Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-03-09
Extract from the Letter Of Conn
missioner Starke.

Extract from the Letter Of Com
missioner Starke.
when am informed by majority Of
the Joint Committee of your Legislature,
that Gin the night of the 10th Of October
last. band of armed conspirators from the
j Northern States, in fulfllment of design
which had long been entertained and DELHI
erately matured, made an incursion into
the State Of Virginia, for the purpose Of
lffciting slaves to instruction, of placing
arms in their hands. of aiding them in plum.
dering the property of their masters, of MUIR
dering them ard their families, and Of over
throwing the government Of the Common
wealth )" that the seat of rendezvous of this
conspiracy was In q foreign province on the
great Northern lakes, but little more than
100 miles from the Northern border Of Vir-
ginia, with net work of railroads connect
ing them; that they were amply supplied
with arms and munitions of war ! that they
were forerun by the most dangeroas secret
spies and emissaries; that they respected
no more the sovereignty of the United States
than they did the jurisdiction Of the slave
holding States, and invaded Territory of the
Federal Government as we'll as of Virginia,
and took anadditional stand of SO, 200 arms
of different kinds belonging to the United
States; that not only had the citizens and
authorities of the locality to turn out under
arms in self defence, but the States and tire
United States had to call out both militia
and regulars to suppress the invasion; that
with ipmunity and success they made rem
devious in Maryland /; that the crimes COM
mited were SO fagitious and capital, that
pardon could not be extended to the culprit,
but all who were captured had been or had
to be executed; that the number of escaped
marauders could not be known that inves-
tigation of the conspiracy by the State au-
thorities could not reach its fuil develop
ment; that 1.-THE evidence before the COM
mittee was sufficient to show the existence,
! ia number of Northern States, Of wide
spread conspiracy. not merely against Vir-
GINA, but against the peace and security Of
all the Southern States = that this was evi.
denced by the extraordinary sympathy man
Tested in behalf Of the culprits, and by the
further manifestation of disposition to res
cus them from the custody of the law, by
threats addressed to the State Executive and
by prayers for pardon that the Executive
had necessarily and properly to call out thou
sands of military force, and for the exercise
of actual martial law, most extraordinary in
time of peace, '.merited and doubtless will
receive the commentator of the Legisla-
ture and of the people of the State;" that
the invasion was marked by distinct geo.
graphical features, aud was in fact Sec
tional invasion of section of the United
States; that detailed history, dispassion-
ate and impartial. shows the covenants of
the most solemn character, constitutional,
statutory, customary and compromised, which
have been deliberately violated and set at
naught, or left unperformed by the section
receiving the greatest benefit by compact
THAT this condition of things furnished a
striking evidence of the growth of spirit
unfriendly to the guarantees Of the Consti-
tuition, and at war with all the obligations
of national faith that a sectional political
party, under the designation Of the Repub-
lican party, has acquired the ascendancy
in almost every Northern State aud that
the States where it is dominant hold the
majority of political power in the United
States for the future that the object Of this
ascendant and dominant sectional and IA
natical party is to abolish the rights of prop
erty in slaves everywhere in States and Ter
ritories, and ''they seek to place all the
Southern States outside of the pale of civil
lization," and to degrade and dishonor them,
and ito cover with obloquy and reproach
the memory Of their mighty dead. aud to
blot the escutcheon "of our national fame -
that they have declared an open war in the
form Of an irrepressible conflict "betweep
the social systems of the North and South.
which must progress until one or the other
is extirminated +; that there is authentic evil
dence that this w:r is waged not by polit-
cal party in popular meetings alone. but by
the official, Legislative and judicial action of
sixteen Northern States, from Maine to Min
nesota. embracing majority Of the federal
numbers in the Union that there is other
evidence in the Congressional debates that
sixty light Representatives in Congress have
endorsed an incendiary publication, appeal
ing to "non Shareholders in the Southern
States, seeking to inAame the minds of the
slaves Of the South, and to incite them to
rebellion, to murder their masters and to
ravage the county with fire and sword y
that portion of the Northern press and
pulpit, and resolutions of numerous popular
assemblies, show 1.-THE decline of the spirit
of fraternity and unity with US i'll this as
cendant party Of the dominant section that
the abstract resolutions of the conservative
portions Of the North are not followed by
corresponding action; that the conservatives
remain passive, whilst fanatics are active !;
that ''thus the conservative men of the North
are responsible for the organization and &C
ton Of the Republican party;" that lit re-
mains to be seen whether the recent out
RACES pcrpetrared upon the citizens and soil
Of Virginia, will have the effect of awaken
Ing the conservative sentiment of the North
into efficient action, and it will thus re-
main to be seen, and will not be seen unless
they can be convinced that we have the spir-
it and the purpose to make them feel their
own danger as we'll as ours that it is clear
from the review of the condition of the pub
lie sentiment of the Northern States for the
last FIVE years, as indicated by their legisla-
ton and in other authentic forals, that ma
ny of their people have ceased to respect the
rights Of the Southern States, to recognize