Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1893-08-10

dom they no longer desired to
secede. and that which England
Thought would sever them from the
mother country only united them more
closely 10 IL. After the great civil STRIFE
| In this country we see the power oil
representative government to handle
problems which puzzle philosophers and
defv statesmen. When the greatest
revolution of modern times had shaken
America and the North looked on with
distrust, no hope Of peace or prosperity
came 10 the South or to the land until
each State was again possessed OF its
Legislature, freely elected by its
people until their representatives
again appeared in Congress and
the belongings OF representative
government we're assured. III the ma
lions of the earth have wondered that
such great strife should so Soon be
bealed-that armies vanished 10 tho
workshop and the pillow and that peace
stood supreme without bayonet or sword
10 support it--let him who maryels ct
the picture pay his Just tribute TO the
free institutions OF America. which APP
pealed again and again aud again to the
people and found in freedom, and not In
tyranny, the healing balm fof wounds OF
war. President Abraham Lincoln con-
templated calling the southern legisla-
lures together when yet the fields OF
battle we're red with blood, and in this
gave evidence OF his great sagncity.
But for his untimely death years OF
agony would have been saved by his
wisdom.
HIsroRY's FINAL JUDGMENTS
No nation that ever once possessed
representative government has ever vol
UNFAIRLY abandoned it. IL for O season
it has been crushed down by social con-
yulsion or shock OF war 1t has never
been. and never will be, crushed out.
History, tits said, repeats itself. moving
in endless cycles of revolution and re-
version, building up and tearing down
nations. fashioning and destroying dy-
nasties. races, and institutions pro-
ducing new forms, only to recast them
into tho old ones, and telling over and
over again the old, old story OF bios
som, fruitsge, and decay. But though
the cycles and the suns alternate their
course in light and darkness, Ideas are
born that never die. deeds are done that
can mover be revoked, victories are
won that can never be reversed.
When Aristotle taught three centuries
before Christ, that the world was round,
an idea was born that never died. When
Columbus discovered America TINT idea
bore its fruits. and deed was done that
could never be revoked. When the
English race planted itself in Virginia,
and representative government was
established, victory for our blood, race,
and our country, and for human liberty
was won that can never be reversed.
History has its consumate works and its
final judgments, as well a. its new trials
and repetitions, and through them the
world leaps forward into higher being
and gains vantage ground from which
there is no receding stage.
HOME RULE AND FREE.TRADE.
Home rule and free trade were the
crest issues OF the American revolution
of 1776-the sole right Of the people to
levy and appropriate taxes ; the right OF
him who owns OF produces property to
| sell it in the markets of the world.
These are the condign principles of
American Democracy, so wrought in the
constitution OF these people, that We en-
Joy them like the sunshine and the air,
thoughtless OF their source.
He who would now think OF imposing
tax otherwise than by this method
would be deemed Innate. The Con-
stitution of the United States declares IN
terms that no export tax shall be levied
The Virgins House OF Burgesses formu-
lated these principles one hundred and
| fifty years before the war Of the revolu-
ton. In 1894 they unanimously re-
solved that the Governor "shall not lay
any tax or impositions upon the colonies,
their lands or commodities in other way
than by the authority of the General AS
sembly, 10 be levied end employed as
the said Assembly shall appoint" Did
il not seem as if spirit came out OF the
past in 17G5 when Patrick Henry rose
in the House of Burgesses and de-
nounced the stamp tax with his resolu-
tons OF defiance, and used almost the
identical language which had been used
at Jamestown in 1924? so early indeed
did Virginia establish the supremacy of
her local legislation that within few
decades after the colony was planted she
had won "the freedom of trade and in
dependence OF religious societies, securi-
ty from foreign taxation, and the uni
versal elective franchise" and become
the first State OF the world posstsi-
ing separate burroughs diffused over an
extensive surface. Her early people had
been called by shallow critics, who knew
them not, "landed aristocrats and
"slaves Of Church and State" Enough
it were to say OF their religion and libe-
rality that while victims have died in
the old world and the new, no religious
or political martyr ever lost his life un-
| der the representative institutions of the
Virginia people through the trail of well
nigh 800 years, but in due season you
will see that these landed proprietors
we're the first 10 free the land OF primo
geniture and entail, the first to proclaim
the equality OF man, and the first to
sever Church from State, and the first to
draw the sword against the King. With
arms IN Dand, tne virginia colOnlstS
stood in 1864, wheu Cromwell was in
power, nor would IT yield allegiance un-
til the rights OF free trade with all
nations and th9veole right of the assem-
bly, to tax were guaranteed, and its
people by treaty assured that
they should enjoy such privileges
and freedoms as belonged to the free
born people of England. The picture
that George Bancroft, the great histo-
rian, draws Of Virginia after this period
carries with it eulogy beyond expression
of praise. "Thsre was no trace" says
he, "of established privileged power in
its code or Its government in its forms,
and in its legislation Virginia was
representative democracy, so jealous Of
landed aristocracy that 1t insisted on
universally of suffrage, so hostile to the
influences OF commercial wealth that it
would not tolerate the mercenary minis
tiers OF the law, so considsrate for re-
hgious freedom that each parish was left
TO take care Of itself, and every officer
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