The sneers of
Thaddeus Stevens, and others of that ilk, at the course of
Virginia, pass by this proud old Common wealth like the baying of curs at the moon.
We need scarcely say that the abolition press and orators are entirely mistaken in the spirit and feeling of
Virginia when they attribute her vote upon the
Convention to unmanly fear.
We could not descend to notice such an insinuation, but that the public interests are concerned in having the truth known on the subject.
We fear that this vote upon the
Convention is misunderstood in some quarters.
On various occasions since the election, we have endeavored to show that the people of
Virginia, in the late election, have decided for
Virginia and the Union, if they can have both in honor and peace; but that for Union unconditionally, not a dozen men can be found in the
Commonwealth.
The members elect from this city, in their speeches upon the night of the election, to which we have already referred, expressed the true sentiment of the
Commonwealth, and that is, to stand by the
Union, if the rights of the
South can be established in it; otherwise, to go out. As to Submissionists, it is a term we have never approved, and, as far as we are concerned, never used.
We don't believe that more than a
Corporal's Guard of any party can be found in
Virginia who are submissionists, in the derogatory sense in which that word is sometimes employed.
Men of all politics in
Virginia are united in the determination that the
South shall have her rights, under the present Government, or that they will have a Government in which their rights can be obtained.
Let us suggest to
Thaddeus Stevens & Co., that if
Virginia moves slowly she moves surely, as the late Puritan partner of Thaddeus'
John Brown, discovered to his cost.
Not even the dismal atrocity of
Harper's Ferry could provoke this proud old Commonwealth to precipitate the doom of that unparalleled monster before the time required by law, or to neglect any of the processes and formalities which the strictest letter of the law requires.
Every advantage which the law accords to the most ordinary criminal, was extended to this manufacturer of pikes for midnight slaughter.
Virginia counsel were appointed for him by the
Court, and he was allowed to select and bring on counsel of his own from other States; there was no hurrying, no rashness, no intemperance of language or movement.--His friends were permitted to visit him in jail; his diabolical utterances about slavery patiently listened to; the consolations of religion tendered to him, which, however, affecting more virtue than the patriarchs and apostles, he declined to receive from slaveholding hands.
The Executive of the
State was besieged with petitions for his pardon; men of high standing in the
North, who were no doubt implicated in the Satanic conspiracy, poured an avalanche of letters for pardon upon the
Governor's head; some of the conservative Northern journals insisted that it would be bad policy to hang old
Brown; some said he was a lunatic, others a saint; women offered to nurse the old sinner, and preachers prayed frantically for him day and night.
Said one of the warmest friends of the
South in the whole country, in a letter from New York to a distinguished gentleman of
Richmond, ‘"It
Gov. Wise could only be on the ground here and see the intense and universal sentiment for old
Brown's pardon, he could make himself the next
President of the
United States by letting the old fellow go. "’--
Virginia moved so slowly and calmly that people at last began to say, not only in the
North but in the
South, ‘"
Brown will never be hung.
He will be sent to the Penitentiary, or escape, or be rescued,"’ and this last, but for
Governor Wise's precautions, would have occurred.--Old
Brown himself began to be of this opinion, and piously observed that God had brought him out of greater straights before.
Nevertheless, at the proper time he was hung, and every man arrested with him was hung also.
Virginia was slow, but she was sure.
Not one of that vile company escaped.
Even the matchless eloquence of
Voorhees, and the deep and unspeakable sympathies of every true Virginian with
Governor Willard, could not save
Cook, the young and miserable dupe of an older and deeper villain.
There was something more terrible in the calm, deliberate, and thorough way in which
Virginia washed out, to the last drop of abolition blood, the insult to her soil, than if she had hung up the whole party the moment they were caught.
She proved that she did not fear them, nor their friends, nor, for a moment, doubt herself.
The course of
Virginia now, in its deliberation and dignity, indicate anything on the face of the earth but a purpose to compromise or surrender the smallest of her rights.
