EARLY'S RAID ON WASHINGTON.

fields the fame he earned in the defense of Washington. Marrying into a Quaker family, well-known throughout Loudon county for their loyalty during the war, the Col-ion, he is sure to take rank among her onel resigned from the regular army, into which he had been commissioned, and devoted his time and energies to the more peaceful and congenial pursuits of civil life. Though a Vermonter by birth he has made Virginia his home, and if the better quali

ties of manhood combined with a chivalric love for the Republican party can find their proper appreciation in the Old Domin

most honored citizens. Modest, brave, upright, he is a good type of the American gentleman — distinguished alike in peace or war for his high sense of honor and his ready response to the call of duty.

EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA.

If it were possible to photograph the minds of Southern Democrats as Shakspeare caught folly in his time, and drew it at full length for the world's instruction, the blindest and most chaotic confusion would be the subject of representation, Virginia, the Old Dominion, the Mother of Presidents, the slave-breeding State, which, when under Republican rule, had a school fund, but of which the Democracy robbed it when it passed under Democratic control-the State which feels disposed to repudiate its public debt and has already defaulted in its payment of the interest-Virginia, Democratic and disloyal, synonymous words everywhere in the South, is in the throes of something concerning the education of its youth. Slavery, with the rebellion of the Democratic party in the old slave States, has managed to exhibit human nature in the worst phase of its depravity. And, indeed, the influence and operation of those two crimes upon the human mind seem to obliterate every sense of manhood in the parties interested, who evidently take delight in kicking away every instrumentality that might improve them, in order that they may revel unrestrained in ignorance and pronounce aloud their refusal to be better informed.

Education in the South has never reached a very high standard. On the one side, the owner of slaves did not wish to take more trouble than he could help to become scholarly, so he stopped short at a considerable distance from the temple of knowledge. On the other, the densest ignorance on the part of the slave was the favored condition selected for him by his master,

who, when he could sell him with the cer-
tainty that he could not read and could
guarantee that he had not an idea in his
head, took his money with ecstasy, and
thanked God that the soul of that black
man ought to have burst with gratitude
for the training it had received in South-
ern Christianity. No slaves are alleged to
be in Virginia now, as the freedmen .are
citizens, whatever may be the conduct of
But there are colored and
Democrats.
white children growing up into man and
womanhood who must be educated, and
the trouble is, what books shall be used?
Alas, the old leaven has crept in. Surviving
rebel Democrats want the rebellion spoken
well of in the lessons of children in such
schools as are not shut. They want the
young mind taught that the rebellion was
not wrong; that the attempted destruction
of the Union was no crime; that hatred of
the Old Flag and contempt of the National
Government should be cherished as a duty,
and that a high-spirited Southern citizen
should always call the citizens of the
North, East and West, Yankees, because
they love work and are industrious, and be-
cause they know the epithet is offensive.
Southern books of history only are suitable
for Southern schools, never mind the truth
or the facts, which are sometimes incon-
venient, and when so, should always be
concealed.

Such military chieftains as Robt. E. Lee and Mosby, Stonewall Jackson and Major General Bishop Polk were Southern Napoleons, who never lost a battle, if they did not always win, because they cut up the Yankees, hip and thigh; while Generals Grant and Sherman and

the Union military commanders would | very well in Yankee schools; but fo

stand looking at the retreating forms of the youth of Virginia, never! So, at least R. FI

says the Rev. Dr. W. H. Ruffner, as wil
be seen by the following letter:

RICHMOND, TUESDAY NIGHT,
January 16, 1877.

To the Editor of The State:

the que

& com

yes or

Sent of

position

the warm-hearted chivalry as they hastily left the battle-fields and did not know how much they were despised, as they ought to have done. The impudence of the Yankee soldiers was intolerable. They belonged to every class and trade under the sun, and DEAR SIR: I am acquainted with them from left their respective vocations to save the school history you object to in your paper said of this afternoon, and with you consider country. They would have been slaves it, as well as Northern histories of the in the South, for they actually loved United States generally, as unfit for use in acti labor, and said they kept their fami- Virginia public schools. Only Virginia-tusel lies in comfort and respectability by it, written histories are allowed by the regu- rever which showed at once the evils of free-fortunately this board, although required lations of the Board of Education. Undom and the superior civilization of the by law to provide for uniformity of text-felt South. And then the horrid and blas- books, does not possess power sufficient to ras phemous blunders of the Yankees must enforce its regulations in the face of reso- law be proved in the books used in schools. lute opposition on the part of the local The South was not beaten; oh, no! The rich's History," I have no knowledge of authorities. But as respects this "Goodrebellion was not put down; the South its being used in even one single public le wouldn't have slaves if it could, although school in the State, although I do not af da the " 'nigger was once a slave and has no firm that it is not. It was used in some of right to wages when he works for white men, who would be degraded by labor, and slavery is the rightful position of the inferior race. A convulsion must have occurred in April, 1865, on Southern soil,

