National Republican., 1875-11-02

the right of search, and her meddling in
our affairs during the rebellion, are all
lessons which should teach US how neces-
sary it is to be continually on our guard
against any and all encroachments of this
kind.
What we particularly wanted at this time
was an olive branch In behalf of peace and
conciliation, not firebrand to rekindie the
slumbering embers of sectional hate. In
this statue we have hero worship in Its very
worst form. We say worst form because
its tendency is to cheaper patriotism In TINS
country and to place premium on treason.
Stripped of all sophistry and that is just
what it expresses; and that is the lesson it
will teach the young men of Virginia who
are somewhat too prone to follow bad ex-
amples. Making patriotism cheap and ad-
miring treason was a business too many OF
our own people were engaged in during
the war. We called them cOpperheads
and tolerated them because we had no
means of efectually suppressing them, and
yet here we have Mr. Beresford Hope, NJ.
P, and his English associates, after ten
years of peace, doing what our copper
heads would not have dared do during or
after the war.
We must look for the real effect of this
"gift of Englishmen TO Virgins" among
that large class of poor, unthinking and
illiterate Virginians over whom the edu-
Gated and reading people of the State have
but little control. These people were told
by the speakers that the statue was "the
British Governments gift to Virginia"
Thousands of them went home tina. nj ght
in the firm belief that what they had been
told was true. And in the very ignorance
of their conceits they accepted this as a
proof that, in the event of their again shOul-
deriDg the musket and striking for gov
eminent of their own, Great Britain would
come TO their assistance. We contend that
it was not only wrong but criminal to teach
these people that this statue was gift
from Great Britain TO Virginia - "a monu
ment of its admiration for man who had
fought TO destroy a government that slavery
might live and continue to curse mankind.
Many of cur readers have not forgotten
with what haste Virginians of the un.
thinking and illiterate class rushed into the
Iebellion, nor how fondly they clung to
the hope that England would come to their
aid, and help fight theiI battles against the
North. They were told by their leaders
that England must do this in selfdefeRse-
that being the only way she could secure
the cotton necessary to keep her working
classes from starvation. To intelligent
men nothing could have been more ab-
surd, and yet thousands of Virginians be-
lieved it with a sincerity that amounted to
fanaticism. In short, it was their hope
deferred to the very end of the conflict.
That it prolonged the war, and cost US
acquainted with the subject will deny.
We want Virginians of both high and low
degree, educated to think right to do
right, not to imbibe mistaken notions of
themselves.
Virginia has had nothing so mischievous
in all its tendencies or so calculated to mis-
lead the ignorant and unthinking as this
statue of Stonewall jackson. That purest
of patriots and profoundest of Democratic
thinkers, Fernando Wood, went to Rich
mond, and in an ill-timed speech pledged
the people that in the event of their strIk
iBg blow to separate themselves from the
North and set up government of their own
every Democrat in the North would Join
them. They struck that blow in less than
q year after that time, but Mr.. Woods
pledge was not kept. He did not even go
TO their assistance himself, preferring to
stay at home and make little money by
raising a regiment to fight Virginians.
We refer to this matter of history in the
hope of convincing Virginians that it will
not do to put their faith in either Northern
Democrats or meddlesome EnglIshmen.
The course pursued towards this country
by Earl Russell during the war, and what
prompted il, has never been fully ex-
pl6ined. He was known to be pro-
nounced Aboiitionist, and, like Lord
Brougham, held that slavery was the
scourge of mankind and the scum of all
villainies Those who knew HIM most in
timately, and in all his social relations,
looked to him for outspOken sympathy IN
the Union cause, and at least prompt action
in preserving the neutrality of England.
But he disappointed them in both; and if
his sympathies were not with the South,
fighting as she was for the very thing he
personally abhorred most, his policy was
such as to give her hope and encourage
ment 1t has been urged by Earl Russells
friends that he wss misled by one of Mr..
Stewards early circulars, in which that
timid statesman discarded the idea that the
war was for the abolition of slavery. This
is only partially true. The truth is, Earl
Russell, much as he detested slavery, de-
tested Republic and our form of Govern
ment more. He has never failed to ex-
press his contempt for a Republic in France
or elsewhere regarding it as a form of gov
ernment in which the majority were sure
to become tyrants and the minority suffer
ers