Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1861-07-09

DI LAL0AS "RSA GAAAANAb-"
TUESDAY MORNING, 5CLX 8, 1851.
The Course Of Virginia not Truly Stc;ec
sn LInco!n's ESssa%e.
One OF the ros: prominent characteristics
OF TIC administration a: Washington, is its
prop.nsi ty to falschcod. The President ano
his constitutional adviSere, from Premier o>"-
ard down to Postmaster Blair, have sat!s-
Fed the country that they arc regular grad
yates of the school of Bc!ial. They have Ia
ken the highest degrees in the art OF lying,
and are giving instructions in it both by pre-
cept and example, to their subordinates in the
civil and military service Of the United States,
In this, they may allege, by way Of excuse,
that they are acting upon the principle Of self
preservation Tor it IS perfectly obvious that
...ev cannot hope to retain possession Of the
government at Washington except by ccntin-
u;ac the system Of deception and falsehood by
which they secured it. To them falsehood is
life and truth is death. 4 statement en- their
par. Of the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, touching the great controversy
which now divides the North and the Seth,
would be equivalent to an admission Of their
Own wrong and Of the right Of their foe.
In his message 10 the called session Of the
Abolition Congress, published in yesterday
Enquirer" President Lincoln gives n strik-
ing display Of the "ruling passion Of himself
ard of his Cabicet advisers as described abo7e.
Es could not write a defence of his own acts
without misrepresentinG the course of the SO
c@d:ns States, and especially that o! Virginia.
H=sr him:
The course taken in Virginia Was the most
remarkable, perhaps the most important. a
Convention elected by the people of that State
to consider this very question Of disruptinE the
Federal Union, was in session at the Cnpitoi OF
Virginia when Fort Sumter fell.
TO this body the people lad chosen a large
majority of prusessed Ua:oa men. Almost in.
rrsdistely after the fall of Fort Sumter, many
members of that majority went over to the
d:sruion minority, aud with them adopted an
ordnance for Withdrawing the State from Tie
Union.
Whether this change was wrought by their
rrca. approval Of the assault on Fort Sumter,
or their great resentment Ct the Governments
resistance to that assault, is not definitely
known
President Lincoln here assumes that the Viz
s;a;a Convention consisted of a large majority
Of unconditional Union mcn-aa assumption
which be knows to be false. lie knows that
nearly every member OF tina! body was elected
under a pledge 20 vote for an act Of separation,
- a.. o~ap& &c ,ru stfn1,pf eon tho mart
OF tie Government q: Washington to coerce
the seeded States-a contingency which be
tLiacoln) brought about by his proclamation
o: the IL Of April, 1851, calling upon Virginia
tc ~farnis,. her part OF the $4,000 troops de-
manded 70 s~ub;ngate the Suites Of South Caro-.
ina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Texas. We have heretofore shown from
tho rec)cG, that Virginia, in Withdrawing from
the UnicI., after i: had become abolitionized,
disappointed 20 reasonable expectation, violated
no engagement, betrayed no trust; but that
she, On he contrary, assumed the position to
which she had always declared herself b.
risa, .ns;tlcd, and to which she was so!emnly
PLEDGED by authoritative declarations, again
end sgaia repeated within the two years pre-
cedlng her Withdrawal. We nigh. again re-
cuT ;o the resolutions Of the Virginia Legis.
lature for the last twenty years, Including these
pissed w:th eut:re unanimity, by the two
House; il, January last ard to resolutions
adopted at different lines by line Convention,
CT which President Lincoln speaks.
Bat the repetition is scarcely necessary. We
will state, however, that both the Legislature
and the Convention, III the interval between
the election Of Lincoln il November, 1860, and
tho capture os Fort Sumter in April, 1881, de-
c!ared that I'll attempt 10 coeT1c any slave State,
that might think proper to withdraw from the
fedora. Union, would 30 viewed by Virginia as
q declaration Of war upon all the slave States.
We will give no further details than the follow
ing resolution unanimously adopted BY the
Convention, Gas reported from its Committee of
90 several days before the fall Of Sumter:
The people Of Virginia recognize toe Amer
icsa principle that government is founded in
the consent of the governed, and the right OF
the PEOPLE OF the sc7eral States Of this UAlon,
Cor lust causes, TO withdraw from their associa-
ton under the Federal Government with the
people of The other States, and to erect new
governments g: their better security, and they
viii never consent that The federal power.
which IS 10 part their power, shall be exeTted
for TIC purpose Of sub)ugatiug the pecp.o OF
srch States to the federal authority"
This resolution Of the Convention was
known to President Lincoln. lie was familiar
With the entire action Of that bc4y, from 14sa
Of February to the middle of april. He knew
tha. Virginia could not have remained in the
Orion after his call for $4,000 volunteers,
without ingloriously abandoning the hcnora-
BE position to which she stood cUmIui:tcd be-
fore the world. And yet he now endearors to
create the impression that Virginia has acted
inconsistency end in bad faith to the abolition
.yraats at Washington, Tno call themselves
the government of the United States.
The Southern readers Of the Message viii
&c amused at the following passage in it:
81: may we'll be questioned. whether there
i. to-day 4 majority Of the legally qualified
voters O. any State, except perhaps South Car
DINA, in favor Of disuaion. There IS much res
soa to believe tha: the Union men are the
majority in many, if not in every other one o.
tie s~o-called seeded States. The contrary has
not been demonstrated in any one Of them. 1t
is :snturcd to affirm this even Of Virginia and
Tennessee for the result of an election held
in military camps, where the b~ayonets are all
on one size CT the question voted upon, can
scarcely be considered as demonstrating popu-
IL sentiment. AT such an election all that
lsryy class who are az once for the Union and
against coercion would be- coercci ~ vote
against the Union"
No intelligent man, Of any section, no mat.
il. how charitably disposed he may be, will
give President L;acoln the slightest credit. for
49,, eto,,nant VI onn c,,nnacoc