Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-03-31
General Terry Before the Committee of
Fifteen.

We publish this morning the testimony lately
given in Washington, before the sO-called Re
construction Committee, by General A. II.
TERRY, commandant of this Department. We
have no disposition to comment on it, further
than to declare, not our opinion merely, but
our perfect knowledge that General TERRY $
main statements and opinions do great inius-
not to be wondered at, after his admission that
he does not come " in direct personal contact
with the people Of Virginia" and that he has
"nO social intercourse with any except those
known to be Union people"-by which terra
we suppose he means people who opposed, at
the time, the action taken by the Virgins
Convention on the 18th April, 1851, for, W
take it, it is only such men that come up t.
the Northern standard of UniOniSm. Such
men are either new Corners here, and as liable
to be misinformed as General TERRY himself
OF, if old residents, We risk nothing in saying
that they are, with few exceptions, either men
so constituted, morally and mentally, as to he
incapable of seeing the trHth, or men who Tor
less excusable reasons are unworthy Of credit.
For, let il be remembered, the question with
the people Of Virginia, at the date mentioned,
was not whether they were for or against con-
tinued union Of the States. Down to that
time they had shown their Astounding zeal for
the UniOn-and their Convention, three-fourthS
Of whom were elected as UnioniStS, and be
cause they were UnioniStS, had been and were
engaged, heart and soul, in efforts to save
the Union. But the question presented
to the convention and the people on the 18th
April, 1861, by the Proclamation Of Mr.. LIN
colin, ordering Virginia TO furnish troops to
fight the States that had formed a cOnfederacy
was whether, being compelled to fight, they
would fight with the North against the South,
or with the South against the North. Sympa-
thy and principle 1.-THE principle that the Fede-
raj Government possessed no constitutional or
lawful power to make war upon StateS) both
prompted an immediate and unanimous choice
in favor of the South. Secession followed
merely as a formal and unimportant incident.
With us secession did not cause the war, but
the war caused secession. And we undertake
to say that in the counties now recognized aS
composing Virginia, and under Gen. TEREY'S
command, while all deplored the necessity Of
taking it, there were absolutely next to none
of the people who diSSented from this action OF
the State. He has only to consult the poll
books on the question OF the ratification OF the
ordinance of secession by the people (when
there was perfectly free election) to satisfy
himselfof the truth of what we here state. In
this city, for example, out Of a vote Of several
thousands, there were, if We remember cor
rectly, only t,oo who voted against the ratid-
cation. From these facts we deducc
the conclusion that not few of the people with
whom General TERRY tells us he associates
misrepresent the fact when they claim to
have been Union men; and, misrepresenting
this fact, they will miSrepreSent any other
Others of them are new residents and wanting
in correct information. Others still are men of
VIGOROUSLY cranky minds, who see nothing cor
rectly. The really honest, truthful and intelh-
gent among old residents, who were in favor OF
obeying President LINCoLN's call for troops,
with whom General TERRY may have met, are
scarcely sufficient, we imagine, to justify the
use ofthe word association.
If General TERRY wishes really to understand
the state of feeling in Virginia let him carefully
read the testimony of General LEE. A single
sentence from him is worth a world of such
talk as may reach him from pretended or &c
centric "Union people"