which made it more sacred and more endeared to us. The South, which had not been used to industry, grew tired of the war, stacked arms and went home to live in doubt of what would come next. But when it learned that the Republican party passed amnesty laws, of which the most chivalrous Southerner took advantage, every rebel Democrat could afford to laugh at the Yankee North when it talked of

The rebellion

putting down the rebellion and resolve to
carry it on at their leisure.
triumphed. The South beat the Yankee
North at their own game. The weakness
of the Republican party was appalling,
and the war was a failure.

Away with the Yankee trash of the history of the United States from Virginia schools! Away with all the false histories that say the Union and its cause succeeded. The South has its own views of the Union and its value, and will please itself in spite of the North, and the vast public debt the rebellion cost, and the enormous bloodshed of the struggle. "Goodrich's Pictorial History of the United States" may do

the Richmond public schools when the city
system came under State control, in 1871,
but I strenuously objected to it at that d
time and thought that its use was entirely
discontinued. The City Superintendent of
know of any case in which it is used in
Schools tells me now that he does not

the city schools.

It has been objected also that "Swinton's History of the United States" is used in some of our public schools. I can only say that it is done contrary to the regula

tions of the State Board.

Very respectfully,

W. H. RUFFNER, Superintendent Public Schools. Mark-Only Virginia-written histories are allowed in Virginia by the regulation of the Board of Education. Only histories which represent the cause of the rebellion as holy, and every battle a rebel conquest over freedom and its cause-over Yankee mudsills! In such case, the rebellion, indeed, has not ended. Let the country note the present training of the Southern youth now growing up to manhood. The rising generation are taught to venerate the crimes and falsehoods of their Democratic rebel fathers, pardoned by the unheard-of weakness of the Republican party, and are trained under the very eyes of that party to vindicate them and the most Godless and bloodiest rebellion in which the hand of man was ever engaged.

red in t

2

MR. FIELD BEFORE THE COMMISSION.

MR. FIELD BEFORE THE COMMISSION.

itself, and that his single eye resting on a
witness, either coached a Democrat to lie
lovingly against Republicans, or caused in-
stant annihilation to a Republican who was
capable of testifying ugly facts-facts of foul
assassination, perjury, and fraud against
Democrats who had sold themselves to Mr.
Tilden.

Strange surmises every now and then
float in the air. What could induce a law-
yer like Mr. David Dudley Field, in large
practice before the courts, with a large in-
come derived therefrom, suddenly to leave
his clients and sit as a substitute for a mem-
ber of the House of Representatives at the
fag end of the last session of an expiring
Congress? Mr. Field could not have been
moved by a love of fame, for the fame of
having been Tweed's chief counsel will
never leave him, although some persons
call it infamous. Then again, the pay of a
Congressman was infinitely less than that
he received as a lawyer. Was it friendship?
Friendship for Mr. Tilden, who was de-
feated, that he might help the Democratic
party to defeat the people who elected Mr.
Hayes? Mr. Tilden would hardly call upon
Mr. David Dudley Field, even for friend-
ship's sake, to help him in such a case, at so
great a pecuniary sacrifice. It is good,
solid doctrine that the laborer is worthy of
his hire. And if the mist could be pene-
trated, and the truth laid bare, it might be

