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

Democratic Convention of 1860, held
Charleston, S. c.. in his interest Mr.. Dougla
was State Rights man; so decided an adve
cate of State sovereignty that he sought, i
the Kansas Nebraska Bill, to extend this SOY
ereignty in quasi degree, to the Territories
and thereby became the author of the dogm
of "squatter -sovereignty." AS State Right
man, can it be pretended that he was in favo
of the measure Of secession? Would it not be
SANDER upon his memory to impute to hin
such an Advocacy?
True, when secession was once made" w
all, people and States, tumbled in, pell-mell
Old Line Wings and all; none standing upol
the order of their going. All became practice
secessionists then. In what | haye said,
have not been speaking of the period follow
ing April II, 1861 but OF the preceding pc
riod when there was distinction between th
advocacy of the abstract doctrine, and that Q
the practical measure, as marked as the distino
ton between Judge Douglas and JEFF Davis. :
Will you allow me to point out what tina
distinction was? 1t was this: Secession, o
its equivalent revolution, Qor the idea ofpeace
| full secession has been utterly discarded by th
/ occurrences of the civil war; is only justifabl
1 when it becomes absolutely necessary TIL
| true doctrine is implicitly announced in tn
opening lines Of the Declaration of Indepen
| dence: "When in the course ofhuman event
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which bind them to anoth
err The doctrine is exhaustiyely treated by
Edmund Burke in his appeal from the New
to the Old Wings" especially in the first hal
of that transcendantly able paper, in which his
propositions are supported by wealth of his
torical citation which makes it priceless con
tribution to the learning and philosophy O.
constitutional government. Yes, the essential
ingredient of necessity is the crucial test which
distinguishes that secession or revolution
which is rightful from that which is vicious.
Now, it is a matter of fact that | thought
in 1860 and in the winter of 1861, before the
secession of the Gulf States, that this ingre-
dent was wanting nj the case of the South, and
| repeatedly declared that, as Mr. Lincoln had
been constitutionally elected, as his utterances
had been conservative and full of considera-
ton towards the South; the mere fact of his
accession to the Presidency, even under the
auspices of a party which insisted upon free
soil in the teElitorit did not constitute acaass
5e0i, OF Justify the Southern States in practi-
cai lo55~t to seccGciqn. ! 60 thought, aud so
expressed myself DIS private citizen tor at
the time | had no connection with the press,
in the interval between the election of Mr.
Lincoln and the secession of the Gull States.
shared these views with Col. Claude Crozet,
the distinguished engineer, that engaged with
INC Ou tlIc OulIlDGIldIu zap IdllIOdll, III ulCu
| was deeply interested. We deprecated the
that work. Gen'l Wharton. who was with us,
agreed with us fully
And here let me add the 0rga,,ae1Dtotrp 0d
honaa1aem. There are those who believe that
their fellow men never act except closely in
the line of their pecuniary interest. Vain
were it to contend to the contrary with such
people. WE'LL then, if any one of the class
will make examination in the clerks office in
the City Hall, of Washington City, he will
find that, some twelve months before the Sc
cession of South Carolina, |, in partnership
with another, purchased square of the city,
conspicuous and valuable, on the corner Of
Fourteenth and Broadway streets. 1t is use
less to say that we bought as an investment
for rise; in the belief that Washington would
continue to be the capital of the Union, and
that the Union would continue during our
own and our chldren's lives. Now, it is vely
obvious that | do not enjoy the felicity Of
Genl Butler, for although he never was, am
accused virtually, of being "a fool" in having
made an important investment and then hay
ing set about to render it abOrtive.
l know nothing which gives color of contra
diction to what am saying, except letter
which | wrote from Southwest Virginia, over
my initials to the New York Times, in De-
cember, 1852 just in the height of the John
Brown excitement, when the whole North
was hailiLg with peans of exultant laudation
that widely concerted invasion of the South.
In the letter protested against it all as inau-
gurating popular war between the sections as
decided as formal declarations of war between
governments could produce, and warnedagainst
the tendency of these proceedings. The arti-
Gle was the more indignant in tone because the
things it condemned seemed to place in the
right the extreme Southern men against whom
had been acting. 1t was copied With various
comments throughout the United States, but
it was addressed to a Northern journal for
Northern readers. Will you believe that this
article was, fourteen years afterwards, when
was candidate for Governor in 1878, heralded
through Virginia as proving that l was
then acting with the secessionists? 1t was so
palpable and pitiabe false clamor that I re
fused to treat it as worthy of rational notice.
In my same canvass some severe and close
reasoner claimed that world of proof that
had been q secessionist was nestled in the fact
that had entertained Mr. Yancey as my guest
in Abingdon when he was there speaking for
Breckenridge & Lane in the canvass preceding
the National election Of 1S60-a thing which
occurred while was living short time in the
dwelling house of a gentleman, Gov. Floyd,
who had been a fellow student and room mate
of Mr.. Yancey at college. In the same year l
llkoW lSc outcIGdlueu DlSuOp LdIly dHl OuHeI
elergymen, (Parson Brewnlow included who
were attending a conference in that town; but
am sorry that that did not make me Meth
odist or an old line Wing,
believe my logical friend went on to say
that introduced Mr.. Yancey to the audience
at Abingdon, but this was an embellishing
employed, by poetic license,
in aid of the interesting social Renaissance
he had so kindly brought to light. Twenty
years after ethrealized the memory; lifting it
from terra frma fact, into the empyrean realms
of the Imagination and SO 1speak very diff
fidently when 1 add that | formed no part,
l am sure, of the escort, and I believe of the
audience of Mr.. Yancey on the OCCASION
But he compensated me by giving me the
notes from which he spoke, which | have in
vast collection of autographs. He had just
come up into Virginia, and this was his first
speech on the sacred soil, and do assure you,
Mr. Editor, that the notes were such as might
have been prepared by Mr.. Madison himself.
had heard Mr. Yancy frequently before, and
had had no need to hear again, on this occa-
sion the graadest elocutionist of your and my
generation. What did Mr.. John M. Daniel
say of him at his death ?-that to the confed-
crate cause "his tongue was as the scimitar of
Saladin" think that was the thought.
1t is very true that along with many other
Southern editors,I did, during the whole period
between 1S47 and 1860 often write articles Of
warning, in which we insisted that in view of
our right of secession, the agitation of the
slavery question by the North would lead to
the disruption of the Union. But that mind
must be very muddy which fails to distinguish
between the utterance, even the habitual ut
terance of such warning, and the industrious
organization throughout the South OF the meas
ure of secession. Mr.. Jefferson gave this warn
ing Mr.. Clay, Mr.. Webster, General Jackson, Mr..
Buchanan, all that class of stern Union men,
repeated the admonition. Are they to be con-
founded with such fiery spirits as William A.
Yancey, Louis T. Wigfalll, the Rhetts and
others, who deliberately organized secession,
and preclpitated the South into the fatal step ?
Can those who, as the crisis approached, gave
even vehement and passionate iteration to
these warnings, be justly confounded with
the men who cody, quietly, actively, indus
triously, often secretly, and in the end success
fully contrived and brought about the lamen-
ted catastrophe?
So much for my politics before the war.
What we all did during the struggle is not q
matter relevant to this discussion. But L will
saw. that, whereas, before the war, we had been
reading secession, as it were, in the cookery
books we had it during its progress on our
plates served to us with tedious monotony
every day for four long years, until it not only
lost it's flavor but became dreadful dose.
The war over, felt that had had enough OF
secession, and parted company with it forever
T took the view that after SO great political