Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/685

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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He was, as we have said, ardently devoted to the preservation of the Union, but always he placed his allegiance to his state above all else, preferring service in her legislative halls to service upon the boarder arena of the national congress or the cabinet of the president. In 1858 he was urged by his friends and political associates to ofifer for a seat in the Federal congress from his dis- trict, when, as he was assured, the oppo- sition being divided, success was almost certain. To this he replied that if he had any desire for a seat in the house of repre- sentatives, business engagements would put it out of his power to engage in the can- vass, adding:

But in truth I have no such desire. When this county, composed part of a Whig district and we had a Whig party in active life. I several times declined nomination by conventions of my polit- ical associates, when a nomination was equivalent to an election. I preferred a service in the State Legislature, when opportunities for usefulness there presented themselves. * * * "phe field is already occupied by two gentlemen of the same political party, whose opinions as to our Federal politics are supposed to harmonize with those of the major- ity of the voters, and if, in this condition of strife in the party, I could be successful in running in be- tween the two, I could not regard the success as desirable.

Again in 1861. before he was elected to the convention of that year and before the passage of the ordinance of secession, when it was suggested by those speaking with authority that he would be given a seat in President Lincoln's cabinet if he would ac- cept it. he promptly declined to entertain the proposition. In a letter written on Jan- uary 18, 1861, to the gentlemen presenting the question for his consideration, he said :

I have several times seen my name mentioned in the newspapers in connection with a seat in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet, but nothing has reached me from any quarter authorizing the supposition that those notices contained anything more than the mere speculations of the writers. If. however, as you seem to think, there is any real foundation for these reports. I have no hesitation in relieving the ques- tion at once of all embarrassment, for I have none of that vanity which might induce me to seek the eclat of a direct offer for a cabinet appointment. My habits of life, rny pursuits, my tastes and incli- nations are all opposed to official station and with the exception of a brief service in the Legislature of my State. I have taken but small part in the political affairs of the country. Necessarily there- fore I must be but little prepared for the duties of a cabinet office. But if these objections did not stand in the way. there are others of a public nature that

would make it impossible for me to accept the place. With the new administration the Republican party is to be inaugurated into power and I under- stand that party to claim the right to exercise the Federal power to the prejudice of the institution of slavery as it exists in this country and to be committed to a policy that subordinates the inter- ests of the fifteen of the associated States to the interest of the other eighteen. Neither the letter nor the spirit of the Constitution warrants such a policy and it is no less condemned by the plain prin- ciples of justice and equity.

These considerations have taken firm hold of the Southern mind and unless the fatal policy is dis- avowed and measures be shortly taken to secure the Southern people against the recurrence of the obnoxious pretensions, it seems to me from present indications, that the new administration will find itself in a position to devote its exclusive energy to the more tasteful duty of cherishing the interests alone that pertain to the favored eighteen. I am strongly attached to the Union and believe that the best interests of both sections will suffer from its overthrow, but if the principles of equity and jus- tice on which it was established are disregarded by the government which springs from it. the latter must be reformed in its practices and so amended in its Constitution as to make it conform in the future to the principles on which the former reposes. I think the slaveholding States ought not. cannot and will not submit to any party, policy or power that denies to the interests that spring from slave labor the same consideration and respect that is extended by the government to the interests that spring from free labor. In this there must be strict equality. I regret to say that as yet I have discovered no movement in this direction on the part of any of the party leaders in Congress, and yet it must be obvious that in this way only can the Union be pre- served. I know it is extremely difficult for poli- ticians in the flush of victory to retrace their steps and abate from pretensions on which the battle was fought, but if in the ardor of the conflict they have gone too far and been betrayed into positions inconsistent with equality and justice, can they not upon sober thought surrender extreme pretensions, and strike hands with those who would cherish the Union and mold the government so as to make it perpetual? In December last I addressed a letter to a friend in Washington, expressing my views touching our present embarrassments, in which these considerations were more fully adverted to; that letter will be published and from it you will more readily apprehend how impossible it would be for one holding out such sentiments to give the sanction of his name to a policy or a party obnox- ious to these objections.

Upon the passage of the ordinance of se- cession, Mr. Scott at once returned to his native county to join in the preparation for the defense of his state. He organized and equipped a company of infantry, the War- renton Rifles, and his son, R. Taylor Scott, a gallant soldier and Christian gentleman, the future attorney-general of his state, be- coming its captain, served with distinction