The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-04-11
THIS SAITH THE PEOPLE (,



The Folly and Shame of our Present Posi-.
In the contest inaugurated between the
| North and the South, is Virginia to throw
| herself INTO the ranks of her natural enemies
| or is she to stand neutral and silent prey to
| doubt and fear the scorn of the gallant States
| whose cause is her own, the pity of the sec
| ton whom she hesitates to aid yet breads to
| Offend Her very silence. her very neutrality
| is worth q hundred thousand men and mil
| lions of money, 10 The side of the North. 1t
| is more hurtful TO the South than many san
| culinary campaigns for it will cost her much
| of her best blood and treasure. In these mo-
| dern times, it is not the preponderance of
| physical force that decides the quarrel be-
tween nations; it is the opinions of mankind.
| 1t is the support of public opinion which in
| cites to assault; it is the frown of pnblic
! opinion which makes a bad cause hopeless,
| and the successful indication of good cause
most sanguinary and desperate.
II the quarrel betw cen the great sections of
this country is of such nature as justifies
Virginia in holding IN attitude of Indifference
between them, or of alliance with the North
then is it such in which all the world beside
| may be expected 70 sympathiZe with that sec
ton; for if Virginia, beu nd by SO many ties
to the South, and repealed by so many antip-
athies from the North, feels, nevertheless,
bound to lend her countenance to- and main
tain her alliance with, the latter section, then
the differences of all the world must be preju-
dicial TO the section which she repudiates. If
Virginia is justified in holding an attitude of
nominal hos tility to the South, then may that
section nationally expect the frowns of public
opinion upon her cause, and prepare to make
good her quarrel, with ten times the physical
force which she would otherwise have to
bring into requisiton.
Is this the Judgment which Virginia has en-
tered up in her heart of hearts upon this
quarrel? for it is the judgment which her
Convention, by its action, has pronounced in
her name. The formal decree of Virginia is
in favor of alliance for the present with the
North, and against any further change of posi-
ton in the future than an attitude of indif-
feTent neutrality.
Is this mad and vicious decree in accordance
with the sentiment of the young men of Vir-
ginia! Is it the suffrage of the patriotic wo-
men of our Commonwealth An indignant
shout of denial comes up from all her wide
borders. Our young men curse and repudiate
the counsels that have brought their noble
State into such a position Of qualification and
of treachery 10 her interests and honor Her
patriotic women blush that the men who con-
troll unworthily the destinies of their other
Commonwealth are without the spirit even
of women, though they have richly entitled
themselves TO their bonnets and petticoats. If
the people of all the counties and towns of the
State had been called upon in February last
to elect their most pa triotic women to a Con-
vention which should decide whether Virginia
should lead the gallant columns of the South in
this great contest OF should follow a Sis
pected, distrusted hege- servant, in the train
of the North-is there a man in all her limits
who dare assert that those noble matrons
would have voted 30 to As for submission IF
the age OF eligibility to the Convention had
been limited to thirty three, as the maximum.
and its members had been as youthful AS those
who composed the Legislatures of Virginia
from ITO to 1778, or as JEFFERSON. when no
wrote the Declaration of Independence-is it
within the range of credibility that sucb a
body OF Nirginians, in the bloom of m anhood.
and in the fresh exuberance of patriotism
would have voted 90 to As, for submission -
The fame of Virginia is in the scar and yellow
lear Tor her counsellers have passed the age
OF generous impulse, and entered the sombre
years In which misanthropy and moody stub
bornness are apt to predominant over all the
better and nobler emotions. Like the old
bouroons, they are too opiniatiye to learn any
new thing, OF 10 accept any change in the
temper OF the times, or in the circums tances
OF public affairs. They persist in. treating a
great crisis, having no parallel or precedent.
involving the issue of life or death to the
state, as If it was an old party contest over
the obsolete and dwarted issues of Bank
Tariff, or a National Road
In all future time the present period will,
form the subject OF the blacklist page in Vir-
gina history 1t will be the page on which
Virginia will be recorded as false to her own
principles OF public policy AS false to an in
stitution involving her vital interests, and as
false to her daughter and sister States of tho
South, who risked everything for its protec-
tion and sindication. If it be said, in apology.
that she encoun tered this shame in a patriotic
effort to save the Union, it will be answered.
that she betrayed that very cause by treachery
to her own; forgetting the noble lesson of Po
LoNIus
This above alto thine own self be true:
And II must follow rs the night the day
Thou inst aot then be false to any man
II she had not halted and faltered, bat had
joined her great Influence to the Southern
cause, aud promptly seeded with the South
ern States, her example would have been
promptly followed by all those of the border.
Inc movement would have been so formula
Die 40 TO have enforced nego tia aions for set
uement OF the quarrel, secured q reconcilia-
uon, ana re-establishsd the Union. As it Is,
the south presents divided front, and the
enemy Is sedused into measures Of COERCION
Isen NO Inc case would not be hopeless, OK
cept Tor the recent action OF her Convention .
for the friends of Southern rights at the North
still continue to write
.Tell the Border States to seeede By thei, se-
cession you ~ once make great SoufAsyn vnrv in
the whole North; You transfer the issue Of civil
war from the Border States to the Northern States
How can men be 50 stupidity blind ~
The appeal Is In vain. the Border Stateswill |
seceds; but not until II shall be "too late. -.
The policy Of Virginia is delay, which is the
policy Of ruin. She will not secede until
compelled to take the step-until she Is kicked
put Of the Yankee Union, and has TO sneak