The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-01-22

timely display OF magnanimity, the Union
shall be restored to its wonted grandeur and
prosperity.
The Position OF Virginia in the Crisis.
The course of the powerful State of Virginia
whose action has always exerted so great an
influence upon the confederacy at critical
periods in its history, is now watched by the
whole country with more than ordinary in
terest. 1t is evident she will not secede, but
that, under the lead Of her conservative Cover
nor, Mr.. Letcher, she is rising above the wild
vagaries of her philosophers and fire-eaters-
the Wises, the Pryors, the Hunters, the
Masons, ct hoe genus omne-whose pilotage
would soon dash her upon the rocks.
Five States have already seeded; three more
will soon follow; and by the 4th Of March there
will be probably ten States out Of the Union.
Even Georgia is tied to the tail of the South
Carolina kite; the Senators from Alaba-
ma, Mississippi and Florida withdrew
formally yesterday from the United States
Senate, taking their final adieu amidst
tears and the most affecting scene. But
while the cotton States are going out, ether
States are coming in. Kansas is to be imme-
diately admitted, Mr.. Green, of Missouri, hav-
ing stated in his place that there is no use in re-
sisting her admission any longer. The Senate
is abandoned to the republicans, and our ma
tional affairs are coming rapidly to crisis.
Butin the midst Of present disaster and gloomy
apprehensions of the future the Old Dominion
lifts her head above the storm. She appears
in the scene as a mediator, and her action will
arrest the progress of secession and cause her
Southern sisters Of the border to pause before
they follow the cotton States into revolution.
The effect of the example Of Virginia upon
Kentucky, Missouri, and perhaps Tennessee,
will be decisive, and there is no other State in
the Union has the same influence for good, or
as much right to be heard in this controversy.
In the Revolution she was the leading State
her citizens drew up the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence, led the army of independence, and con-
structed the constitution. When Massachusetts,
and other Northern States threatened to revolt,
Virginia ceded her rich and vast domain as a
sacrifice to the Union, and the migrate States
of the Northwest carved out of this Ter.
ritory now deny the sacred rights of
the mother State. In the notification contro-
versy in 1882, when South Carolina was as
revolutionary and rebellious as the Southern
States to-day, Virginia healed the breach. Her
statesmen restored the equilibrium of the
Union in 1920, and in the crisis Of 1850 it
was Virginia who so strongly aided in saving
the confederacy. Still conservative, it is her
noble part in this, the greatest danger the
country has yet seen to prevent bloody col
lision, to meet the other States in Convention
at Washington on the 4th of February, in
order that there and then they may calmly de-
liberatc upon such proposed amendments to
the constitution as may restore peace and har.
mony once more.
There will thus be time given for deliberation
before the irrevocable step Of separation is
taken by the border slave States, and time for
the North to come forward with measures of
Cancellation and justice If il ever means TO do
so. The representatives Of the Southern States
having agreed upon the basis Of reconciliation
proposed by Virginia as their ultimstum. If
the North win not accept it, then there is an
end Of the controversy, and Virginia and all
the border slave States will unite with the cot
ton States in Southern confederacy far too
strong to be brought back by force of arms.
But il is to be hoped that her wise counsels
will prevail, as in days Of yore, and that she
will at least meet with cooperation on the
part OF the border free States-Illinois, In
diana, Ohio Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
York-which would practically settle the ques-
ton II these States give their adhesion to the
terms offered by Virginia on the part of the
South, ii is OF little consequence what New
England and The extreme Northwest may do in
the premises.
We trust, therefore, that the olive branch
held out TO the Nsrth by the Old Dominion will
be received in generous, fraternal spirit by
the border free States, and that they will send
commissioners TO Washington to meet those of
Virginia and Of the other slave States on the
4th Of next month. Thus some satisfactory
settlement may be adopted, either for the re-
construction Of the Union on a firm foundation,
or for the peaceable separation Of the slave
holding from the Northern States instead of
precipitating the whole country into civil war.
outstripping oil that ever preceded II in otroci-
~. Virginia has grand role to play in The
revolutionary drama, whose denouemcut in
wolves the fate OF this continent. and will inlu
ence the destiny OF generations Of Europeans
yet unborn.