National Republican., 1876-10-06
A WORD TO OLD WINGS.

gained circulation tnrOuSn some Ol lne
Northern journals, to wit: That many of.
the old Wings of that State are becoming
disgusted with Democracy and are seeking
an asylum in the Republican organization
to which they naturally belong. Our own
information, especially from one of the
Congressional districts, impresses us with
the conviction that there is much of truth
in the statement that has so alarmed our
Democratic contemporaries. The only cause
of astonishment to US is that a wholesale
exodus of the Wings had not long since
occurred, or, to 60 blck to the origin Of
the unholy coalition between them and the
destructive Democracy, we can but express
our smazement that the Wings of Virginia
and of the South, with their acknowledged
intelligence, were ever foolish enough to
permit themselves to be betrayed to their
own undoing by the self-same party that
wrought not only the ruin of the South,
but well nigh destroyed the whole country.
A glance at the record of this Democratic
party in Virginia, sailing since the war
under the misnomer of conservative,
NAV serve to show the more thoughtful OF
the Wings the extent to which they have
been made ''hewers of wood and drawers
of water" for a party with which they
never had anything in common. 1t is un-
necessary 10 go into any lengthy argument
10 show that in Virginia the Democratic
party was responsible for the secession of
the State, with all the unnumbered woes
that proceeded from that act. 1t is part of
the history of the country, known and read
of all men. Numerically but five or six
thousand less Eefnre the war than their
opponents, the Wings possessed more
than prOportionate share OF the wealth, in
| telligence ard culture of the State, yet
despite their earnest protest at the begin
ming of the fratricidal struggle, being, as is
admitted, the smaller of the two parties,
they were chained to the juggernaut Of
secession and driven, noleRs Uolens, into
fratricidal war, from which their Conserva
tive instincts and sentiments would have
exempted them but for the Vaccinations
of Democratic secess onists who created
and maintained an unhealthy pablo senti-
ment not only in that State but throughout
the South.
Having signally failed ia their efforts to
disrupt the Union, simply because the
offices had departed from their grasp
through the election of Lincoln, the De-
mocracy of Virginia, true to their ante
belEun instincts, sought and succeeded by
chicanery and fraud in obtaining and hold
ing political possession of the State with
its offices by means of the election of
Walker, rampant Northern Democrat,
under the flimsy guise of true" Repub-
lican. Withers, Whig, who had been
nominated for Governor as forlorn hope
had been made to get out of the way for a
''brass mounted" Yankee, who proclaimed
himself for the time being "true'' Re-
publican. Succeeding in this first effort at
deception, the name of Democracy was
hauled down from the masthead and the
Haunting lie of conservative" substi-
tuted therefor as an emollient to the feel
ings of the Wings, who entertained for the
name Democracy about the same kind of
regard that an infuriated bovine does for
red bunting; but the same old ass remained
in the lions skin, as the sequel will show.
We have said that the two old parties were
nearly evenly balanced just previous to
the war. If we take the Gubernatorial
election of 1859 as representing the actual
strength of the Democratic and Whig
parties in Virginia-being the latest
election prior to the war in which the
relative forces were fairly mustered-g3
find that out Of a vote of 14S, Cos Goggin,
the Wbig candidate for Governor. polled
II, SAB of them, while Letcher, his Demo
cratic opponent, received 7,112, or but
$500 more than the Whig candidate, aud
this was before the great Democratic.
stronghold Of the State, West Virginia,
was cut off. Such are the official figures;
yet if the present representation OF the
State in Congress be taken as evidence it
will produce an expression of surprise in
the mind Ofa stranger th It a Wing ever
lived in the Commonwealth. Look at
them, and, analyziug their ante 5eILum
records, what do We find? Why, out of
nine members of the House of Representa-
tives from Virginia there is but
one Republican, and out Of eight
so-caled Conservatives, only one Wing
has been permitted to get in, and that with
no little trouble. Think of it, ye old Wings!
Seven Democrats to represent seventy
seven thousand voters, and one lonesome
Whig, preserved perhaps as relic of the
past, to represent seyenty-one thousand
suffragers o. the grand old party that once
embraced the wealth and intelligence of
the State In the next Congress it will be
even worse than this, provided the eight
should be successful in securing their cleo
ton, this one not being left as the little
leaven, for Terry has been overslaughed
in convention, and an unbroken list of
candidates with ante -6elIum Democratic
records has been chosen by this so-called
Conservative party. 1t matters not that
4. H. II. Stuart and Niche and Edmund
Pendleton may live in the district repre-
sented by John T. Harris their talents are
of no avail when considered in connection
with their former Whiggery as against the
stupidity and Democracy of Harris. John
Critcher and John L. Marye may live in the
First district, but is not Bev. Douglass
Democrat, and what rights have old Wings
that Democrats are bound to respect?
johnson Barbour and Robert Y. Conrad,
Old Wings both, and men of indisputable
talent, are unfortunate enough to live in
the same district with Hunton; and thus
it goes, dd infaitum, as we might with
equal propriety say ad nauseuua, through
out the State, in not only every Congress
sional district in it, but as well in every
county, in the matter of selecting members
OF the Legislature. 1t has been said that
the house of Bourbon Learned nothing
and forgot nothing" The axiom would
Apply with equal force to the Virginia
Democracy. They illustrate their aptitude
in the matter of memory in two-fold sense;
they do not forget who were Wings once,
nor do they forget to leave them at home
under all circumstances, and fill the places
that Wings might honor with second rate,
o,J not lv ratio