The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-09-09
TRUE STATESMANSHiP.

People are vastly IN the log upon WnaCls
included in the idea of great statesman.
He is generally supposed to be a man of
mighty intellect, dealing only with abstract
and difficult questions, and far removed
from the common affairs Of men. This
conception of craftsmanship scarcely APP
proaches the true ideal. A real and solid
craftsmanship must be based upon profound
sympathy with the people in their common
daily life. 1t must 60 down to their farms
and workshops it must be more familiar
with the cabins of the poor than with the
palaces of the rich. There are thousands
of dirty, squalid children in our State,
growing up in ignorance to lives of poverty,
suffering, and crime. The land is full of
homes where there are no comforts, and
where toll receives reward too scanty to
more than supply its animal wants. There
is a vast volume of inventive brain and Of
creative force among us, lost for want of the
quickening stimulus Of a diversified indus
try and general education.
A million people, full of high capacity,
live and labor year after year in the State
of Virginia and find themselves no richer,
while their lives stretch before them in
weary and unvaryng round with no promise
of improved conditions. The years labor
barely yields the years supply of food and
clothing Of the commonest sort. There is
no better outlook for themselves and their
children in the future, under the present
false and inadequate social order. They
look forward and back with mute help
lessness and bewilderment which is touch
ing to behold. The returns of their toll
are growing less every year; their lands
are growing up to foul trash; their taxes
increase and absorb their little gains, and
they see their children, ignorant, unsklled,
growing up to the same poverty-stricken
and inferior life with themselves.
Now, true craftsmanship will look these
things fairly in the face, and resolutely seek
remedy how to educate all the children of
Virginia in the most perfect manner; how
to furnish them employment adapted to the
special capacities of all; how to make
industry in all its forms more remunerative,
and develop to the utmost the vast resources
of the State; how to cover it with beau
tiful homes, the smiling abodes Of art; an in
telligent and happy people-actiye, yigilant,
progressive-marching ever forward to
nobler achievements. These are the pro-
blems of to-day. To solve these problems
is the first work Of the statesman, and they
are within easy reach Of even moderate
intellectual capacity, where the heart is in
the right place.
The fault of those old politicians who
have brought this noble State to her pres
ent condition was that they were above
common things. Their heads were in the
clouds, and their ears were filled with the
music Of the spheres" In their exalted
platitudes they lost sight Of the earth, anc
heard no cries OF suffering man below
They were full of distractions and vision
AIRY schemes. Dreams of empire were il
their imagnations, so intoxicating tina
they sickened of the realities of life, ant
lived, like the opium eater, among phan
toms.
And so while those whom the people
trusted with the ship of state, dawded an(
dreamed, or studied the stars for happy
portents, the noble clsft 4laated helplessly
to ruin. Fortunately for Virginia, a strong
hand rescued her from total wreck. Sh,
is again aioat, and the question now comes
to all her people whether the old crew who
ran her ON the breakers shall be trusted
again with her management; whether thu
sentimental dreamers Of old Virginia shall
continue to guide her destinies again
Whether that policy Of inaction and slot
shall obtain again in her social and politica
life which degraded her from her ono
proud rank in the Union. Ne appea
TO the young men of Virginia, of every pc
litical faith, to take the destinies Of thi
State into their hands to form for them
selves the lofty ideal of true statesman
ship; to come down from poetry and sen