Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/591

of which were planted in the western soil by their forefathers in the seventeenth century, and nourished by all the influences of the plantation system founded in that age. The simplicity of life, the manliness of spirit, the love of home and family, and devotion to liberty, promoted by that system, are the strongest pillars upon which the honor and safety of government can rest. It will be happy indeed if the future of the State shall show that all these virtues can flourish under the new economic order as fully as they flourished under the old, and that growth in her material wealth and the concentration of her population in cities shall not mean a decline in the character of her citizens as compared with the character of that extinct race of country gentlemen which produced Washington and Lee, and a long line of statesmen and soldiers, hardly less illustrious, whose achievements have, in the eyes of the world, conferred imperishable distinction upon the American name.