The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-10-14
SPEECH OF COLONEL r. w.
HUGHES, DELIVERED AT
DANVILLE ON THE
NIGHT OF OCTO-
BER IL, 1873.
THE AMAzINa GROWTH OF THE Ma
TION.

THE AMAzINa GROWTH OF THE MA
TION.
Colonel Hughes spoke at length upon th
reason of the rapid growth of the nation
which but yesterday was an infant ant
to-day is giant. A few years ago it con
sisted of thirteen sparsely-scttled, feebl,
colonies, wasted by an eight years. struggle
with Great Britain, scattered along thu
Atlantic seaboard; now, it is nation o
forty millions of people, covering a cont
nent, and ranking among the foremost ant
most powerful of the nations of the earth
lie said this rapid growth was due to
THE GREAT PRINCIPLES OF EQUALI
TY, FREEDOM, AND ToLERATIoN
on which the nation was founded. OuI
growth in every element of power and
| prosperity, was due to the fact, that, here,
government was of the people, for the
people, and by the people-not this class
of people, nor that class-not the aristoc-
racy nor the democracy-not the rich MOI
the poor-but all the people. Inhabitants
of all other countries knew that under our
free institutions and the liberal principles
of our government
THEY WOULD BE WELCOME HERE.
and could live and prosper, and provide for
their offspring to greater advantage here
than in any other land under heaven. This
was the reason why they had focked here
from other countries, and added from a
quarter to half million of souls to our
population annually, and were building up
almost every state in the Union except
Virginia. He said
THE FOUNDATION PRINCIPLES OF OUR
GOVERNMENT
to which its growth and greatness were
due were expressed in the following clauses
of the American Declaration of Indepen-
dence, signed July 4, 177G, by the best and
wisest uninspired men ever known on
earth
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal =
and that governments derive
their just powers only from the consent OF
the governed"
But, in framing the National constitu-
ton of 1887, the great men and patriots of
that day had allowed violation of these
two principles to be inserted in that instru-
ment, so far as they related to the small
number of colored people then in the
country. No harm had resulted from adj
mitting this wrong into our organic law, as
long as the colored people numbered only
hundreds of thousands, or even one, or
two, or three millions i; but when they
grew to be five millions in number, the
wrong had become too great. 1t rose up
to trouble and afflict the country and
THE BLOODY AND DESTRUCTIVE WAR
of 1861 to 1865 had been the disastrous
consequence of not allowing the great fun
damental principles of our government to
have equal applcat on for the benefit of
all men and races.
THE RESULT OF THE WAR
had been, to extipguish and exterminate
the wrong which had caused it; and now
there is no man nor class in our great
country, who could complain that our laws
contained any exception to the two
great principles of our government, that
all men are equal before the law, and
that every man had the right to voice in
the government of which he is part.
At the close of the war, the Republican
party had found itself in control Of public
affairs IN this country, and, charged with
the duty and responsibility Of recon-
structing the government on its original
principles of equality among men, and
tuO AiHub VI CuCll llldl W fOlC6 Ill LIS
own government, it felt that these princi-
pies could not be again violated in
THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION,
without subjecting the country, one day
or other, to like disastrous convulsion to
that through which it had just passed.
Therefore it was, that in discharge of the
duty and responsibility thus resting upon
it, it had determined to
FACE THE FEARFUL pREJUDICEs
of race, and at all hazards to itself to
reconstruct the government on the princi-
pies on which our American liberties
we're originally fought for and won, and on
which our free government and institutions
were first intended to be planted. These
principles were. accordingly first inserted
in the Reconstruction Acts of congress,
and afterwards in the Thirteenth, Four
teenth and Fifteenth amendments of the
national constitution,
BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
These principles had been
VIOLENTLY RESISTED BY THE DEMO-
CRATIC PARTY
in 1868, and by the Conservative party of
Virginia up to 1869, and since 1872. But
the Republican party had been signally
triumphant in advocating them. 1t had
beaten the Democracy so badly in 1868 by
supporting them, that the Democratic
convention of 1872, had been forced to
take ''new departure" and to put out
platform, borrowed from the Liberal
Republicans of Cincinnati, endorsing and
accepting them as Essential to just gov
ernment."
THE CONERVATIvE PARTY OF VIRGIN
IA HAD BEEN AFRAID
to go into the state canvass of 1869 in op.
position to these principles, and had With
drawn the Withers ticket and the Withers
aohite man's platform of 1868 and had
put up the Walker ticket and the "true"
Republican platform of 1869; Walker
then claiming to be true Grant Republi-
can, and his supporters claiming to be
truer Republicans than the Republicans
themselves. They thus acknowledged the
truth of the very same principles, for stick
ing to which in 1873 they now abuse the
present Republican party. Again, in 1872,
the Conservatives of Virginia had been
afraid to 60 into national canvass in
opposition to the two great principles on
which the Republican party had
reconstructed the Union, and which
they had made part Of the national
constitution in adding the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth amendments to it. The Cor