Putting aside the question of the propriety of raising a commission to decide whether Mr. Hayes or Mr. Tilden has been elected President of the United States for four years from the 4th of March, 1577, it may be said that its action thus fr (February 10th) has been wisely controlled. But the action of the Democratic counsel, or counsel for Mr. Tilden, has been just the reverse. The awkwardness of the position of Mr. David Dudley Field has been felt most acutely by his friends. He was Mr. Tweed's counsel, eminent in the law; he was concerned in some kind of international arbitration scheme which would transfer the battle-field to a court, and change the sword for the fluent tongue of a lawyer with all the happy plausibility of a Chinese gong. Suddenly the face of Mr. D. D. Field vanished from the courts of New York, where he was gathering money swiftly; but as suddenly it appeared in the Capitol at Washington, where his earnings would be limited, however great his labors. One might imagine that an ambitious man would have made political capital out of the position. But Mr. Field was not satisfied with politics. He had not scope and verge enough. He came with a "single eye" to duty; such an eye as Fernando Wood claimed to have in his employ, but which conferred no honor on him under any circumstances. Field's single eye soon wandered from po- seen that the "single eye" of Mr. Field is litical generalities, though faithful to Demo- fixed distinctly on that "bar'1" of money cratic doctrine and interests, and a seat hav-owned by Mr. Tilden, which has so deing been provided for its owner in Proctor bauched and bedeviled the Democrats, Knott's Committee on Privileges and Elec- but to a share of which Mr. Field's extrations, it settled itself firmly on Mr. Tilden's ordinary labors may possibly entitle him. countenance, from which it took its cue. The grim visage of Mr. David Dudley Field, with his eye vacant to all sublunary things, but resting in the direction of the defeated Democratic candidate for the Presidency, soon extinguished Proctor Knott, and the disappearance of that gentleman by reason of his extinction, induced the New York Times to remark with subdued jocularity that Mr. Field had become the committee

Mr.

Now, Mr. Field's legal ability is unquestioned. But if his advent in the House threw the Democratic intellect into a state of gross fermentation, what shall be said of the consternation of the commission as it beheld this doughty champion of Mr.

Tilden stalk into court? There he was with

his eye pealed and ready to fix itself, with the tenacity of a leech, on any political atrocity that would remove "defeat" from

the name of Mr. Tilden, as the Democratic | Democratic case or as a member of Con-
friends of a "deserter in the presence of gress. Mr. Field did not appear as counsel,
the enemy
"labor to have "deserted" so he said. But that he should be called
erased from his name on the rolls of the upon to define his position must have arisen
Federal army.
The commission was in- from his superserviceable performances,
deed moved. Its members had heard of which smacked more of the paid advocate
his appeals on behalf of Mr. Tilden-grand, for Mr. Tilden, with a single eye to a mon-
impulsive, melting! If he did not call Jove ster fee, rather than of the modest labor of
to his aid, he spoke of the virtues of the a member of Congress serving his country
Democratic party and the love of the gentle for his country's good, at a small compen-
Democratic rebel to Southern Republicans, sation. Why, the compensation would
who were only asked to vote the Demo- hardly pay for the services of his head clerk
cratic ticket, or be shot if they didn't; or the in watching the interests of Mr. Field's
sly trick of the gentle, rebel Democratic bull- clients, who expected the work of the mas-
dozer, full of fun, who cast whole handfuls ter himself to be given instead of that of an
of Democratic ballots in the box, and swore underling, who simply stopped a gap to en-
that they had been voted by Republicans, able his master to lose money after the
who dearly loved Mr. Tilden! He held up manner of patriots. There is a mystery
the Democratic truth of violence and mur-about it, however, to be unraveled. Look-
der, with all the evidence of death produced,
and asked the world to disbelieve it, and
look on Mr. Tilden, whom the country had
defeated because the people did not want
him-and would not trust him! Then with
that sparkling eye and glib tongue, Mr.
Field appealed to the national honor in
favor of Mr. Tilden's cause, but he did not
say that both Mr. Tilden and his cause have
dishonored the American name, which the
people felt, and felt, too, the strongest de-
termination to prevent the Democratic
party from profiting by its wrongs and
crimes!

The great commission then was startled when Mr. Field appeared with his eye "single" and fixed in the direction of Mr. Tilden, as his legal help. The subject was the Democratic rascality in Florida, in the perpetration of which certain Democrats said they were Democratic electors, and cast their vote for Mr. Tilden. They might as well have said that they were Dragons of Wantley, who had been engaged to perform a farce for the benefit of a stuffed alligator, as the decision of the commission has since shown. But they were Democrats, and that was enough for Mr. Field. He was ready to wrestle against the Republican case, and rose to his feet with an objection which he was about to launch at the commission. But the presiding justice interposed with a queer inquiry, involving whether he appeared as counsel in the

ing straight into the eye of Mr. Tweed, who has not yet made restitution, and then at the single eye of Mr. Field, anybody may say that he is not the man to lose money when money is to be made.

