Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-01-21
Letter of Governor Henry A. Wise on
the New Movement.
RICHMOND Va January o 1869.

for, surely, if the prominent nlsn' who
lately metin this city, to whose movement
| you refer, may meet here and take into
their deliberations and guardianship our
rights. opinions and sacred honor. as well as
| their own, without our consent, or consul
tation with us, we may humbly speak for
ourselves, a.d say whether We choose
| them t. represent us at Washington or not
| do not concur in their movement. am
not willing for them to represent me, and
protest against every reason they have
/ urged for their conclusions and their course.
You have sought this expression from me,
and | had resolved to be silent; but [
don't say this reluctantly, as there is a
necessity and duty now to withhold no
longer from each other any well consider
ed opinions we have formed. and which
we express calmly and with decorum.
Several of the prominent gentlemen
who met here, and who, it seems, have
sent a deputation to the federal capital,
are my friends, and all of them are worthy
of due respect, and would say nothing of
their course, doubtless taken from the best
Of motives, except what is necessary to
''sare nse from my frs1nds I" ~
can't say that the movement of the
prominent gentlemen surprised me; pre-
| ceding event cast their shadows before
| them. The meeting last summer at the
White Sulphur the conservative messen-
gers between North and South the cred
entails they bore from one to another lead
er the terms they proposed as sine qua
non of success in the Presidential election,
and the late essay Of 'Senex' in the papers,
all disclosed to me the form of movement
which now presents itself visibly and tan
gibly out of all shadow or darkness or
doubt palpable and distinct. We can't
now fail to know what it is that some gen.
tlemen viii accept, though they would
not have it by all means, if they could
help themselves! And the least sagacity
warns you and me and all, that their ex-
preston of willingness to accept what you
and can't consent to take, will probably
prevent US from getting what a little more
endurance and patient abiding of our time
might have obtained by still firm faith
In the obligations of a written constitution
and in the returning sense of justice and
patriotism in the minds of thu ration to OBJ
serve them. Their willingness thus put
forward of any trial for the very right,
may persuade our enemies of such weak
ness on our part as to tempt them to turn
another screw upon US; but it will not Ell
Their prevent what was inevitable IN the
intended course of our enemies towards US,
nor mitigate its severity in the least Cal
bono, then? tell you plainly that, if, as
you say, the Alexandria constitution or
the Black Crook constitution are to be
the alternatives of my fate, | will take nei
Their. As Mr. B. W. Leigh once, under
the signature of Algernon Sydney, said
respecting much less significant alternatives:
If take either, may coroner's in
quest bring me in teEo de Sc stick stake
through MY body and bury me in the
highway If either is forced upon me, |
am not to blame; but will be blamed by
bv and with heirs forever if take either;
in consideration OF price. I would as
| soon barter honor or chastity for price.
If Virginia is to be forced, she will be pit
led but if she consents, or sells her hon
or, her oath will never be taken that she
was violated.
Let her take death. say, rather than
dishonor There is no political sentimen-
| talism in this /; but common sense and faith
in the moral law, and some experience in
political events, teach me it is policy and
expediency thus to abide in our own con-
Thence. Gentlemen say it is to be forced
on US, and therefore they consent. My
reason for not consenting, is that it is to be
forced upon us. Why consent if it is to
be forced Why help the force to wrong
US? Why strip ourselves of all plea be-
fore judicial tribunals or the tribunal of
the worlds public sentiment? Why not
save our honor? Cui bono, l repeat, to
consent? Is there not something better
for us than ;;.her of these alternatives
If not. then l for one ,-iill fold my arms
and take what force may dictate. / am
not sure that it will not be better than
prominent gentlemen may bargain for
They are too weak in numbers and in in
fuence to be my national attorneys in fact.
and don't approve of their programme of
action. don't know what their instruc-
tons are, beyond the principles they have
| avowed and | can't endorse. And SO far
as am concerned | prefer to be Illegally
and unconstitutionally disfranc hised by
force, rather than to be illegally and un-
constitutionally enfranchised, by consent,
in such a case. involving honor as we'll as
rights liberty and public law What bet
ter can we do, do you ask Anything.
| say, is better than to consent TO the vi
olation of both the State and Federal con-
stitutions, in yielding every point against
which we have been contending and thus
far holding out But there is something
far better than either, the Alexandria or
the Black Crook constitution.
What has become of that constitution of
Virginia under rhicb she, as body po-
litic, ,oas eristing When Congress Obtained
her consent to form the State Of neW Vtr-
ginia, while the war was raging! Of that
constitution under which she sent Senators
and Representatives to the Congress of the
United States before the war began and be-
fore new Virginia was framed by and with
the consent of old Virginia Did the State
expire in the act of consen.ing to have
that Eve-like rib taken from her side
Couldn't she survive and didn't she sur
vive the operation, because she YVES her.
self an Eve and not an Adam. too femi-
nine herself 70 bear the excelsior by inhu-
name surgery instead of by Divine touch !!
Was it a Cesarean operation upon moth
er's corpse? Strange to say prominent
gentlemen say that the State died / say
she did not, and that she has constitution