New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-04-09
BORDER-STATE P0LITACs.
A REMONSTRANCE.

of your advancement to positions Of wider useful
ness and greater eminence, claim the right to
address Won on the position taken by Virginia,
through her Convention, whereof you are lead
ing member, upon the distractions which nov
aflct Our common country. And, though very
much in earnest, / trust you will have no cause
to COMPLAIN that | assume to be familiar or fail
to be respectful.
We shall readily agree that Slavery is at the
bottom of all our National troubles; and when l
add that accept your speech in the Constitu-
tonal Convention Of your State nearly thirty
years ago, as in the main full and iorclbe
expression of my own views on that theme, l
shall have disposed Of all neediul Preliminafies.
That speech proves that you are just as well
aware as I am that it is Slavery, and nothing
but Slavery, that has dragged Virginia down
from the proud position she long held OF first
among our family OF States to the fifth rank,
which she ia certain to exchange for lower
under each succeeding census. In 1871, Illinois
will have passed her, and perhaps Indiana also;
probably twenty years hence, Missouri, Iowa
and Wisconsin will have dohe Likewise. And you
know that neither Protective Tariffs, nor Inter
nal Improvements, nor any form OF "Federai
bounty" have done this-taat Slavery alone ia,
a. YOU have so fOrcibly depicted it, the over
shadowiug curse Of Virginia, depriging her people
of decent roads, of common schools, Of manuiac-
turing and mineral development, and every other
element Of rapid and benefcent progress. And
you have no more doubt than have Il claim to
know Only by your public recOrd) that if Slav-
ery were expelled from your State tomorrow,
tie value of her soil would thereby be trebled,
the aggregate of her wealth increased, and her
population doubled within tho next twenty years
When, therefore, you Try to say what VIII be
satisfactory to the natural aud earnest adyo-
Gates of Free Trade, eternal Slavery, and oil
that have made Virginia what she isr You wrong
Yourself githou. deceiging them. Ihej know
that you are acting part, and you feel thai!
they cannot deem it creditable one.
For the fret time, think, Mr.. Summers you
supported las. Fall an Electoral Ticket that was
successful. At all events, Virginia then for the
fret time voted against her old BOurbons who
have 50 long ridden her TO ruin in the pane OF
Democracy. The platform on which you won
that triumph was simply THE UNION, THE
CONSTITUTION, AND TIE ENFORCEMENT or
THE LAWS" Have you since stood firmly on
that platform Are you not Tow dcseIter
from il 7
The People of Virginia elected YOU, and a Ms.
jority of ike faith, TO the present Convention.
They did it because they believed yol faithful
TO the Union aud the implacable enemy of Seces.
sion. Have you justified that confidence Is
your present attitude at oil consistent with it
If so, then the friends Of the Mon in the Free
States have been grossly deceived They nstu-
rally exultcd over your success; yet that success
has proved a grave disaster. Had a majority OF
red.hot Seces.ionsts been che. ~ the Convention
would have long since attempted to take Virginia
out Of the Union. But you were compelled by
the act which called your body into being TO
submit any Ordinance Of Secession to the People:
they would have voted it down by Fifty
Thousand Majority, and that would have exploded
the bubble. But your Union majority has wasted
weeks in hair-spttiDg talk, While the Secession.
ists have steadily acted; you have wayeringy
a definite purpose and marched straight toward
their object; and the necessary resulr il that
they are far stronger to-day, and their prospect
far brighter, thsn if they had carried the State
at your late election. And il the Union shall be
finally wrecked, very much OF the blame will
justly fall on the shilly-shally Unionists in the
Virginia Convention.
Mr. Summers the Union is quite as important
to the South as 10 the North, TO Virginia as 10
New.York, and You know it, When, therefore, you
talk-as in the never-ending conclusions of your
ConYcution-Of the grievances" OF the South,
and of " the guarantees you will require of tue
North you talk as becomes Secessionsts only,
aud in such manner to play directly into their
hands. We are not in want OF broken yictuals up
this way, and will not accept tie Union az
boon conferred upon US by your charity or re.
ward magnanmously given us for our docility. Ii
You expect the North 70 don the white sheet aud
sit on the stool of repentance for her past re-
sistauce to Slavery Extension, you deceive your.
selves to our common peril. Ard when you
talk Of L" the withdrawal" Of the Gulf States
from the Union, as if that were the exercise Of
q conceded constitutional right, you do your best
to show that the professions under which YOU
carried the State for Bell aud Everett. were Dol
low, and that yourselves, in consistency with your
present views, ought to have voted for Breckin-
ridge and Lane.
Your resolves assert that the Union has no
right to use fortress erected by itself, on ground
expressly ctd,d TO and paid for by it, " TO intm-
iJate state, or cop'troin its free action
p - III. ,.... 80. S,,,,oea Nossnclu