The national Republican., 1861-04-06
MR.. RIyES'S SPEECH,

in the Virginia Convention on the Sth Of March,
is a decided improvement in matter and tenn.
per, upon his letter Of last December, recon-.
mending secession and q sloughing.of of New
England, unless Congress would secure to
certain, limited class, who possess negroes, the
right to carry them into Territories, where they
can be Of no use to themselves, or their own
ers. Three months reflection has cooled Mr.,
Rives's ardor amazingly.
He now says:
"When the Union shall be dissolved, as is
proposed, ,by the line which separates the slave.
holding from the nonslaveholding States, and
Virginia finds herself in immediate contact with
or in close proximity to States that would then
be foreign States to her. without either the obi.
cation or the disposition to surrender fugitive
slaves, what prospect could she have of retain.
ing that description Of her property and labor2
Would not such state Of things be virtually
q proclamation Of freedom, which, by success
sive advances and encroachments, would de.
prive her wholly of her slaves?
"How could she and her sister border slave
States sustain the collisions and wars that would
follow, along frontier of several thousand
miles, without crushing weight Of military
establishments and Of taxes that would be alike
Iatsl 10 tucT nueTtleS, EulHOuS " thch ic-
sources, and destructive to all the arts Of civil.
ization and peace2
"Were it possible, as it clearly is not, TO sur.
mount these dangers, she must still inquire
how her diversified interests, exposed to the
competition of the rest Of the world, could be
reconciled with the memorable policy Of a Con.
federacy built up on the two leading and ex-
elusive ideas Of increasing the profits Of the
cotton culture, and diminishing the value Of the
labor employed in it, to the utmost practicable
extent2
"These are some of the questions, deeply
involving the interest and safety of Virginia,
which must be solved and satisfactorily solved,
before she ventures upon the irrevocable step
that she is now summoned to take and they
are questions to be solved neither in hot haste
nor upon compulsion."
Mr.. Rives has been consistent in his opposi-
ton to a Confederacy of which the cotton States
should have the control, but was led away, last
fall by the chimera Of Central Union, ex.
cluding the Gulf States on the one hand, and
New England on the other. Of such Union
as that, he might hope to be President, but he
knows well, that to join the JEFF. Davis Con.
federacy would be to fasten upon Virginia, in.
definitely, that Democratic dynasty which has
so long excluded him and his from office and
political consideration.
Mr.. Rives believes that if the border slave
States remain in the Union, the seeded States
will return to it but we regret that he does
not see the importance, in that point Of view
of firm and unmistakable stand in favor Of
the Union by Virginia. 1t is the conditional
Unionism Of men like Mr.. Rives which has
done infinite mischief, by encouraging the de-
lusion on the Gulf, that Virginia would finally
Join the secession.
The following passage in Mr. Rives's speech
is sufficiently amusing:
"The great desideratum now is to take the
slavery question out Of the hands of politi
clans. 1t is their interest, as it is their vocs.
ton, to keep alive and foment agitation and
division as the element in which and by which
they live and have their being 1t Is the in
, terest of the people, on the other hand, to put
an end to discord, and to promote the return
confidence, as The indispensable conditions o
the general prosperity and happiness
Considering that Mr.. Rives and his friend
have done nothing but agitate the SLAYER,
: question for the last six months that this YER
: speech begins and ends with "niggers;" tina
y, his friends, headed by Mr.. Crittenden, intro
duced the subject and kept it up, during th'
whole of the last session of Congress; and tina
he is now proposing to stir the whole thin
. from the bottom, and in every part of the coun
try, by insisting upon amendments Of the Con
stitution, to secure certain abstract rights o
shareholders within Territories, admitted to b
Of no practical importance he does not seen
to be exactly the man to charge others will
"keeping alive and tomenting agitation" Ce,
i tainly, it is not the Republicans who are anne
: nsble to that charge, considering that the
have done nothing, and proposed nothing, ii
respect to slavery, since the election Of Nh
e Lincoln, and that, if they could have had thei
i own way, not word would have been said Oh
y the subject in Washington last winter, eithe
at the Capitol or at the dancing Hall at vii
lard's Hotel where the "negro," in his variou
= aspects, was discussed and adjusted by tn
Peace Conference.
v HOW TO SUSTAIN THE UNION.
It The National htelligencer of yesterday ha
the following:
"FoRT PICKENs.-We find the following pal
agraph in the National Republican of yestel
+ day:
,, "'Advices received here yesterday indicat
an early attack upon Fort Pickens 1t is be
s lieved here, that if an attack is really mad
e upon Fort Pickens, and vigorously repulsed
that the Union men of Virginia will swee
everything before them at the approaching elec
ton in May
"From our knowledge of the Southern peo
pie, and especially of their temper at the pres
; ent day, we are compelled to entertain an opin
, ion precisely the opposite of that expressed b.
= our Administration contemporary in this city
and it is in this strong belief as we'll as from tn