Year: 1860

capitalists upon the capital and labor Of the
non-slaveholding white men Of our State,
committed under the banner Of Democracy,
require that another party organization,
more powerful than any that has heretofore
existed within our borders, should bc in
augurated in order that the personal rights
Of the laboring white citizens Of Western
Virginia may be protected against the un-
just and oppressive encroachments and tyr
ranies of black capital. Such an organiza-
ton wo belive to be the now great and Ma
tional Republican party, conservative in its
principles, submissive to the laws, attached
TO the Constitution of our country, constru-
ing it as did the early founders Of the gov
ernment, and as more especially did George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Mad
isou and other ilustrious Virginia states
men, and loving the Union and clinging to
it as the anchor of safety for political liber-
ty in the world. In common with the Re-
publican party everywhere, we hold that
Slavery is local and not national--that each
State Of this confederacy is sovereign, and
can as a State, either abolish or establish
slavery within its own limits; that all the
Territories are and should be free as long as
they remain Territories; that il is the duty
of Congress to admit Territory as State
whenever she has the requisite population,
be her institutions free or slave, provided
only that her form of government is repub-
lican. In regard to Slavery in our own
State we acknowledge the right Of every
owner to hold his slaves as property-a
right which he acquires under a local law
of the State; and while, as citizens of Vir-
ginia, and as Republicans, we believe that
the public morals and general prosperity Of
our State, which it is the province of gov
ernment to a great extent to protect and
cherish, are deplorably injured by slavery,
from the fact, as so graphically stated by
the Augusta county Memorialists to the


Convention Of 1929, "lhst the possession
and management Of slaves form source Of
endless vexation and misery within the


house, and waste and ruin on the farm, and
that the youth Of many parts of the State
are growing up with contempt Of steady
industry as low servile thing, which con-
tempt induces idleness, and all its attendant
effeminacy, vice and worthlessness"
while we further believe that Virginia, in
consequence of the institution of Slavery


has steadily lapsed at each decade behind


some of her Free State rivals, not possess
. ing her natural capabilities, and that unit
we make some provision for the gradua
riddance of this consuming evil, we neve
will regain our natural position as State il
: the Confederacy; yet, nevertheless, we af
firm that as good citizens we will always
feel ourselves bound TO uphold and vindi-
cate every law and every constitutional en-
, actment so long as it shall remain upon GU
statute books. But we contend that unde
, our laws all white men arc equal--tha
they are entitled to the rights of free opin
. ion and free discussion, and that all discrim
nations in favor of privileged property, b.
t which it is exempted from its just share o
> taxes, are unjust and degrading, and as sucl
: We make war against them.