The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-05-29
THURSDAY EvEN'G. MAY 30, 1873

RADICAL success in Virginia means everything
that would be degrading to her character and
runous to her interest. 1t means the infusion
into every department OF our home government
of the rankest radical virus 1t means the as.
cendancy of negroes and carpet-baggers, which
is but another name for the predominance of ig-
norance and dishOnesty.-1Fhfg
Among the interesting psychological in
quiries which can be started by the Conser-
vative press of this city-now engaged in
piling up the agony against the Republican
party-is to ascertain how far the human
mind can stand the pressure they are bring
ing to bear upon it. 1t was favorite
axiom in the philosophy Of Aris-
totle, and not overlooked in the
metaphysical inquiries of Kant, "a differ
ent fellow entirely from our Conservative
Can't that the systematic exposition of
truth or error depended upon the condi-
tons of the human mind under pressure,
as thoughts were mere arrows propelled
from an archer's bow, which must be as
constantly unbent as strained up to the
point of utmost tension. But The Wing
don'tstudy Kant with a X, and its meta
physical inquiries have yet to be extended
to the point of inquiry we have named.
If we are to have six months more of
this intense negro-ascendency pressure
upon the mind Of Virginia, the intellectual
condition of the state will be deplorable
enough indeed. Ths, rational faculty Of
man will be entirely played out, and there
will not be mental elasticity enough left in
the Conservative journals of the state, af-
ter election, to shoot even a quibblet at
their own folly. And the man who cannot
muster intellectual strength enough to do
this, when his folly has passed into pro-
verb, is in state Of mental debility quite
as excrutiating, in point Of endurance, as
any folly well can be.
We earnestly besecch our neighbors, if
they have any mercy left for the unhappy
land of Luggnagg, and the brilliant intel
lectual lights shining therein, that they will
unbcnd their necessarily twanging bows for
brief forty-eight hours at least, and let
this everlasting negro target undergo a
little inspection for the purpose Of deter
mining the number of palpable Conservative
hits already given it. There is great
danger that this target will become
entirely undistinguishable from the
folly that set it up, long before the
ldes OF November shall reach us. We
want to have good square fight with our
neighbors when our respective forces are
marshaled in the field but we fear their
entire ammunition will be expended before
even the pckets are driven in on our lines.
We can stand playing upon harp Of a
thousand strings-even with jews harp,
dulcimer and demJohn accompaniment
but one of these Chinese single cat-guts,
necessarily twanged on the same key, is
our special adherence, no matter how adj
mirably it may be manipulated. Our
tympanum revolts at it, and our auditory
nerves actually rebel against transmitting
the vibrations. If this thing is kept up
much longer, we shall be compelled to ex-
claim, in the language of the disconsolate
Anthony, "Lend me your ears come to
bury Pompey, not to praise him.