Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-02-05
NOTES ON THE WING
From our Farmer Correspondent un his
way Through the south.
RICHMOND. VA.
Jan % 1SOJ

Jan. %, 1892.
| Dear PbuHir:
Crossing the Potomac from Washington
one treads the "sacred soil of Virginia"
| If it be his or her first experience, the
! thoughts 90 rapidly back to the scenes here
enacted in the early sixties Then, adding
another lens to the vision, behold the
mighty outcome of the last century. while.
far back in the dim distance of 200 years
and more, thoughts arise of the heroic
struggles made by the naughty cavaliers
! who first came here for dominion and gold,
| TO the present beholder this all seems like
! a continuous dream, except what was then
a virgin paradise of nature is now hdeous
and ghastly desert. For $50 miles in east
ern Virginia there is not one redeeminp
element to pass to the credit of the civil
! ization which ruled this country from the
| landing of Smith and his body of adj
venturers at James river to the murder of
| Ellsworth in 1861. This is a severe arraign-
ment but turn the subject As one NAV. the
results show an ignominous failure.
! This once beautiful part of our common
country was settled and occupied for $50
years by the tobacco barons, who lived in
barbaric spendor by means of the black
slaves whose life blood was literally
! sprinkled on the lands they rudclv culti-
waited. Equally wasteful was the denudinr
of the elements Of plant food within the
soil The same principle applied to both
man and the plantation, of getting but
! riks Mt
ruin was the natural consequence. Now
one may journey from Washington to
Richmond without observing one instance
where the country has been benefited bv
the class here described. Not one well
kept and prosperous plantation. not one
article manufactured, not one instance of
mining operations-outs Of Alexandria
and fredericksburg. which are the nearest
| fossilized of any spots on this continent
not horse, COW, sheep, pig, or other
domestic animal was seen. with one ex
ception, that of black boy driving a small
steer in an old rickety cart. This | saw
from close observation in riding III miles
by daylight over the sacred soil of Virginia.
The retribution is complete. Two hun
dred and fifty years have come and gone.
this once proud and imperious race has
come and gone with the years. and nature
Will bury its profligate memory in oblivion.
There is not another instance on this globe
that | recall that equals this devastation
by man, except it may be that part of Asia
Minor extending from Smyrna to .Jerusa-
lem. Two hundred and fifty wears hence.
when another race, with the aid of nature.
shall have restored this fair country. win
its gently undulating surface and beautiful
rivers, to its normal fertile condition. there
will be but one monument necessary to link
the present with the past, and the only
inscription, one word deeply cut, will be
"AppomatoX.
The city Of Richmond is slowly rising
from its old and sluggish ways, yet it has
far to travel in the modern race of enter
prise to equal its many Western sisters.
The most interesting portion of Richmond
to "A stranger is its old state house and the
elegant equestrian statue of Washington
on the grounds about the capitol 1t is the
best and most imposing of any yet erected
to his memory. \ small statue of Stone
wall Jackson stands in one corner of the
grounds, done in bronze, with a granite
base, and has very laudatory inscription
on one facade which tells us it was pre-
sented by his English friends" | should
like to see chiseled on the reverse side this
estimate of his virtues:
"A Christian gentleman and warrior, who sacr-
feed the lives OF lO0o0l men Ia perlittuate the
right of the white man of Virginia to sell his own
offspring by black mothers, 10y auction. that he
might live in debauchery with the proceeds "
" SIC SemPer tyrrdHiS.''
y. b. This monument erected from the
profits of running the Yankee blockade from 1861
to 1864. GOD snre the Queen"
G. II. :.