
side of Great Britain. War with the mother
country was destruction to her tobacco
trade; would imperil, if not overthrow, her
slave-labor system; break up her mining
operations and throw back Virginia, even il
successful, fifty years in the march of i'm.
provement, Her best and wisest men knew
this. The leader she gave the rebels knew
1t. When the first sulphurous smoke as.
cended to heaven from Massachusetts, ga
bee-line for Boston was the reply to all en-
quiries as to the side Virginia took.
Against her own interest she favored the
adoption Of the Constitution; and in the In
terests of peace and harmony, she who wa
able to stand alone among the nations, will
wide dop4fn Of exhaustless wealth, gave
and compromised, and conceded to thoSt
who, because of their weakness in number:
and resources, could not have held their in
dependence for thirty days. She gave Il prin
ripality to silence the complaints OF Mary
land, Delaware, Rhode Island, ard Georgia
and though her private citizens had ,lse(
their individual credit and ruined themseye;
to sustain the struggling colonies, she no
only claimed nothing and received nothing
but gave literally again and again to cement
union and set up government by whici
she made nothing, either in money or falne
From all this sacrifice, and ruin, and trouble
she rose aud stood grand among the States
and for years was leader among those west.
ern empires.
pissension was at work in our Govern.
ment; we had grown too large; interests
had gradually been getting more antago.
nlstic. 1t became apparent that extremes
North and South. could no longer be KEPT
together. Virginia stood between those
angry sisters, and tried to keep the peace
She tried to shame the powerful North ant
to calm the fiery but weaker South. Hei
counsels were unheeded by both. She wa.
watched with jealous eves-one side tr,istin.
10 her interest, the other hoping freli hei
pride. =, "
When the issue came she nobly threw he]
sword into the scale Of the weak and feeble
Sentured her all, and lost. She might hay,
been richs she preferred to be generous
ehe might have been powerful, but prefer
red To be chivalrous. For four years breast
Ing the most powerful wave of war knowa
10 modern times; bearing up against tht
continued pettIngs of nerciless power; hen
whoie surface Scared by fire and the iron
heel In one night her whole labor systen,
overthrown and her whole currency oblite.
rated; her estate widows weeds, orphans,
tears, soldiers graves her recompense. the
echo Of four years OF victory smotherinp in
one great whirlpool of disaster.
Her strongest sons saw no light. Her PEG.
pie for months sat and wept. But, true to
her past history, see what she hath done.
Despite military despotisn; despite negro
government and miSrllle despite the follv Of
the impracticable, the listlessness of the
broken, the meanness of the trucking. her.
people have eyinced wisdom and prudence
enough to guide the good old shin. strained
and weather.beaten though she be into some
comfort, with some hope, until She Is
making for the harb0rn Of PROSPERITY, We
control TO great extent our own affairs,
Our Judges, thank God, are still pure 0,,,
county officials are net corrupt. Our Legis.
Ature IL respectable. Give this old STATE y
tar chance, and she will yet step pro,ldly
DUCK 10 hef old place at the top Of the ladder.
= 9 man WAS ever ashamed In any land that
siIher ne Or his father or grandfather cane
iom Virginia. Let the General fiope,q,,aa,,t