The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-04-14
MONDAY EvEG. APRIL IA, 1873
..Consoryntism in virginia.,

the riot and reve of ignorance amidst the ruins of
industry and economy Let the people OF Wiz.
ginia prepare once more TO choose between
them.-Enquirer.
In the last issue of The Enquirer THAT
OF Sunday morning. we have a very for
mdable leader upon Conservatism in
Virginia." which scarcely tells us what the
"thing" is, beyond the assurance, in
the above extract, that it is 1.-THE oppo-
site to Radiealism." This might be put
ting it very mildly if it did not go on to
give us what the los icians call negative
pregnant" or one Of those innocent mega
tons which imply very ugly affirmative
in the more sequential part of the detini-
tion. 1t is true we are told that Conserva-
tism "means recognition Of the necessity
for a generous disregard of all other ques-
tons than those in issue between the two
political parties, in order that the Radicals
may be beaten;" but this does not essen
TALLY modify or throw additional light on
the more luminous and comprehensive
definition which makes Conservatism the
opposite Of Radicalism.
In order to ascertain what Conservatism
is then, from the Enquirer's definitional
standpoint, we must 60 back and see what
it negatively states Of its own party in its
affirmative assurances as to our own. This
we shall do the more willingly to avoid be-
wdering ourself over ga recognition of
the necessity for generous disregard Of
all other questions than those in actual
issue between the two political parties,
from whose mutually cloyen heads the
Minerva of Conservatism sprang forth four
years ago, to the amazement, ifnot amuse-
ment, of the political world. We suppose
the Enquirer means, by one Of these cleft
heads at least, the old Democratic party,
whose cloak (ehue, qualis rita, fms ita y
has fallen upon the Conservative party,
with very scanty portion of its spirit
while the old Wing party, whose ghost has
been stalking very unquietly about Virgin
ia grave-yards for some little time, gives
clue to the other luckless head out of which
this full-armed Minerva sprang to dim the
lustre of all previous political organizations
in the Old Dominion.
In its first affirmation as to the Republi-
can party, The Enquirer charges that it
means the negro ADORE the ach,te man,
We might retort that this charge is "pure,
unmixed, intoxicated fib," asserted on the
principle that the commentators upon
Homer apologize for the glaring falsifica-
tions which Ulysses resorts to, by showing
that his stories were told to very credu-
lous people. and one that practiced fibbing
beyond all endurance in the nature of
truth !; but as we do not wish to stir the
quick ire of our neighbor, we resort to
Paley for the "retort courteous" and say
that " as there may be falsehoods which
are not lies, so there may be lies without
literal or direct falsehood." That is, an
editor may SO work his mind up to the be-
lief of a literal falsehood that there is no
such thing as distinguishing it from the
direct truth, any more than there would be
in determining the scale of Swilts' feas In
the verse:
"-Naturalists observe flea ~
Has smaller fleas that on him, prey
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
And SO proceed ad i'.Jtn'tum"
But to the gist of The Enquirer's charge
that " Radicalism" means "the negro
above the white man." When, where, by
whom, and under what unmitigated circum-
stances has Radicalism" laid claim TO
any such supremacy by the negro? Not
in the day and generation of The Enquirer,
albeit that paper is old enough to have out
lived some of its absurd prejudces in the
past, ifnot the particular one on which it SO
lugubriously harps at the present time.
There is not Republican in Virginia. white
or colored, sane or stark mad--with or
without thimbleful of brains--who has
ever thought 10 make such a preposterous
claim in the way of political ascendancy.
This The Enquirer knows. All that the
Republican party of Virginia does claim
for the negro, is his political rights and
equality before the law with the white
man. This is secured to him by the four
tenth and fifteenth amendments f the
constitution, and The Enquirer can no
more ignore the fact, or set it aside to the
detriment of the negro, than we can. 1t
is a fixed fact, brought about as much by
the action of The Enquirer as by any Radi-
cal paper in the country, though the good it
did was not designed in the providence of
events as they occurred.
But the most frightful graUamen or dis
tressing complaint of The Enquirer is, that
Radicalism means "the adyenturer in place
of the patriot" Well, we are engaged in
a diabolical work, to be sure!- 1t almost
makes our modest cheek crimson to the
hue of blushing poppy, to think
of the unmitigated rascality of dis
placing our patriotic Conseryatiye--our
estimable governor, for MISTAKENLY
the Radical ''adyenturer" who shall
come among us! We never knew to
what depths of political deprayity we
could sink before and it makes us al
most wish we were once more back upon
our "native heath" basking in the inno-
cence and purity of our unsophisticated
manhood, that Conservatism might not rise
up, in its ''magnanimity, liberality and JUS
tice," 1--WE quote approvingly from The