The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-01-18
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SOCIAL GsTRACIsM.

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sayagely, because we did not use hard
words enough, in recent article in response
to some correspondents who want to come
to Virginia. We have repeatedly de-
nounced specific acts of ill-bred discourtesy
towards Republicans, and especially, the
silly and contemplate distinctions in busi-
ness patronage, which exhibit a littleness
and poverty of soul, greatly to be
pitied. But our own experience and
observation has been, that this spirit is
mostly confined to the cities and villages.
There, an aristocracy as contemplate as
it is indefinite and fictitious, endeavors to
prescribe the social laws. 1t fears the
competition of Northern society, with its
greater wealth, its culture, knowledge of
the world, and the splendid charms of its
women. The difficulty is not wholly po-
litical, for even those Northern families
whosepolitics are wholly unobjectionable to
the majority, find access to the sacred
circle hedged with difficulty.
What we wished to say to our Northorn
friends was, that they would not be in
yited to parties and balls and social gath
erings, or to be called upon by the ladies
generally; that they must depend upon
themselves for society, but that coming in
considerable bodies, they would experience
no great inconvenience for want Of social
opportunities.
And we say no,o, that the class of North
ern men and women who will be wilted
down and driven away from Virginia be-
cause the Rev. Cream Cheese don't invite
them to his church, or Flora McFlimsy to
her wedding, or Tom Fitznoodle to his ball,
are not likely to be Of value to the State at
this time. We want here those sturdy,
self-poised and unconquerable souls who are
not to be turned back by sneers, or fright
ened by frowns. Those men and women
who, self-respecting, respect also the rights
of others to the sacred privacy of their
own social circle, and demand nothing,
assured that those who shut them out, are
losers, rather than themselves.
Virginia is no place to-day for timid,
shrinking, sensitive people, who live on
the breath of popular approval, jealous
of Sights, and dying to be inducted into that
social circle which looks so fine without,
and is so mean and poor within. We want
men and women to come here, of that reso-
lutte and hcalthful cast, who peopled the
great West, and made it the seat of empire in
generation. Men and women who come
not to beg for social recognition, and make
themselves unhappy because they don't get
it, but to assert their rights as American
citizens, and enjoy the good gifts of boun-
tious Providence, to which they are equally
entitled with all others. Before such men,
resolute, unhinching, selfreliant, every wall
of caste will go down. Cheerily, and
with brave good will, they will come,
drawing to their side by sure attraction, the
young scions of its truly noble blood, and
absorbing whatever is worth saving in this
old Commonwealth. Before their conquer
ing march the flimsy pretexts of birthplace,
the shallow artifices of social jugglery, and
the feeble resistance of antiquated and life
less forms will disappear. Such men only,
are needed here. From North and
West and from wide lands over
the sea their eyes are turned thitherward,
and they will surely and speedily come
This grand region of the continent from the
Potomac and the Ohio, to the Gulf is not to
be surrendered to primeyal savagry at the
beck ofa few respectable old fogies, who
get their women to make faces at all new
comers. 1t is to be the seat of great pro-
gressive States, where the ripe fruit of our
civilization shall be eaten in peace, liberty
and love, by crowding millions, in the,com-
ing years.