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218 He now, in a long article, commits the Messenger to Secession and urges Virginia to enter into it quickly. He takes no special leave of his patrons.

The commencement of the great internecine war between the North and the South is now nigh: still the Messenger moves steadily on but becomes intensely secessional. The editor clamors from Washington as well as at home, for the secession of Virginia, and gathers from newspapers strong adjuvant articles by J. Randolph Tucker, James Lyons and M. R. H. Garnett. He exults in John M. Daniel's return to the Examiner and says: "His pen combines the qualities of the scimitar of Saladin and the battle axe of Coeur de Leon and he is wielding it like a very Orlando. Had he entered the fight six months ago, Virginia would now be in the Southern Confederacy." Virginia seceded on the 17th of April. Sumter had been taken, Lincoln had called for 75,000 men to maintain the Union and the Peace Congress had failed. In the meanwhile the Messenger had issued four numbers; filled with the usual variety of prose, poetry and editorial matter, with a few illustrated articles and a fashion plate from Brodie, of New York. Simms returns; F. R. S. begins "A Story of Champaigne;" the author of "Black Diamonds" writes "The Story of a California Faro Table;"