Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1859-12-09
GOVERNORS MESSAGE.

GOVERNORS MESSAGE.
Tn the Senate ind House of Delegates Of the
General assembly Of the Commonwealth o.
Virginia.:
GENrLEMEN-Up to late period had fond
" hoped to.close my official term and part from
nv Executive labors with nanght but cause OF
Concentration on the condition ofthe Common
wealth. But, the uppermost theme IN TINS my
last regular message must be, that our peace has
been disturbed; our citizens have been imprls-
oned. robbed and murdered the sanctity of their
dwellings has been violated; their persons have
been outraged; their property has been seized
by force of arms; strong hold in their midst,
with its arms and munitions of war has been
captured, and the inhabitants cut off from the
means of defence; a national highway through
our limits, and its locomotive trains ana teie,
graphic wires have been stopped; and otate an9
National Sovereignties have been Insured anu
assailed: and State aud Federal troops have been
called out and been compelled to fight, at the
loss of several killed and wounded, to suodue re-
bellion and treason, at Harper's Ferry in the
county of Jefferson, within our jurisdiction.
This was no result Of ordinary crimes, how
ever high. handed and felonous. ltwas no CON
spracy of bandits against society in general, with
the motives which usually actuate criminals, con-
fined to the individual perpetrators, ana TO De
crushed by their arrest and punishment. Dut
it was an extraordinary and actual INVASION, oy
a sectional organization, specially upon slave
holders and upon their property in negro slaves.
The home to be invaded was the home OF do
nestle slavery: the persons to be seized were
the persons Of shareholders; the property to be
confscated was the property in slaves and the
other property of shareholders alone, such as
money, plate, Jewels and other OF hke kind,
which was to be taken to compensate tne roo-
bers for the trouble and risk Of robblng the mas
ters of their slaves: the slaves were not to 0e
taken to be carried away, but they were to De
made to stand by the side of the robbers, ana 70
be forced to fight to liberate themselves by mas
sacreing their masters; the arsenal was taKen
to supply arms to servile insurgents; and pro-
visional government was attempted, IN BRUSH
province, BY our own countrymen: unlIea 70 D US
in the faith Of confederacy, combining with Can-
adams. to invade the slaveholdiDg States OF the
United States; and thus the night OF the 10Th
of October last was surprised and the day OF the
18th of October last was startled by the slgnal
guns of rapine, murder, robbery and treason, oe-
gnnsat Harper's Ferry for the purpose OF SLIT
ring up universal instruction of slaves through
out the whole South.
Sudden. surprising, shocking So this INVASION
has been it is not m ore so than the rapldlty ano
rancor of the causes which have prompted ano
mt it in motion. 1t is not confined to the part
les who were the present participators IN It's OUT
RACES. Causes and influences lie behind 1t more
potent far than the little band OF desperadoes VINO
were sent ahead to kindle the sparks OF gen
eral confederation and the event, sad as II Is
would deserve but little comment, if the cohdgn
punishment Of the immediate perpetrators OF tne
felonies committed would for the future secure
the peace which has been disturbed, and guar
antee the safety which it threatened. Indeed
if the miserable convicts were the only con.
spirators against our peace and safety, we inish,
have forgiven their offences and constrained
them only by the grace of pardon. But an en-
tire social and sectional sympathy has lneiteo
their crimes and now rises in rebellion and IN
surrection to the height of sustaining and Justl
flying their enorlnity.
It would be pusillanimous to shut our eyes
and to affect not to see certain facts OF feafiu
import which stare US in the face, and OF wilset
must speak plainly to you, with the hrm ane
manly purpose of meeting danger and with nc
weak and wicked design of exciting agitation
That danger exists, of serious magnitude, there
can be no doubt in the minds Of the most calm
and rejecting, and the way to avert 1t IN al
cases is to march up to it and meet it front te
front. If it has not grown too great already
it will retire from collision and If 1T has grown
strong enough already for the encounter, it hao
better be met at once, for it will not diminish %
delay. I believe, in truth, that the very policy
of the prime promoters of this apparently mac
movement is purely tentative; to try whethel
we will face the danger which is now sealed II
blood. If we sstake the dare" the aggression
will become more and more insolent; and, Il We
do not, that it will either truckle or meet as ~
open conflict to be subdued ard, in either even.
our safety and-the national peace Will De o1s'
secured bv direct settlement at once-the
sooner the better.
For series of years social and sectional OH
ferences have been growing up, unhappy, y
tween the States of our Union ana thelr peopf
An evil spirit of fanaticism has seized upon ne
GRO slavery az the one subject OF social reform,
and The one idea Of its abolition has seemed tc
madden whole masses of one entire section OF the
country. It enters into their religion, into theli
education, into their politics and prayers, into
their courts of justice, into their business INTO
their Legislatures into all classes OF the people,
the most respectable and most lawless, into their
pulpts and into their presses and school-houses,
into their men, women and children of all ages,
everywhere. It has trained three generations,
from childhood up, in moral and social habits OF
hatred to masters of African slaves in the United
States. 1t turns not upon slavery elsewhere, or
against shareholders in any other country, bat
is especially malignant and vindictive towards
its own countrymen, for the very reason that IL
is bound to them by the faith and sanction OF a
confederate law. To set up that law to it is to
enrage it by the sight of the law, because it is
bound by it. 1t has been taught by the Athe-
ism of ''higher law" than that of regular
government bound by constitutions and statutes:
It has been made to believe IN the doctrine OF
absolute individual rights, Independent of all re-
lations of man to man in conventional and So
cial form; and that each man for himself has
the prerogative to set up his conscience, his Will
and his judgment over and above all legal en-
actnenis and social Institutions 1t has been in'
famed by prostituteG teachers and preachers
and presses to do and dare any crime and its con-
sequences which may set up its individual su-
prelnacy over law and order. 1t has been taught
from the senate chamber to trust ih the fatality
OF an ''irrepressi6le con1aict," into which it is
bound to plunge. Its anil Christ pulpit has
breathed naught but insurrectionary wrath into
servants against their masters, and has de-
nounced our national Union as covenant with
death for recognizing property in slaves and
guaranteeing to it the protection OF law. 1t has
raised contributions in churches to furnish arms
and money to such criminals as these to make a
war for empire of settlement in our new Terri.
tories. 1t has t. aimed them on the frontier and
-. IL: n~c&b n1 r1i ir,co Nv