Year: 1873

Gen. WIse's Letter.


The letter of Ex-Governor Wise is q
mOurnful document. 1t betrays the
gnawing of an imperious and disap-
pointed ambition when all hore for
achieving its feverish desires is gone.
1t is like the sharp cry of the gamester
when his last ducat has been staked
and lost.


The warnings of WOlsey have been
lost upon the ears of this bitter, proud
and pained spirit. With the most dis
tressIng illustrations of the evil fruit of
mlsdIrected ambition before him, this
venerable and whire-haired orator has
mad9 futile and fatal grasp at the
Meeting emblems of political power as
they pass beyond his horoscope forev-
er. He has failed and has fallen-fall-
ed too, like Lucifer, never to rise again.
The fre ana motion of the soul which
burns and shakes the frame it dwells
i'll, have driven him upon an adventure
by which all his political fortunes are
wrecked and ruined, and have left
him.


weary and old with service to the mercy


OF rude stream that must forever hide him"


But this remarkable letter shows
more. 1t shows the tendency of Bour-
bonism every where Fir. Alexander
stephens can commend the course
pursued by Gen. Grant in supporting
Durell, and Gov. Wise can overlook
the detailed infamies which have been
perpetrated by the same high official
toward section where he processes
his whole heart is garnered up, where
he must live or bear no life, and levels
his sharp and scathing sentences at the
only party i'll his State that has stood
between her and utter spoliation and
ruin.


The Conservatives of Virginia of
course have hot done all things per-
fectly y party situated as they were
situated could not have hoped to doall
things that ought to have teen done, or
TO leave undone all things that ought
not to be done They found them
selves after the war surrounded by
nothing but the memories of mutila-
ton and the simbols of disaster. They
had to remove the rubbish of broken
hopes and shattered Institutions
They had to dig anew the foundations
of their political as well as of their pri-
vate fortunes. Some dismayed and
disappointed spirits like Gov. Wise
refused to take part in this work, bat
continued to rail against destinYi to
discourage every hopeful effort at re
demptiOn and to tear down the rude
political structure which a few earnest
and practical men had fashioned out
OF the broken planks and timbers of
the old Democratic party. for the pro-
lection of the State and the shelter OF
her people.


That they miracul0usly succeeded
no one can deny. While other South
ern States have been given up body
and soul as prey to the spoiler, Nir-
ginia, by the untamabIe manhood and
unbacked courage of her noble sons,
has been preserved from further
demolition. If this is not true. how
is it that she is SO much better off
than other Southern States? Daring
the struggle she suffered more than
any OF those States that seeded. She
was raked over and over again by the
harrow of war, wrenched in twain and
beaten with the trunk of limb torn
from her body; with her homes in
ashes and the beautiful city of Rich
mOnd converted into a heap of black
ened and smoking ruins; with the
chimney-corners at which her gray
haired fathers sat and the cradles in
which her children had been rocked,
all changed into ghastly monument
of fuming cinders; yet, with all the
sickening despair which such scenes
must have overwhelmed her people,
she has risen from these ruins, and,
under the control of the Conservative
party, has taken her stand among the
most enterprising and progressive
States of the Union.


The party that has done all this is
the party against which Gen. Wise
has directed his most venomOus shafts.
He took no part in the redemption
His laborS rather retarded it; and,
now that the devotion and patriotism
of the State have reared structure
worthy OF the ancient old Common
wealth, he is seeking to pull it down
because it was not put up according TO
his peculiar and impracticable IDEAS
1t is ant Cesar, AIT nutLuS. 1t is not
the right kind ambition of Themisto-
cles, whom the trophies of Miltiades
would not permit TO sleep. 1t is the
ambition that loves the uppermost
places at the feasts; that builds the
monument for the monuments sake,
and which seeks TO tear down what
has been built 10y other and more cum
ming hands.


But we imagine the Conservative
party of Virginia can easily withstand
their attack. Though brilliant man
and an eloquent orator, Gov. Wise is
no organizer. Ifhe is to build up and
carry on "a movement" it will not be
much of a movement. He has lost in
luence, and there as few Conservatives
of the State who will follow his erratic
and meteoric guidance. They are not
going TO tear down the only bulwark
which protects them from the fate of
Louisiana and South Carolina. They
are not going TO initiate the fool in the
story who dug away the foundations
of his own house in search of jewel
which was not there. Gen. Wise's
dreamy and chimerical visions of
new party may resemble Michael
Angeles dome in the heavens" bril-
liant and beautiful, but it is without
sraffolding of thought" and it is not
safe dwelling place. At least the Peo--
pie of Virginia are not going TO pull
down the structure which at present
protects them to 90 in search of such
fantasy.-COurier Journal,


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