The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-09-09
H.e ELECTION-DAY
TUESDAY NOVEMBER A, 1878.
AN APPEAL TO THE RECORD.

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Since the terrible scathing which the
Louisville Courier-Journal gave the Bour.
bon Conservatives of Virginia for raising
the miserable and senseless cry Of trace
against race" in the present campaign, the
leading journals of that party have been
trying to squirm out of their dilemma,
and throw the responsibility of this issue
OF theirs upon the Republican party. Bat
this will not do. The memory OF
their own readers is not short enough
for such subterfuge Only a few
months have transpired since their
columns were teeming with appeals
that all other issues should be forced
aside for this single malignant one of race
against race. The memory of political
liars may be proverbially short, but that of
truth-loving and truth-seeking readers is
apt to be long, and it is to this class we
appeal for the correctness of our state
ments, when we charge that the leading
Conservative journals Of the state whetted
the public appetite for this issue,
and this issue only, months and
months in advance of the meeting Of
their convention in Richmond, at which
the Kemper-Daniel ticket was nominated.
We have the record before us, and it is
to this we appeal to show the utter falsity
of their evasive plea, and the dastardliness
Of the attempt to shirk the responsibility
of an issue Of their own raising, or, worse
still, to shift it upon another.
Within the last week or two the Conserv-
alive journals have been little more
chary of their editorials on the "color line"
and have given us all the unspent ammuni-
ton at their command, which was left over
after the surrender at Appomattox. "Vir-
ginia for VirginiansD has, in the meantime,
become the battle-cry, and most vocifer-
olsly has this particular slogan been
dnned in our ears by all the Bourbon
speakers and editors. from the opening gun
of Kemper at the Theatre to the last fash
in-the-pan effort of eye courthouse orator"
splurgng away upon the 6 sword of Lee"
and making the welkin ring again with the
shouts of the youthful braves in the
invincble Stonewall Jackson corps. All
this has been very rhetorical, very magnil-
oluent, and no doubt very edifying. But
the enthusiasm, which those two master
generals of the age infused into their bat
tered but unbroken ranks is wanting in
the efforts of these courthouse orators to
sire the Southern heart' in favor of the
next war. The Wing exhausted this prolific
theme in few touches Of its own match
less pen, as early as the 2nd of April last,
and neither General Kemper nor the elo-
quent gentleman who escorts him ''on his
own hook,' and happily "does up" his
speeches for the press, can exceed what
that journal then effectually accomplished
in the grandiloquent line. In an appeal
to Virginians to rule Virginia, and not
suffer the ''pestiferous carpet-bagger, scala
war and negro' to have any share in the
government of the state, The Wing then
captured the hearts of the youthful
braves" of Virginia by this thrilling remi-
niscence Of the 'struggle against the
armies of the Union:"
Virginia for Virgi,,ians called forth the youth.
full braves-stmulated the hearts Of matrons
and maidens in the desperate struggle for the
honor of Virginia and the right of her sons to
rule and govern her. Twas Virginia for Vir-
gtnidns that caused the sword of Lee to
leap from its scabbard, and fired the hearts Of
stone wall Jackson, Stewart, and thousands of
the brayest of the brave in the struggle against
the armies of the Union.
If the struggle is not now against the
armies of the Union," it is manfestly
against the spirit that animated them in
putting down the rebellion and saving the
Union which their youthful braves" then
sought in vain to break up and destroy.
Are we fighting the battles of the Union
over again, and are these appeals ''for the
honorof Virginia and the right of her sons
to rule and govern her" intended for the
"next war;" or are they meant for perpet-
nal war against the Union. or what? We
need not ask The Wing, for it will not
answer. But we put the question to the
people OF Virginia to the men who have
families, own property, and desire peace,
stability, and prosperity to the state,
whether this incessant war-whooping and
daubing of youthful braves'' with led
paint is just the thing to accomplish the
laudable ends they seek. We are sick of
it, and know they must be, if there is any
such condition of the human stomach as
that which is cultivated adj na,tsedm.
But let us see what The Wing had to
say on the color line no later than
the 23d day of April last, distance of
time that need not have clouded its
memory nor the memory Of any of its
Conservative contemporaries, which were
pesging away on the same issue full as
vigorously as The Wing, but not per-
haps with as fine display of rhetoric.
We quote:
Let the lines be drawn and the roll be called
that we may see whether II be true as is charged
by the adversary, that treason has left our ranks
deserted. In this contest there can be no half
way house, no nentras. 1t is not Grant or
Greeley, funder or anti-funder, high or low in
terest, this or that railroad; it is Virginia
against her enemies, he i0hftes eonteadin0 for
me supremacy Of their race, md he Sho a.o.o
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