The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-10-10
THE WORKING MEN AND RUFFLED-
SHIRT GENTRY.

against culture, refinement, or gentlllty.
We believe in the widest distinctions in
society compatible with the liberty where
with all men are made free in republic,
and especially free 10 choose their own
employments, their own companions, their
own religion, their own culture as far as
they are capable of reaching it, and their
own position in society as far as they are
able to attain it. There must be hewers
of wood and drawers Of water, men who
toll by the million, who taste poverty, and
who make their way in the world by
rolling, like the mystical Sisyphus, huge
round stone up hill that constantly
returns upon them as they struggle against
adversely. There will always be such
things as family pride, select circles, the
upper and lower crust of society, the elite
OF fashion-those who pride themselves
upon wealth, intellect, and education-with
any number of other class distinctions, all
of which may be regarded by the purely
communistic mind as at war with the
spirit Of our institutions, and the general
advancement of society.
We have no aristocracy, however, prop
erly speaking, asd no hereditary gram
deur to maintain at the expense Of the
laboring classes. There are those who
wonld like to see this state of things if
they could have it, but an Overwhelming
majority Of the people is arrayed against
it, and always must be in a free or repub-
lican form of government. The greater
number of our men of wealth and distinc-
ton today, were born in poverty and
reared to labor and they retain love
for their early occupations, and are proud
to think they are looked upon as the sole
architects Of their fortune. They are
proud, also, of the distinction they bear
Of having been early reared in the paths
of virtue and honest industry. Such per-
sons, though lifted above the neces-
sity of manual labor, and looking
with envy perhaps upon the dis
tinctions Of the great, are as averse
to anything like hereditary rights and
privileges in this country, as the most un-
successful toilers among the plod-
ding million. There is no danger,
then, that we shall have any other distinc-
lions among us than those which naturally
come from superior intellect, intelligence
aad force of character.
We have, however, in Virginia, and the
fact is more undeniably manifest perhaps
than in any other state in the Union, class
OF men who, if not "born aristocrats,"
have such reverence for rank and title
that they would almost willingly accept
plebeian position to see an hereditary aris-
tocracy established among us. Their an.
cestors came to this country in the love
and faith Of an aristocracy, as we'll as with
lordly titles upon their backs. The inter-
vention Of the Atlantic did not prevent
them from cultiyating their taste for legiti-
mate titles and nobility. The names of
our cities, towns, counties, and even the
state itself, attest the strength
of this early characteristic of our people.
TIE children Of arstocratic parents nursed
it in their mothers milk /; they were taught
it in our earlier schools and colleges; their
minds were imbued with it by the teach
ings of the pulpit; the institution of slavery
added to its intensity as sentiment, and
they in their turn insensbly taught it to
their children. The gcsiduuna of all this in
struction and Of these characteristics is seen
in the aristocratic pretensions of some of
our people to-day--those who affect to de-
spise their equals, il not superiors, intel
lectually, and turn their backs upon them,
as if they were inficting terrible chastise-
ment, personally, by so doing. Or if they
do not turn their own backs as administer
ing the proper punishment, they appeal to
others. OF more aristocratic pretensions
than themselves, to do it for them.
But persons of this description are sta. |
tlonary, bigoted, puerile. and brainless.
They have become besotted with their love
of power, and have truckled to rank
and paid reverence to titles until there is
little of genuine manhood left in them. |
And these are the ruflled-shirt gentry who |
are destined to be showed aside by the
working men of the state-the bone and
sinew of the land-the men and women
who carry on the real bona tide business
of the country. Our mechanics and manu-
facturers, the men who till the land.
gather in the great harvests, NOV down |
the tall grass, breathe in the bracing air of |
our hills, drink the invigorating waters Of
our streams, and smell the sweetest of all |
odors, that of new-mown hay, are the men
who are coming to the front, while the
petty aristocrats and servile truckers to |
rank and position are showed hopelessly to |
the rear.
God made the country, but man made
Lhs town. and, it may be added, those in
he town also; and the people of the coun-
ry, who are rife with life and vigor, adapt