The vote of Thursday last.
The twenty-third of May is worthy to rank henceforth as a new fourth of July.
In all the history of popular suffrage there has been no example of popular unanimity like that which the people of
Virginia has just presented in their vote on the question of secession.
With scarcely the exception of a single county, the polled vote has been larger than on any previous occasion, even of the most excited partisan canvasses; and the voting has been absolutely unanimous.
We have yet to hear from the
Northwest, where the sentiment has doubtless been divided; but in every other part of the
State the unanimity is absolute.--There has nothing occurred in the
Southern States, not even in
South Carolina herself, that can compare with the unanimity and alacrity of the people of
Virginia in endorsing the act of secession.
The deluded
North was looking on, in the confident expectation that
Virginia had put a reluctant and constrained shoulder to the
Southern movement.
They are amazed to discover that the zeal of
Virginia for secession outstrips the calculations of her own most sanguine secessionists — surpasses the fondest hopes of her sister States on the
Gulf.
The state of things in
Maryland, the unaccountable laggardness of
Kentucky, and the Hessian proceedings in
St. Louis, had induced the opinion that popular sentiment in
Virginia was equally divided and hesitating.
But the 23d May dispels these vain illusions, scatters these insulting hopes, and lifts
Virginia at once to the proud rank of the foremost in the
Southern movement and the most distinguished object of Northern hatred.
This vote is the more significant as being given by the
State immediately threatened by the enemy, and especially marked as the battle ground of this great quarrel.
The enemy boasted his ability to throw two hundred thousand forces into her territory;
Virginia meets this boast by the defiant vote of Thursday last.
The act of the heroic
Jackson at
Alexandria, was but an individual utterance of the language spoken by
Virginia at the polls.
He would defend his rights if a whole regiment of bayonets should the next moment pierce his body.
So
Virginia announced her stern resolution to stand to her independence, in defiance of all the regiments which the powerful and exasperated North could bring against her.
We repeat, that the vote of Thursday puts
Virginia at the head, as she is in the van, of the
Southern movement.
She is to receive the whole brunt of the war, and she has voted her purpose to receive it heroically, even as
Jackson dared the hell-hounds of
Ellsworth.--There is to be warm work, such as this continent never saw before; and
Virginia votes that it may be as warm as the wrath of the enemy, disappointed and exasperated at her course, may choose to make it. The Southern Government has shown the appreciation in which they hold this vote by the prompt manner in which they have moved their headquarters to
Richmond.
After the vote of Thursday they can feel at
home in
Virginia and their heroism impels them to accept upon her soil her own fate.
The effect of this remarkable vote of
Virginia will be very great in
Europe, supported as it is by the spirited proceedings of
North Carolina and
Tennessee, and the recent accession of
Arkansas to the
Confederacy.
The question of recognizing seven States in setting up an independent government against twenty-four, is a very different one from that of recognizing eleven States, led by so ancient a Commonwealth as
Virginia, acting by authority of a unanimous popular vote — and the secession of the eleven supported by the neutrality of three others.
The policy of recognizing the popular choice of rulers has been acknowledged by
Europe herself in the vote of the
French for
Napoleon III, and of the Italians for
Victor Emanuel. It would be anomalous indeed, if the same liberties which are accorded to the nationalities of
Europe are to be denied to the free and sovereign States of
America.--That certainly must at least be a
de facto Government which is declared such by eleven sovereign States.
That certainly must be something more than an insurrection which two hundred and fifty thousand troops must be called out to put down.
