The Spring Elections are upon us again, and affording once more that healthful, bracing stimulant which, even in the midst of war, our Anglo-Saxon constitutions require. A Spring Election is an indispensable tonic to the stomachs of Southern freemen. From time immemorial we have found it as useful before summer as a mint-julep before breakfast in those days when mint, ice, loaf sugar and whiskey existed. The precious compound, which sent joy to so many hearts and ruin to so many hearthstones, is a thing of the past; but the Spring Elections remain, and, in the midst of battle and bloodshed, retain their potent fascinations. Political campaigns are now rivalling the interest of military campaigns; there is generalship in politics as well as in fighting; there are flank movements, ambuscades, mining and counter mining. The great difference is, that he who runs fastest wins the laurels in one case, and loses them in the other. The fastest pair of legs is the desideratum among politicians; whereas, in the service, legs are held in light esteem except among cavalry.
We have no wish to discourage the ancient, national amusement of Spring Elections. We admire the tenacious ardor and vitality of the passion to vote and be voted for. Scarcely has a huge cavalry raid swept over the country, and apparently stripped it of every living thing, before there spring up in its track, green and imperishable, political candidates and their supporters, who pitch into each other with a patriotism and vim that, if combined in a physical demonstration against the enemy, would sweep him from the face of the earth. Whatever else the raids of Sheridan & Co. destroy, they cannot extinguish the inevitable sparring for legislative honors. Lee and Grant, Johnston and Sherman, must be content to stand aside from public attention for the present, till the great battle of the Legislative Ins and Outs is decided.
We suggest to the enemy that the coolness and system with which our people are now going about this work do not look much like the deportment of men who are in daily expectation of being subjugated. We have none of us the most remote idea of permitting them to deprive us of our favorite pastime of voting. We intend to go ahead, in Old Virginia, voting for our own rulers, or servants, as they modestly style themselves, for the next hundred years, Grant, Sherman & Co. to the contrary notwithstanding.
