The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-11
VIRGINIA'S VINDICATION
Being Review Of Beverley B. Munford's Virginia
A .tude Towards Slavery and
Secessiion.h|

first quarter OF the next century
inevitably created throughout the Com
,nonwealth strong anti slavery SEN
tEnent which was reflected in the num-
erouS manunlissions that went on in
ever increasing volume from lTT2
(when the General Assembly authorized
private emancipation) down to the
days Immediately preceding the Civil
War
The Virginian statesmen that sue
ceeded these great men devoted them
selves with.unabated earnestness to the
problem that had been left to them
unsolyed--a problem that. in many mo-
mentous respects. remains unsolyed to
this day. What 10 do even with those
already emancipated was a question
to tax the brain of the most sagacious
economists AT the close of the Re-
thousand free negroes in the state.
By 1910 there We're over thirty thou
sand. BY 1860. despite the deportation
of thousands whose masters had freed
them and settled them in Liberia and
elsewhere, nearly sixty thousand still
remained. Mr. Ballagh, a careful writ.
er, estimates that Virginlan planters
had manumitted up to that time with
out penny's compensatory one hun
dred thousand of these bondsmen. ABB
faham Lincoln as late as 1854. recog-
nizlng the stupendous difficulties Of
emancipation said: "If all earthly
Iu"er we're gwen me should not know
what to do s TO the existing institu-
ton tof slarcryl" And ii should he
remembered that when, with stroke
of his pen lin defiance of the Consti-
l.tion he had sworn to supporD, he did
did it not for the sake of the slave but
TO bring ruin to the master.
1t seems most probable that. with |
the steady growth of anti-slavery feel /
Ing throughout the State. some tcnta- I
tive, comprehensive plan of graduated
and compensative emancipation would 4
have been DIT least formulated by the L
General Assembly of lS3l-22 and Civ
en- trial. but unfortunately when the .
hopes. of Nirginian emancipationists
sion devoted to slavery debate" tho /
rabid Abolitionists OF the North. I
through secret emssaries, flooded the
whole state With the most incendary !
and abusive pamphlets and broadsides, |
calling on the slaves to rise against
the whites and re-enact the horrors of
Hayti and San Domingo, while they !
Wtuperated in the toulest terms the
kindest masters and mistresses under
heaven.
No high spirited people OF English
strain (and Virginia was English to
the backhone) would tolerate for a
moment such arrogant intermeddling.
The reaction was immediate--eveu the !
strongest anti-slavcry advocates we're
d!sgusted and repelled-and the whole
movement tat least for the time> cot
lapsed. For an account OF the sporadic /.
efforts made thereafter in that direc-
ton, we must send our readers to Mr.. !
Munford's graphic and interesting
pages. The oft repeated charge that
Virginia seeded TO prevent the threat
ened destruction of slavery within her (
borders is effectually disposed of by
the cold facts that Mr.. Nun
al
Briefly. the answer is that if she
remained III the Union slavery
was forever secured to her by
the. explicit guarantees of tho Consti-
tuition, which guarantees MIR, Lincoln
and his party in its platform solemn
ly pledged themselves to observe IL
she seeded, "thc institution was tre- L
mendonsly mperiled by the proximity
of free hostile states. Equally with-
out foundation is what is practically
the same charge in different guise--
that she fought TO perpetuate slavery"
people there were about fifty thousand
men, women and children who owned
slaves. and half OF these held only
from one 10 four, while there were but
one hundred and fourteen people who
held as many as one hundred each.
Large sections OF the State did not
contain a single slave, and from them
came some of her ilnest troops. Con- 4
ITOnlcu Win lHeSc .IactS, ner enemies
have said; Granted that the men in
the ranks had few or no slaves, yet
slave owners led her troops
to battle One wonders how many
of these blatant demagogues know
that, while Lee, her foremost soldier,
had emancipnted long before the war
the few slaves that came to him by
Inheritance. his Union antagonist.
Grant. held on to those that had come
to him through marriage with a South
eru woman, until they We're freed in
1868 by l.incolns Emancipation Pro.
clamation" Take the others ot her
great soldiers; "Stonewall' Jackson
never owned but two negroes---a man q
and woman. whom he Bought att
their earnest solicitation; he kept ae-
count of the wages he would have +
paid white labor and when he con-
stderea himself Reimbursed for the our, I
them their freedom The man ae-
eepted, the woman positively refused
and remained With his family TO her
death. Joseph H. Johnston never +
owned y slave, nor did 4. z. HIM, nor
Fitzhugh Lee; Stuart the great eavai- !
lpalloi'. snpNcri owned Int Two. and [