The Daily Dispatch: February 10, 1865., [Electronic resource]

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The meetings yesterday.

In another column will be found the proceedings of the grandest assemblages that ever convened on Virginia soil.--Never before, since the beginning of this war, has there been anything approaching the fiery and universal enthusiasm of those vast and august assemblages. The fervid patriotism displayed at the beginning of the war, compared with the profound and powerful passion that blazed in the sea of upturned human faces yesterday, and thundered in their responsive shouts to the speeches of the orators, was only the harmless play of the summer lightning to the glare and crash of the tropic storm. We could only wish that the minions of the Washington despotism had been present to see and hear the answer of a great people to the demand for unconditional surrender of liberty, property and honor.

But, though they could not be spectators or auditors, they will soon enough witness the effects in the universal and consolidated resistance of a nation which is now of one heart and one mind. The meetings yesterday, enthusiastic as they were, presented but a faint type of the deep and powerful feelings which now animate every Southern heart. No cloud now overshadows the future. The awakened and tremendous energies of the nation need henceforth but a skillful direction, and its best talents to be placed at the head of its armies, and, under the blessing of Heaven, our Independence is secure.