THERE are some sixty-four thousand book agents in the United States, of whom nearly one thousand committed suicide last year-failed to learn a trade, and forced at a later period to labor and suffer for a miserable pittance. The percentage of mortality among the traveling insurance, sewing machine, and lightning rod agents is even greater. This is the result of a natural law. Five-sixths of these men should have been mechanics or cultivators of the soil.

DESPITE the severity with which the depression in trade has been felt in Canada, the finances are in a satisfactory condition. This results from judicious economy, the Government expenses, including the debt interest, being about one-fourth less than the annual disbursements of our civic Treasury. With this light taxation, the Dominion needs only a wider market to attain greater prosperity.

A GREAT FALL FOR DEMOCRACY.Shades of Webster! To what base uses has Democracy returned when it falls back upon Fernando Wood as the great expounder of the Constitution!

SPECIE RESUMPTION.

MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT GRANT.

resump

On Saturday, February 3d, the following | ment, soon bring about practical resumpmessage from the President was received tion and will add the coin of the country and read in the House of Representatives: to the circulating medium, thus securing a healthy "inflation" of a sound currency To the Senate and House of Representatives: to the great advantage of every legitimate By the act of Congress approved Jan-business interest. uary 14, 1875, "to provide for the tion of specie payments," the 1st of January, 1879, is fixed as the date when such resumption is to begin. It may not be desirable to fix an earlier date when it shall actually become obligatory upon the Gov-act to authorize the refunding of the ernment to redeem its outstanding legaltender notes in coin on presentation, but it is certainly most desirable and will prove most beneficial to every pecuniary interest of the country to hasten the day when the paper circulation of the country and the gold coin shall have equal values.

The act to provide for the resumption of specie payments authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds of either of the descriptions named in the act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled "An

At a later day if currency and coin should retain equal values it might become advisable to authorize or direct resumption. I believe the time has come when by a simple act of the legislative branch of the Government this most desirable result can be attained. I am strengthened in this view by the course trade has taken in the last two years, and by the strength of the credit of the United States at home and abroad.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, the exports of the United States exceeded the imports by $120,213,102; but our exports include $40,569,621 of specie and bullion in excess of imports of the same commodities. For the six months of the present fiscal year, from July 1, 1876, to January 1, 1877, the excess of exports over imports amounted to $107,544,869, and the import of specie and bullion exceeded the export of the precious metals by $6,192,147 in the same time. The actual excess of exports over imports for the six months, exclusive of specie and bullion, amounted to $113,737.040, showing for the time being the accumulation of specie and bullion in the country amounting to more than $6,000,000 in addition to the national product of these metals for the same period, a total increase of gold and silver for the six months not far short of $60,000,000. It is very evident that unless this great increase of the precious metals can be utilized at home in such a way as to make it in some manner remunerative to the holders, it must seek a foreign market as surely as would any other product of the soil or the manufactory. Any legislation which will keep coin and bullion at home will, in my judg

national debt," for not less than par in gold. With the present value of the 44 per cent. bonds in the markets of the world, they could be exchanged at par for gold, thus strengthening the Treasury to meet final resumption and to keep the excess of coin over demand, pending its permanent use as a circulating medium, at home. All that would be further required would be to reduce the volume of legaltender notes in circulation. To accomplish this I would suggest an act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue 4 per cent. bonds, with forty years to run before maturity, to be exchanged for legal-tender notes whenever presented in sums of $50, or any multiple thereof, the whole amount of such bonds, however, not to exceed $150,000,000. To increase the home demand for such bonds I would recommend

that they be available for deposit in the United States Treasury for banking purposes under the various provisions of law relating to national banks.

banks be required to retain a certain perI would suggest further, that national centage of the coin interest received by them from the bonds deposited with the Treasury to secure their circulation.

I would also recommend the repeal of the third section of the joint resolution "for the issue of silver coin," approved July 22, 1876, limiting the subsidiary coin and fractional currency to $50,000,000,

I am satisfied that if Congress will enact some such law as will accomplish the end suggested, they will give a relief to the country instant in its effects, and for which they will receive the gratitude of the whole people.

U. S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Feb. 3, 1877.

SENATOR SARGENT made a powerful speech against the electoral bill, and placed himself in the ranks of the defenders of the Constitution.