National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-26
VIRGINIA CONSERVATISM.


building.
VIRGINIA CONSERVATISM
The startling prediction is made by thu
Richmond Enquirer chat Virginia conser'
vatism is the nucleus for the national party
that is to control in the Federal Govern.
ment" The occasion of this prediction is
The Enquirer belief that Virginia is the sue
cessful leader in the great movement for a
combination and concentration of all the
Elements of opposition to extreme men and
to extreme measures, whether in the North
pr in the South. The declaration of thi;
belief is accompanied by the assertion that
the Conservative party, 'bcing Virginian,
has nothing of that narrowness or illiberal-
fly about it which would make it appear
prejudiced and exclusive
There is so much of the characteristic
5oastful arrogance of the simon-pure old
time Virginian in this that we are inclined
TO accept it as the production of some Old
Dominion Rip Van Wrinkle, who, having
slept since before the war, now awakens to
find a new party in his beloved State, and
imagines, as matter of course, that it is
to be the successful party Of the period. The
old-time Virginians never understood defeat,
but when the elections were carried against
them, stood up as proud and pig-headed as
ever in the belief that their especial theories
would yet PREVAIL Inflated with the knowl-
edge that the old commonwealth, from the
prominence in times past, was entitled to be
called the Mother of Presidents. they be-
feved that she Y2s-also the mother of a
statcsnm1ship which would prove to be in
vincible Anything that was ''Virginian"
was consequently the correct thing in their
opinion. Bou'bonized and fossilized by
long continuei selfintercourse, and petri
fed, so to speak, against the acceptance of
ideas that did not originate in Virginia, they
lived the hsppiest of lives-lives of content
ment, because they were lives of selfad-
miration. To drive a joke by the tradi-
tional method into the head of Scotch
man would have been less difficult than to
successfully attempt to make one Of these
"Virginians of the olden- time" appreciate
the fact that truth, virtue, responsibility or
common sense could find an abode outside
of the limits of his beloved State. Living
in the past, remembering only that states
men like Marshall, whose brilliant career
did so much to add 10 the glory
Of the Commonwealth, were all dead,
they forgot or ignored the fact that no lat
ter day Virginian has risen above me-
diocrity in the contest for supremacy in ma
tional affairs. Judge this, Doctor that,
Colonel so and so, the leading man Of any
particular countryside, appeared to them
to be second Jefferson, with certain draw
backs and some mental reservations; but
nevertheless of sufficient likeness to that
great leader to entitle them to cordial adula-
tion. And this habit, for it is nothing else,
obtained not only in the rural districts but
in the cities and towns. Ability or pre-
eminence on account of any especial thing
were believed to be hereditary. The con-
sequence was that the great grandson of a
signcr of the Declaration of independence
was credited with the ability to be the au-
thor Of that document. if not OF better one
In Short the people Of Virginia built about
themselves an intellectual Chinese wall,
within the limits of which they believed all
tie s6od, all fhe wisdom and anthe learn
ing of the generation was confined. Very
naturally they became arrogant and self:
conceited, if not intolerart.
We hear much of the lessons of the war,
and of the changes wrought by the sad ex-
perience of civil strife. Among them we
have been told that the people of Virginia
have learned that the world does not hinge
upon the will or advice ofthcir puny leaders.
But we are beginning to doubt that they
have learned anything at all. If the cleo
ton last fall proved anything, it was that,
regardless Of questions Of State policy, of
questions Of national import, and of any
Thing except the base prejudice of race, the
majority of the people were willing to be
led by the sham cry Of conservatism into
the camp of Democratic railroad monopo-
lists. Self-contented as of old, and salts
fed with the leadership ofcounty politicians,
who in turn were taught to think and speak
by the railroad ring, the masses blindly
voted as Emperor Bill Malone dictated.
Like the South Carolinians of yore, who
voted for a Butler or Hampton without
question when one of those names was put
in nomination for Governor, the Virginian
Of to-day votes for some man of localpromi-
nence merely because lie is q Virginian, and
because it is supposed that he is modern
Solomon. The shifting population of
The North creates an attrition of intellect
which brightens the Northern people but
The stagnant population of Virginia tends to
stuDefy. The contentment of plantation |
life, the satisfaction of having enough to eat |
and to wear and the absence of any provo |
cation to intellectual strife has aided to dull |
the brains and to render inanimate the entire |
population. Ofcourse, the curse of slavery,
with its accompanying slothfulness, crime
and utter disregard for the rights of others,
has had much to do with this. And these
are the people who declare that they have
formed '1he nucleus for the national party
chat is to control the Federal Govern
'tment."
A more vigorous shock to their self-com-
placency than the war has been the asser-
ton OF power in the State by the Republi-
can party. The active and progressive
ideas which underlie the principles upon
which it is based have been brought for
ward in such manner as to startle the
somnolent old egotists into partial recog-
milton that the world has been moving while
they have been sleeping, and that the orbit
of public opinion is large enough to en-
brace some other community than their
own. This partial knowledge of the actual
condition of affairs has only been effective,
however, in producing condition of stupe-
fed establishment. As election after cleo
ton and campaign after campaign occurs,
the people learn more and more of the
,,,,oet;one vbic}, divide enlightened Dublic |