Address of Lieut. Gov. Price.
Lieut. Gov. Price, on taking the Chair of the Senate, on Wednesday, delivered the following address:Gentlemen of the Senate:
Since my election to the office of Lieutenant Governor I have had no opportunity of thanking my fellow citizens for the honor they conferred upon me. I therefore desire now, upon assuming the duties of the office, to express to them through you the high sense of gratitude I feel for this manifestation of generous confidence in me, and to assure them that I shall cherish the recollection of the honor as long as I live.
In the intrinsic unties of the office the people at large feel and have but little interest; they are alone interesting to Senators, as the Lieutenant Governor is made by constitutional provision, the President of their body, and whilst it is always important to every legislative body to have an efficient, courteous, qualified presiding officer, it is peculiarly so here, especially to him, as the selection is not made by themselves, but by the people at large for them.
The importance of the office to the public is merely contingent and collateral, as by the happening of any event whereby the office of Governor becomes vacant, the Lieutenant-Governor becomes ipso-facto Governor, and is then necessarily made an important unctionary to the public.
I come, gentlemen, to preside in the Senate with very little experience as a presiding officer. But I flatter myself that my want of experience will be compensated by the kindness of the Senate. I am sure that I shall constantly need the aid and advice of the Senators, and shall rely much upon them for support. In discharging the duties of the Chair, I shall endeavor to choice the strictest impartiality and and ever to remember that I am presiding a select body of Virginia gentlemen.
The public middle engrossed with the war and its incidents. Everyone is on tiptoe to see and learn . When the honest histories comes to own the incidents of the war, he will be dark pages to his book.--He will show citizen people, claiming to be a Christian rob, murder and devastate, and glory crimes. They are now training up , and murderers, who will realize the story of , whose until they had no other game to turned upon their owner and tore him
The people to be the of the black man, but their professions are either false or they deceive themselves. No one who understands this class of people can suppose them capable of sustaining the functions of free citizens equal, in all respects, with the white man. If made free they will be pushed aside by the white man because of their inferiority; and, like the native Indian, will gradually fade away, and become measurably, perhaps entirely, extinct.
The struggle with us is not for power or dominion; it is for existence. The result of the war will make us freemen or make us slaves. We have suffered much in the rain of our homes, the desolation of our farms, the loss of our property, and the murder of our people. But the spirit of the people remains unbroken. They may be destroyed, but they will not be enslaved.
The war has been conducted in a manner not sanctioned by examples of modern warfare. It has been waged not only against armies and public, property, but against private citizens — men, women, and children — and every species of private property. In many places whole sections of country have been desolated, and the inhabitants driven off or murdered. This new system of warfare has been inaugurated by Abraham Lincoln.--Hereafter, when he shall cast his eyes over a desolated country, buildings burnt down, fields laid waste, towns destroyed, and inhabitants driven off, he can have the fiendish pleasure of saying to himself, "I have done all this."
We must remember that "the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift; but it is God that giveth the victory." Let us put our trust in Him, and not be cast down. He may chastise us, but He will not permit us to be utterly destroyed.
