The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-11
ny COLONEL w. GORDON ,IccABE,
Formerly of General Lees Army.


Formerly of General Lees Army.
Though too young to take part in
the acrimonious sectional discussions
that reached the acme OF vrulence dur
ing the decade Immediately preced-
ing the War between the states, or TO
bear arms in the momentous conflict
itself, the author of this volume is yet
old enough TO remember distinctly the
form and pressure of the time and TO
recall personally the foremost figures,
in field and forum, OF NirSinia.s heroic
struggle for independence. or course,
there is no mention OF this in the book
Itself. .Das crosse ich" very proper
ly iinds no place in a. discussion of
such high argument, but 1t can
scarcely be doubted that 1t is to the
unconscious influence of this personal
remembrance OF men and Of events
that these pages owe that nameless
vividness of touch usually lacking in
books of this kind.
Far removed from the tense passion
of those odd. unhappy. far-off things,
this Nirginian of a later generation,
possessed of a trained legal mind that
enables him to distinguish between
real evidence and mere dogmatic as
sertion, ESSAYS, In the tru. spirit of
historical investigation. to vindicate
by a temperate recital of established
facts virginias real attitude towards
slavery. and to confirm by the unin-.
peachable testimony OF .the record
what he holds To have been the COM
polling motive that drove her, however
reluctant, to sever the ties which bound
her to that Union for which she had
made many and generous sacrifices,
and which had surely never been es-
tablished but for the sagacious states T
manship and brilliant valor OF her
sons.
The three points the author seeks to
establish are; (D Virginia did not Sc
cede to extend slavery into the terri !
tories or to prevent Its threatened de-
struction within her own borders; 90
she did no. secede from wanton de-
sire to destroy the Union or from hos
tility to the ideals of its founders; (3)
the final decision on the part of the
Federal government to coeroe the
her secession.
The facts which he adduces as
to her attitude towards slavery
Will no doubt, proNe rs surprising
as to the majority of Englishmen. Re-
peatedly during the eighteenth cen
tury she made most strenuous efforts
to rid herself of the moral and econo-
mic evil, but enactments to this end
passed again and again by her House
of Burgesses, We're Invariably vetoed
by her royal governors, acting under
peremptory orders from the King.
One Of the most scathing of the in
original draft of the Declaration of
Independence" drawn by jefferson.
Nirginian) was that he had forced ne
gro slavery upon his unwilling sub
tho votes of the delegates from New
England and from the far Southern
colonies After the signing and pro-
mitigation cf the Declaration, : among
the first laws passed by the Virginia
Assembly was an enactment GT7S>
prohibiting the Importation of slaves
under the severest penalties tfl.00O
fine for each slave imported). This
law anteduted a like enactment Of the
British Parliament by thirty years, aud,
"Iiistory of slavery in Virginia., Viz
ginia had thus the honor Of heing the
first political community in the civil
lied world to prohibit the pernicious
traffic"
After Virginia, in 1884, .eded with
out compensation to thcNGenoral Gov
eminent the magnificent domain of
tho ''Northwcst Territory" (won by
the valor of hor own troops, and out
OF which We're afterwards carved tiNe
in Congress were the leading spirits
in securing the adoption of the 'Ordi-
nance" drawn by N'rginanD forever (
excluding slavery from that vast en-
pire. Again. in l7s1i l, IN the eonyen
ton, her vigorous efforts to put an
Immediate and deiinitive stop to tho
slave trade We're defeated By Nul-
gar and corrupt swap between tho
delegates from Georgia and South Car
DINA. who were eager to import more
negroes for the cultivation OF their
rice and cotton, and the delegates from
New England, whose constituents COM
prised the owners, shippers and crews
of the fleets OF "slavers' engaged IN
the "pernicious traffic"
The vigorous denunciations OF the
slave trade by Virginla's great states
men of the revolutionary era tWash-
,,,y 10 MOnrhe---
each of the four PresiJent Of the
United States for two terlns--Fatrick
Henry the Lees, and the Randolphs)
aud their strenuous efforts to devise
some practical equitable and beneil-
cent method toGrid the state of what
they all felt to be an Industrial and
moral cursc--etfous extending into the
AT the orchestral Concert next Mon-