To Deport them.
The leaders and philanthropists of
Virginia grew to realize the truth of these sentiments, and so the efforts which were made in the State Legislature to secure the enactment of laws for the emancipation of the slaves, were in time abandoned, and followed by the inauguration of movements for their deportation.
It was nowhere felt that either the peace of the community or the well being of the slave, would be subserved by his emancipation, unless followed by his exodus from the country.
In this work many of our foremost citizens were enlisted when the rise of what was known as the Abolition Party at the
North, projecting itself as a disturbing force between master and slave, and in the councils of the
Federal Government, with respect to this—a purely domestic and local institution—quenched the sentiment in favor of emancipation and riveted the startled minds of the people upon the new dangers, which as a result of the movements and discussions of the Abolition Party, confronted them.
The reality of these fears was illustrated and intensified by the raid of
John Brown and his followers, which sent a thrill of horror through the land.
Such was
Virginia's record with reference to slavery.
Such the sentiments of some of her greatest sons.
In the light of such a record, and such sentiments, will it be seriously insisted that she gave her home to desolation and her people to death, to maintain the institution?
The vast majority of her sons who went forth to battle were not slave owners, and had little or no love for the institution.
But beyond all this, the secession of
Virginia could not have been to prevent the threatened emancipation of her slaves, because as we know, the
Federal Government meditated no such course.
