The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-31

! solemn day. AZ the General Assembl
OF Virginia was the nrst IN time, %
was IL first In spirit over to widen tho
borders OF Americana political and
religious h~ahitatl0ns. Starting Arst,
Virginia kept first and went farthest.
She IL - who wrote the bill OF
rights. she who gave an empire TO
unity, she who called the Annapolis
convention, she who enacted the model
law for religious liberty, she who,
with the patience OF patriotism.
breathed the oxygen OF an inyigorat-
ing ideal into the lungs OF a slow
puplsed, dying confederation. 1t is
an old, old story which It may seem
platitudinous to repeat but it is/thc
continuance of that same story the
first words OF which were writ with
Grabbed hand on those old foiios of
1919 at jamestown. We cannot be-
gin to dc Justice to the courage and
vision of that gray dawn until we see
the sun on Wa~shington's chair in the
convention of 1881.
But we must not end this hour Of
reverend gratitude to the men who
have given Virginia this splendid his
tory OF representative government
without some refection-if only to
correct OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ing the years that followed the adop-
ton of the constitution. In the
popular mind, the glory of Virginia's
shield was dimmed after 1900 by the
dark shadow of slavery. That the
slavery agitation swung toward re-
action the pendulum which for two
centuries had steadily marked a
longer arc of progress Is. I think. In
contestable. Yet IL we seem to
breathe less OF the air of freedom
from the journals of the legislature
after 12o0-certainly after lS3o-we
would do worse than d~isservice II we
did not say for those who framed the
laws of this ancient commonwealth
that they struggle to the utmost
against the necessity of conservatism
and limited franchise Not less than
thirty-tilree acts and petitions to dis
courage the importation of slaves into
Vii ginia were passed by the burgesses
of me colony, only to be disallowed.
spirit of the petition OF 1872 has been
found by Ballagh to be reflected fully
in all The years that followed until
the Southampton Insurrection pre-
scented a spectre that would not
down. And even as hat spectre too
form, grisly and menacing. we may
read in Vtrginia's mediation with
South Carolina, in her action on the
wflmot proviso. in. her policy OF in
ternal improvements and in those
brave, self-efecting missions OF early
'6l the staunch political confluence
of 1919.
Tangled here and furnished there.
the thread of representative govern
ment in Virginia is golden still. That
the tension of taut times has not
hrotor hot artipnior fhrauA fhpnfrE
all these years is due to the singular.
inherent resiliancy of free institu-
lions in this commonwealth. After
Argall came Yeardley: to beard a
Berkeley Virginia has always begotten
a Bacon. Whenever the bar to the
shuttle has see removed. the weaving
has zone on in the same hold pattern
of the same golden thread. Great
issues Virginia has laways resolved
into simple statements of enduring
prtnc s-for you may read
or two sheets of paper in
yonder library the autograph of
G eorge Mason's bill Of rights
and you will find the consti,u-
by far than the single Corporations
section" of tho constitution of 1902.
Great crises Virginia has met with
plain acts of unabashed manliness.
She led the continent hecause she had
faith in herself. faith in hef citizens.
faith in her ideals. Like works must
be the fruit of like faith. AS we
virginians do not go to the storied
shrines of the past to do worship, but
rather to gain Inspiration, we would
seek that faith afresh today in q
return T. the virile and lofty principles
of the great morning Of our liberties.
Without that faith. we walk into an
unknown night Of word -befosEed.
strange formulate. with that faith we
march into an assured day OF new
achievements. cheered by the familiar
SUI Of old Justice,