Alexandria Gazette

[Correspondence of the Richmond Enquirer.]

WARRENTON, May 14. Leaving Alexandria by the Orange train at 8 o'clock, I found myself in the thriving town of Warrenton about 1. Warrenton is the county seat of Fauquier county and is fifty miles from Alexandria. Besides the court-house, clerks' offices, and jail, it boasts of one of the finest hotels in the State kept by Mr. J. H. Rixey.

The town contains over 5,000 inhabitants and is incorporated. The residences of Warrenton are decidedly better than in any other place of the same size in the State, some of them costing from $10,000 to $20,000. Ex-Senator Semmes, of Louisiana, is now building a magnificent summer residence on the edge of the town. Within a quarter of a mile of the town resides Governor Wm. Smith, that old and tried veteran of Democracy. I had a short conversation with him, when he expressed himself as to the course that should be pursued in the coming canvass. He says that the present organization of the Conservative party is not such as will inevitably secure victory. He desires to see a solid and comprehensive platform laid down, the planks of which will be such as to allow all the people of the State to stand upon it. That before the war the government was looked upon by some as not strong enough, but that now its power could no longer be doubted, and that the people should unite to prevent its assuming power not its own. That with a platform that opposed the aggressive policy of the government and taking decisive stand as to a definite State policy, by which emigration could be induced to come hither and capital invest in the State, and such other planks as may be deemed necessary, but at all events, a decisive and plain policy, by which to beat the Radicals—with such a platform and candidates acceptable to all the people, success would be easily obtained. The Governor is looked upon by the people of the entire Piedmont District as the man who is most likely to bring out the strength of the white people at the polls next fall, as the white man's candidate for Governor.