The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-03-17

was, that the "Solid South" was a nationa
nuisance; in the sense that the organization
| of people and States upon geographical lin,
necessarily tended to produce counter organi
zation; and thus to create the evils SO mucl
deprecated by Gen. Washington in his Fare
well Address. | said that this was especially
the case, if the very States which had organi
Zed the secession OF 1861 were those which
formed this geographical soldity l submit
whether such an expression is the equivalent
in any sense whatever, of that ascribed to me
to wit, that the Democratic party is nationa
nuisance.
Let me still further premise The allusiOns
of the editor from whom | have quoted tt
the Examiner disclose total misconceptior
of the character of that paper from its origin
to November, 1857. know little concerning
it for the succeeding three years. During my
connection with it, it held the character of Mr.
Calhoun in profound reverence, both before
and after that statesmans death; but it held
in little estimation those of his followers
styled the "Chivalry" think Mr.. John NJ
Daniel was less a man of one idea than any
ever knew. The Chivalry, you know, wert
swallewedap in one idsa and he Therefore
was poorly qualified to tllat them WIKI con
sideration. After he went to Europe, in 1858
| was in the habit of severely criticising Mr.
Hunter, the Mahomet of the Chiyalry in Vir-
ginia. His followers were too open to criti-
cism to take my treatment of them very kind
ly and | do assure you that did not know
then, and do not know now, whether was
on speaking terms with Senators Hunter and
Mason during my own direction of the E'e-
anesner I was under decided impression
that they had withdrawn from me their re-
cognition for the time being. Yet we had no
quarrel with the Chivalry as class; we rath-
er liked them in our own way; and before
1858, did not fight them, but switched them
well and often in parental spirit. With their
little idols, however, the E'raa0s7aer was always
an audacious, ruthless, wanton iconoclast.
If any intelligent person of discrimination
will now run over the files of the Examiner
from 1S47 to 1857, while Mr.. Daniel and my
self had it, am sure he will come to the
opinion, that though it was "free lance" be-
longing to no men nor set of men; vet it was
more nearly an organ of Judge Douglas than
any one else We admired his sterling talent,
his genuine pluck, his solid power. We always
knew where he stood as well sc Te knew
where the Capitol stood We knew what he
would do on every question Of public policy,
as well as we knew at night what the sun
would do in the morning. We supported him
for the Democratic nomination Tor the Presi-
dency in 1862; and / would have supported
him again in 1885, if he had not peremptorily
declined to be a candidate for the nomination
then. In all this, think you will agree, that
the Eranas1ee1 was quite different paper from
what our Old Line Wing editor imagines it to
have been. saw very little Of it, and had no
connection with it, between the fall of 1857
and the spring of 1861 and it must have been
during that period that it verified our Old Line
Wing editors recollection of its character as
indicated in the sentences | have quoted at
the head of this paper.
And now, after this long preface, | come to
deal with the question, whether I was in fact
secessionist in the sense described by the
Old Line Wing editor.
will frankly develop what my opinions
were in the progress of what shall say. But,
what they were, is not the question now at
issue. The specific allegation with which am
procuring secession when, and for some years
before, it occurred, and this by means of the
EXAMINER newspaper.
| shall address myself to that allegation
more particularly than to any other, but not
exclusively to it.
If the reader, when he is next in Richmond,
will look at the volumes of the Examiner in
the State Library at the Capitol, he will find
that on the 10th of November, 1857, pub
lished card announcing my retirement from
that paper, together with its sale to other per-
to Mr.. B. NJ. Dewitt. In the same number OF
the Eranainer, the last I got out, Will be found
severe denunciations OF Lawrence Keith and
other extreme Southern politicians, their
schemes and aims, their works and ways.
The leading article of that number presented
the issues between the Democrats and seces
sionists strongly against the latter; and is
platform on which l would be proud to stand
at this day. If the reader will enquire further
c4l~o D,oIo VNaIJr
for instance, long the manager ofthe Examiner,
he will learn that / did not write again for
that paper, either as editorial or other con-
tributor or in any way whatever, until the
last week of April, 1861, after the fall of Fort
Sumter, and after the Convention of Virginia
had pissed the ordinance of secession by an
almost unanimous vote. In fact / was absent
from the paper nearly four years, and those
the eventful years preceding secession. 1t will
be found, by turning over the leaves OF the
Examiner for a few months after tie date OF
my card ofretirement,t that Mr.. VIM. Old, jr., OF
Powhatan county, became the editor, and it is
a fact that he remained so until about the end
of February, 1861, when Mr.. John M. Daniel
on returning from Europe, resumed his posi-
ton as editor.
Up to the period of my leaving the Eransd-
aaer, November, 1857 that journal advocated
the doctrines of the State Rights party
of the United States, including that which
taught the right Of peaceful secession when,
in the opinion of the States, they should deter
mine that their safety required a resort to that
remedy. Up to the time ofmy leaving the En-
anal1aer it was the advocate only of the doctrine
of secessiOn. These were men in Virginia, who
sought to make it, while held it, an advocate
of the measure; but failing in that object, an
other newspaper was set up in Virginia look
in hot diraotiOn ,ool1p6 THE SooffI fro,
ferred the Examiner to Mr.. Dewitt who agreed
with me on this subject; but he yielded place
after few months to Mr.. Old and believe,
though very rarely saw the paper, that it grad
ually drlfted from the theoretical doctrine, into
the advocacy of the practical measure of seces
sion. Certain it is, that when Mr.. Daniel
returned to Richmond late in February, 1861, it
had already espoused the cause of the eXtre
mists But even Mr.. Daniel, who, more than
fifty men, was the author of secession in Vir-
ginia, was not himself "secessionist per
to be in Washington city late in Feb
ruary, 1861, when he arrived there from
Europe, on his way to Richmond
He told me that he thought the South had
committed great blunde1 and he was glad
to feel that he had had no part in making"
secession, as he termed it. He was still in
Europe when South Carolina passed her seces-
sion ordinance in November, 1860, and when
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and
Louisiana followed her example in January,
1861. He said that he thought this action de-
cisiye, and that all the remaining States ought
to Join in the movement, and that, willing or
unwilling, they would be precipitated into it.
He thought the Southern States could not at
ford to be divided, and ought to be unanimous
one way on the other, and by unanimity could
bring about reconstruction. / am frank to say
that / agreed with HIM in his conclusions. He
felt that he had nothing left to his choice but
to come home, cast in his lot with the South
and share her fortunes. Accordingly, as soon
as he got to Richmond, he opened fire upon
the Old Line Wing convention called to pass
upon the question of secession, which had been
elected two to one against the measure, and
by the 18th of April following he had brought
that body over, chiefly by the potentially of
the Examiner, to nearly unanimous vote for
the ordinance of secession. This latter work,
however, was Mr. John M. Daniels, not mine;
for while he was so engaged, | was attending
to railroad project in the extreme southwest
counties of the State; and had nothing to do
with the Eaumea',er until after secession had
been fully accomplished. Our editor honors
me overmuch in ascribing has work to me- So
you see that if | was a maniac secessionist
rushing about after Old Line Wings to brain
them, it was not the Examiner that was my
tomahawk.
From November, 1857 to the winter of
$1,000, l had been in Washington City, ad-
x,Oooti,,c tho old Gtoto Pirhtc doctrines Of the