Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/89

 The Vindication of the South. 81

this declaration. It may be of interest to note that, among the counties of Virginia excepted from the operation of this proclama- tion, were Accomac and Northampton in honor of the Confederate soldiers from which this monument is dedicated to-day.

Thus, and thus only, did the emancipation of the slaves become involved in the war. Mr. Lincoln only justified his proclamation as could save the Union by freeing the slaves, he would do it; if he could save it by freeing one-half and keeping the other half in slavery, he would take that plan; if keeping them all in slavery would effect the object, that would be his course."
 * i war measure to help the cause of the Union, for he said: " If he

REASON FOR SECESSION OF VIRGINIA.

What, then, was the true cause which impelled Virginia to secede and for which her people fought? It may be stated in a word. Statesmen from the dawn of the Union had declared, and her people had been educated to believe, that any State had the constitutional right to peaceably withdraw from the Union. When the Cotton States adopted that course and formed the Southern Confederacy, Virginia, while deploring the event, still felt they had but exercised an undoubted right; and therefore any armed coercion on the part of the Federal government was not warranted by the Constitution.

Mr. Davis, in one of his first messages, thus stated the position of this new government: " In independence we seek no conquests, no aggrandizements, no concessions of any kind from the States with which we have lately been confederated. All we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms."

Virginia believed they had the right to make that declaration, and to take that stand; and because of this conviction, and because of its repeated declaration in the most solemn and authoritative form, both by legislative enactment and the avowals of her leaders, to have re- mained in the Union and joined in the coercion of the seceding States, would have been a repudiation of her principles and an act of tyranny and dishonor.

VIRGINIA'S TRADITIONS.

The people of Virginia were devoted to the memories, traditions, and the very soil of their Commonwealth proud of her history, and jealous beyond comparison of her fame. The settlement of the State, the part which she had borne in the Revolution, and other wars, the