The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-05-20
TUESDAY EVEN'G. MAY 90, Il
Reply to " Scalawag :"

ional judgment on the perplexed personal
question as to who should, and who should
not be, the Republican candidate for COVER
nor this fall. 1t is too much like the open
ing of the fisherman's casket in the Arabian
tale; vague smoke rising hither and thither,
with the features of this genie and that open
ing vaguely through the obscurity and mist,
of the ultimate shape Of which no mortal
fisherman could form any adequate concep-
ton. Our purpose has simply been to IN
dictate a policy for the party which should
strike the popular mind and party-divid-
ing sentiment as right-as having the germs
OF discreet and accurate judgment in it. As
to particular candidates, we care not who
shall be the " coming man." which shall
be ,chich in the list given us by "Scala-
wag," or that given by our veteran "War
Horse" which we suppressed the other
day. We are not after men, we are after
success and success we must have in order
to conquer social peace and Astounding
prosperity in Virginia.
Bear in mind that the Conservative press
in this state has but one motto to govern
it in its present assaults upon the Republic
can party, and that is the motto of Mira
beau: De Pdudace, ct encore de paudace,
ct togours de Paudace-to dare, and still
to dare, and necessarily to dare. If it has
once or twice engaged in argument with us.
it has swiftly abandoned it, or flung it to
the dogs, and moved on with its gigantic
and audacious falsehood, that the Repub-
hcan party of Virginia seeks to place the
negro over the white man, and that its po-
ltical aseendency in this state means
the precise condition of things which
has been realized in South Carolina
and Louisiana. This press a, is
astute, crafty, and sagacious, so far at
least as it seeks to play upon the worst
passions of our nature-those engendered
by the antipathies of race and color. 1t
shoots its envenomed arrows stingingly in
the direction of these antipathies, as if the
dread Arguazil had them in his keeping,
and was ready to let them forth at given
signal, as Pandora let the brood of ills
IN her keeping fly from her box with only
hope, turned, in this instance, into despair,
and bereft of all wings to fly. We regard
it imperatively the duty of the Republican
party in this state to break the force of this
malign influence, and turn back these ills
to the fatal box from which they malignant
ly sprung. To effectually do this, it
must first meet the audacious charges made
against it, and answer them by the most con-
utnc'ng and palpa6y conclusioe agu-
me3 that can be presented 10 The human
mtad--by something more than the mere
processes of logical reasoning, or by prom
ises thatmay elevate expectation only to
dash it in bitterness to the ground. 1t
must give proof of its sincerity that cannot
be challenged-that cannot be questioned
in the light of its own conclusive acts.
How can it do this so effectually as to say
to the men who voted for General Grant
to those who seek with US the emancipa-
ton of Virginia from this perpetual thral-
dom of malign influence-that, if you
will come in as one with us, you shall
henceforth be as one Of US and we will let
you name your own conditions of alliance,
believing that they will be as honorable as
our own motives are patriotic, disinterested.
and sincere. We open the doors of our
convention to you; come in and take the
very front seats if you will; we have but
one object in proposing this alliance, and
that is, the paramount good of the state
and its entire people, as opposed to the
present interests and malign influences of
party. We do this not because it will give
as the political ascendency, but because it
will give you, with us, the power to put
Virginia at once in a sure path of material
progress, power and grandeur, such as she
will never reach under the malignant and
hostile influences so sedulously fostered
and kept up by the Conservative party.
To this "Scalawag," Directing, says !:
"We have as good men in our party as
there are in the Conservative party"
This we grant; nay, we would as strenu-
ously assert the truth of this proposition
as he. But analyze his proposition, and
it will be found mere child's objection.
We do not propose to 60 to the Coaser-
0atice party for candidate we simply
open the door for an alliance with those
who have already broken away from that
party, and either joined us in calamity
defeating it last November, or in making
such break in its lines as to cause the
standards of victory to perch in our favor.
These men then desired to place Virginia
in the path of material progress we have
named, and believed that the most effec-
tual way to do it was to align the state
at once with the national administration.
That they noao desire a repetition of the
same result, is evident from the fact, that,
without it, their victory as well as ours
last fall, would prove but pitiable and
barren one indeed. But to secure a repeti-
ton of this victory, we must not
only have their votes, but the votes
of those who, by their mastery mac
tiyity, then gave us the state. And the
same motive must have governed these, in
part, as that actuating those who voted d.
an