The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-16

THE Tariff! WHO is thinking about the
tariff? 1t is a most important question
doubtless, but it shrinks into the most con-
temptible littleness by the side of that
other great issue which the World touches,
the Capitalization of this government
Enquirer.
Well, there are few men in Virginia
who are thinking about the tariff, and
thinking about it not little seriously too.
And when these same thinking men turn
their minds to the mineral wealth of Vir-
ginia to find that it is almost boundless,
and consider the splendid results that might
be reached by true American policy on
the question Of tariff, so sneeringly thrust
aside by our contemporary, they think no
doubt good deal deeper into the crust of
things than those who look back to the
dead past in dreamy sort of hope that the
world may, by some impossible freak of
the physical laws, turn back on its axis to
the grand stationary point at which it stood
century or less ago. To say nothing of
the iron and coal resources of the State,
which are unsurpassed by those Of any
other state or country on the globe, they
see in the gold, copper, lead, salt, lime
stone, marls, gypsum, magnesia, copperas
and alum earths, thermal chaly beatc and sui
phureted springs, and the excellent marbles,
GRANTEES, sand-stones, soap-stoncs and
other .innumerable sources Of untouched
wealth to the State, such treasures of I'M
told magnitude as only those who are
thinking of tariff have any idea of de-
yeloping into possible industries in the
half century. For it is only as these shall
be developed, that we shall realize those
grand centers of industrial activity which
shall restore our agricultural wealth, and
bring up our lands, now completely ex-
hausted by scourging succession of crops
without manure or the use Of proper fer
tlizers, to the true standard of production
where they belong. The lamp of Aladdin
is in our hands if we will but use it, and not
be frightened out of our wits by the evil
genH which Great Britain is constantly
summoning to our sight, with her other
formidable free-trade appliances to which
she resorts to establish British instead of
an American policy among US.
OF the Capitalization of this govern
ment"-f the Enquirer refers to the Fede-
raj instead of the State government-we
shall come to speak as decidedly, perhaps,
as that journal itselfin due time. We too,
are opposed to Capitalization /; and yet we
do not lose sight of the fact--which, as yet,
seems hardly to have got into the head of
our contemporary-that among the great
questions put to rest by the results Of the
late war, is the fact that the general govern
ment, or that which, in its own legitimate
exercise of power, in one sense consolidates
all the states into one, is government
broad enough and general enough to con-
stitute nation in the strictest sense of that
term. But the fact that we are "nationn
does not exclude the idea that there is a
union of states within the circuit Of our ma
tionality. 1t is this oneness Of nationality
in the many states, which constitutes the
strength and durability of our political
structuIe-gives it one of its grandest and
most enduring features as piece Of
splendid composite architecture. OF its
centralizing tendencies we have no fears,
when its whole machinery shall come into
full play when each state shall quietly and
obediently take its proper orbit in the
system, without regard to any secession
tangents, or any such glycerine explosions
as would SILVER state into an asteroidal
condition. We have enough of the prin-
ciple of Capitalization to fight against in
Virginia, to let the little of it that is left in
the Federal machinery go quite unnoticed
at present. In respect to this centralizing
feature of our government, we will Join
hands with the Enquirer and fight it from
this time forth, until the iniquity gives way
beneath its giant blows. Shall we have
the cooperation of our contemporary in this
much-needed reform in Virginia?
The nomination of Mr.. WooD BotyI-