Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/44

 38 Southern Historical Society Papers.

sion. While many, particularly from the cotton States, were pro- nounced in their views, there was no violence of expression and no clash of opinion with the officers and professors of the Institute. The latter, whatever their political opinions, were prudent in language and conservative in bearing. As good soldiers of the State, they were ready and willing to follow her fortunes, however she might command. But while there was no turbulence of spirit or relaxation of discipline, there was with the cadets an increasing interest in pub- lic affairs, an eager watching of the moves then being made on the political chessboards at Richmond and Washington, Charleston and Montgomery, and a decreasing interest in all academic studies, save those which pertained to military science. Several cadets, whose States had seceded, resigned their cadetships* and hurried home to offer their services to the new confederacy. All were restless, and the most of them anxious for the opportunities of war.

In the town, the Secession sentiment was slowly gaining ground, not so much from desire for the dissolution of the Union as from a feeling that Secession was becoming a dire necessity. The ignomini- ous failure of the Peace Conference at Washington; the fruitless efforts of Virginia to effect a compromise and avert the storm efforts generously persevered in until she was taunted by her enemies and distrusted by her friends the persistent preparation of the government at Washington for the reinforcement of Fort Sumter, which many believed was intended to provoke resistance and force the South into an overt act ; all this had not only caused many con- servative men to despair of a peaceable solution of the questions of the day, but was forcing upon them the belief that, by longer delay to secede from the Union, the old Commonwealth was compromising her honor and allowing time for the forging of shackles to bind her hands. Still the Union party remained largely in the majority in the county if not in the town.

At a Secession meeting, in the early spring, a tall pole had been erected on Main street in front of the courthouse and a Secession flag unfurled from its top and left to fringe its edges in the crisp mountain breeze. Not to be outdone, and to show their greater strength, the Unionists set a day in April for a mammoth Union demonstration. They decided to erect on that occasion a pole near by which should tower above the Secession pole, and to fly from its peak a Union banner which should make the Secession flag below look insignificant by comparison. As none of the neighboring forests could furnish a single tree that would answer this purpose, a pole was