The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-09-17
ELECTION-DAY {-
TUESDAY NOVEMBER A, 1878.

THE great burden of Conservative cen
sure cast upon Mr.. Hughes is, that he
changed in advance of The leaders of that
party, in the views he had formerly enter
tanned and expressed Of the Republican
party and the administration Of General
Grant. His most criminal act, in their
objectionable sight, was the fact that he
honestly accepted the situation when
it was inevitable, and they didn't. |
They accepted it, it is true; but failed to
do so honestly, or with any further intent
than to escape the penalties of their rebel
lious acts, and get the reins Of the state
government into their hands by { ick and
deception-two things entirely repugnant
to the nature Of Mr.. Hughes and those
who thought and acted with him at the
time.
In the Walker campaign these bitterly
censuring Conservatives not only accepted
the situation" entire, but travelled out Of
their way to accept the principles and poll
cy of the Republican party, even more en-
phaticaly than Mr.. Hughes had then done,
or thought of doing. But their acceptance
was sham, a downright piece Of Jesuitry
and double-tongued deceit, while that of
Mr.. Hughes was straightforward and
manly, having for its object the highest
good Of the state and all her interests as
allied with .and inseparably a part of the
national government. IS,
"7heir transformations a4
We're never for piece of beauty rarer,
il shuttle, trick, end artiGce have any
thing rare in the way of quality, in the
practice of political empiIcism.
We need not state the fact, for every
sensible man must now see it, that had
the leading public men of Virginia ac-
cepted the situation as Mr.. Hughes did,
AMI at the time he did, no complaint
about carpet-bagism need ever have
gone up from the oYer-burdened heart
of Conservatism in the state. Neither under
Mr.. Johnson's administration, nor that Of
General Grant, would there have been any
lack Of genuine Virginia appointments to
office. And this would have been true of
! the entire South had there been more Gem
eral Longstreets and Colonel IIugheses to
truly apprehend the situation and accept
it, as tley magnanimously and heroicalIy
did. Even General Beauregard now admits
that they were right, and he aud his less
sagacious political conlreres wrong. What
we personally admire in the charae-
ter Of Colonel Hughes is the fear.
lessness and independence with
which he accepted what was irrevocably
fixed and certain, in the face of all the oblo-
guy and abuse that ives sure to be heaped
upon him. Talk of the heroism of Kem-
per and Withers! they are rush-reeds in
the path Of the tempest compared with the
stubborn oak exhibited in the character Of
Mr.. Hughes. If they were fearless and
brave in battle, he was heroic and sublime
in the hour Of peace. He braved public
opinion in maniully accepting the situation;
they crayenly lodged it by begging par
don for their treason, and then Haunting it
in the public face as a meiitorious act.
They fawningly licked the hand Of power
for clemeney, and then darted back their
stings into the very faces Of those who had
granted it. n
The offence of Colonel Hughes is, that
he has been true as steel to his pledges of
fidelity to the Federal government; their
great merit, that they have been as false
and double-tongued as he was frank, out
spoken, and manly. This the people Of
the state are beginning to see and under
stand, which accounts for the generous and
warm-hearted ovation paid him the other
day at Culpeper, where he was welcomed
as the guest of the Mayor, serenaded
by a white band, and received
assurances from no less than three
hundred white citizens Of the county.
heretofore acting with the Conservative
/. party, that they should give him their
votes in the November election.
The people Of Virginia admire true moral
courage and heroism fully as much as they
do the physical attributes of bravery upon
the battlefield. And Colonel Hughes
stands before the people Of the state
to-day as the impersonation OF
moral courage in the course he
has taken since the war. That he
and Longstreet were right and Kemper and
Beauregard wrong, is fact now frankly
admitted by the latter gentleman, than
whom there was not a drawer or truer man
in all the Confederacy, whilst its flag
waved in defiance or after il went down in
hopeless defeat. I" Honor to whom honor
is due.o is sentiment finding noble lodp.
ment in the breasts of Virginians, and we
look for brave and generous utterance Of
it on the 9TH Of November next, in the
triumphant election Of hughes over KEN.
per. The popular breath that DEGREES il is
abroad in the air, and The voice that is to
to declare twill then be heard in grand
reverbeiations from the mountains to the
sea.