County meetings in Virginia.
A meeting was held at
King and Queen C. H.,
Va., on the 19th inst. The Committee on Resolutions made a long report, terminating with three resolutions.
The report, which declared
Lincoln's election not a sufficient cause for dissolution; was laid on the table; but the resolutions were unanimously adopted.
They recommend first, that the
Governor call the Legislature together immediately; second, that
Virginia invite a conference of the
Southern States; and third, that the Legislature appoint delegates "to meet their Northern brethren in conference.
In
Amelia county, on the 22d inst., a public meeting adopted resolutions earnestly requesting the Legislature to call a State Convention, and asking the
Governor to convene the Legislature early in December.
In
Goochland co., on the 19th, a public meeting adopted a resolution suggesting to
Gov. Letcher to call the Legislature together on the 1st of December.
Other resolutions also adopted, declare that ‘"the election of
Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency is an open and official avowal by a popular majority of the
North and of the nation that the past aggressions of Black Republicanism are right; and that aggressions against our rights are to be persisted in with great aggravation for the future."’ A meeting was held in
Staunton,
Augusta co., Va., on the 26th inst., presided over by
Hon. A. H. H. Stuart.
The resolutions adopted affirm that, ‘" bordering as
Virginia does on that portion of the
Confederacy from which danger to the institution of slavery is threatened, so far as her interests in that institution are concerned, secession is no remedy;"’ ask the
Southern States to join with
Virginia in testing the efficiency of remedies provided by the
Constitution in the
Union; asking the
Northern people to observe their constitutional obligations to the
South, and ‘"remove from their statute books the acts intended to thwart, if not to nullify, the act of Congress concerning fugitive slaves, and that they instruct their representatives, as we shall instruct ours, to keep from the halls of Congress that bitter apple of National discord — the agitating discussion of the subject of slavery."’ A resolution offered as a substitute for those adopted and urging the call of a State Convention, was rejected.
