Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/292

 286 Southern Historical Society Papers.

And what were the invasions which she could not stand without the threat and preparation of disunion? The measures which dou- bled the continent of free government and gave the Mississippi to us to be our inland sea and Mediterranean of commerce. And Vir- ginia! When for the first time did she recoil with just and natural horror from the fate which was prepared for her? Not until she had no other alternative than to make good her right to free government out of the Union, or to submit to "freedom and a dagger" in it. Like the desert-bird who "unlocks her own breast" to satisfy her offspring, Virginia had partitioned and repartioned her own territory to feed the Union and this was her reward ! That enemies and accusers who had counted so critically the profit of the Union, who at every step of its progress had weighed so nicely its commercial value, who had shouted so loudly that unless it was a Union which was profitable, it was no Union for them; that they who had been preaching and practicing disunion ever since there had been a Union; that they should have been the executioners of the State which had served it best and loved it most, was the curious revenge of time;

HAS NOT PLEAD LIKE A CULPRIT.

Virginia then took her stand against the prostration of every guar- anty of the Federal compact and the complete overthrow of the terms upon which- alone she had acceded to it. That she honestly thought this her enemies concede; that she justly thought, and, so far as the argument of reason is concerned, incontrovertibly thought, it, history will finally determine. The South has not to plead like a culprit before the world. It was the name and not the truth of freedom which was victorious against us. I await with confidence the final verdict, because of an abiding faith that every appearance is to reality as the gourd to the oak.

Virginia stood for the liberation of trade, for free association with the world. Far better than all anti-slavery agitation was this agency

can, violently if they must. * * * * Have the three branches of this government a right at will to weaken and outweigh the influence respec- tively secured to each State in this compact by introducing at pleasure new partners, situate beyond the old limits of the United States? * * * The proportion of the political weight of each sovereign State constituting this Union depends upon the number of States which have a voice under the compact." Speech of Josiah Quincy, January 14, 1811, on the Bill for the Admission of Louisiana.