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488 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF TIIE PEOPLE.
bers would wear crape for thirty days as a testimony of the public mourning.
A single event connected Virginia with the War of 1812-13. Admiral Cockburn, commanding a British fleet, had laid waste the banks of the Chesapeake and committed outrages which drew down public execration upon his head; but a force of Virginians, at Craney Island (June 22, 1813), repulsed an assault of the enemy; Norfolk was preserved from plunder ; and the British fleet soon afterwards disappeared.
The year 1819 was marked by the establishment of the University of Virginia, - the pet project of Thomas Jefferson, who took the warmest interest in it, and saw it go into successful operation. Some dates in reference to additional collegiate institutes in Virginia may in- terest the reader. Others already existing, or soon es- tablished, were William and Mary, at Williamsburg, which continued to hold an important position ; Hamp- den-Sydney, in Prince Edward (Presbyterian), founded in 1774; Randolph-Macon, now at Ashland, 1832; and Emory and Henry, in Washington, 1838 (both Metho- dist) ; the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary, near Alexandria, 1823 (Episcopal) ; Richmond College, at Richmond, 1840 (Baptist) ; Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, 1782; and the Virginia Military Institute, also at Lexington, opened in 1839.
In 1829 a convention assembled at Richmond to re- vise the Constitution, which is said to have embraced more distinguished men than any other public body which ever sat in the United States. Among these were two ex-Presidents, Madison and Monroe, Chief Justice Marshall, John Randolph, and other Virginians
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MODERN VIRGINIA.
who had occupied important positions under the State or Federal government. The Convention sat through- out the winter of 1829-30, and discussed elaborately every question connected with the right of suffrage. Important changes were made in the old Constitution, but it is not now necessary to particularize them since a second Virginia Convention in 1850 continued the work ; other changes, made since the Civil War, have in turn revolutionized the whole instrument ; and the Constitu- tion of Virginia in 1882, bears little resemblance to that framed by the Virginians of 1776.
Virginia had remained firmly attached to the princi- ple of States-rights set forth at the end of the century, and the seven States'-rights presidents selected from her soil seem to indicate that the American people have had faith in the principle. In the year 1832 President Jackson re-aroused this dangerous issue. His design to use armed force, to coerce South Carolina into obedience to the Federal authority, was resolutely opposed by Vir- ginia ; and John Randolph, the representative in all years of Virginia sentiment, rose from his sick-bed to travel through the country and bitterly denounce the administration. The position assumed by Virginia was, however, that of a pacificator, which she was afterwards to assume on a greater occasion. She sent Benjamin Watkins Leigh, one of her most illustrious citizens, as a commissioner to South Carolina, and the storm which threatened the Union was for the time dissipated.
With these events beyond her border, as with the Mexican War in 1846, and other national occurrences, Virginia had no further connection than through the part borne in them by her citizens. The Common- wealth remained at peace and no internal dissensions agi-
490 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
tated society. The shadow of the future had not fallen upon the land. The fields were blooming with plenty ; public improvements occupied the minds of the people ; and a peaceful and prosperous future seemed to be be- fore the ancient Commonwealth. Unhappily the Vir- ginians deceived themselves. The Power which moves nations, as the wind moves the dry leaves, was about to inflict upon the country the most terrible of all scourges, - Civil War.
XXI.
VIRGINIA LITERATURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
THE modern Virginia literature is essentially the same as the old, and has the same peculiar physiog- nomy. Both are redolent of the soil, and reflect the opinions, the modes of thought, and the point of view of the authors.
The Revolutionary period was only marked by some acrimonious pamphlets on the Two Penny Act : "An Enquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies," by Richard Bland (1766) ; Jefferson's " Summary View ;" and "Notes on Virginia," by the same author (1782), presenting a plain and compendious account of the Com- monwealth. The State papers of the time are the real Virginia literature of the period : the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the twenty-nine num- bers of the "Federalist," written by James Madison, and the Resolutions of '98, by the same author.
Early in the century appeared the "Life of Wash- ington," by Chief Justice Marshall (5 vols., 1804-7). This work was the first great contribution to American historical literature, and was rather a political history
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VIRGINIA LITERATURE.
than a mere biography. Its tone is grave and judicial, preserving everywhere a tone of considerate courtesy, and the work deals with the great political issues of the time with candor and impartiality. A curious contrast to this important work, was a life of Washington by " Parson Weems," an eccentric clergyman, who trav- eled about during the first years of the century col- lecting every known anecdote or tradition connected with his subject. The result was a small volume which was the delight of his time. It still remains, in spite of its glaring defects, one of the ,books of the people, and is said to have "gone through more editions, and to have been read by more people than the lives of Marshall, Ramsay, Bancroft, and Irving put together."
An excellent military biography written in the first years of the century, was " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States " (1809), by General Henry Lee, the commander of the famous Legion in the wars of the Carolinas. This work is an important authority, is written in a spirit of great fair- ness, and " possesses the charm peculiar to writers who have witnessed the scenes which they describe." A new edition, with notes, was published in 1869, by General R. E. Lee, a son of the author, and the work remains the only full account of the operations in the South .. Other valuable works were the "Life and Correspond- ence of Richard Henry Lee" (1825), and of Arthur Lee (1829), by their grandson, R. H. Lee, which pre- sent the intimate history of the times, and the great public actors. A popular biography, also essentially historic, was "Sketches of the Life of Patrick Henry " (1817), by William Wirt, who, although a native of Maryland, passed his life in Virginia. This work is
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
valuable as the only general biography of the great orator ; but it must be added that it is excessively florid and inaccurate in essential particulars. Its fervor and rhetoric, however, continue to charm, and it is one of the most popular biographies in American literature. Valuable works of a later date, were the " Life of John Randolph" (1850), by Hugh A. Garland, and the " Life and Times of James Madison " (1859), by Wil- liam C. Rives - the first, written from the States'-rights point of view, and the latter containing a vigorous ex- position of the Cavalier origin of Virginia society.
Three general histories of Virginia have appeared during the century : by John Daly Burk (1804), by Robert R. Howison (1847), and by Charles Campbell (1849, revised and enlarged 1860). The last is the most important, and is a work of genuine value. The author, Mr. Charles Campbell, was a gentleman of the old school ; an ardent and laborious student of Virginia antiquities ; collected every known fact in regard to the history of the Commonwealth, and has produced a nar- rative remarkable for its research and accuracy. The author's method of simply recording the events in the order of their dates, was perhaps unfortunate; he has done so, he declares, in order to leave the conclusions to " the faculty of every man's judgment ; " but the book remains the fullest repository of facts relating to the history of Virginia. A work of more contracted scope, but of peculiar interest, was Kercheval's "History of the Valley of Virginia," the most vivid and striking picture of the old life of the frontier in American lit- erature. The author was an aged countryman of the Shenandoah Valley, who traveled to and fro on horse- back through that region, collecting the traditions of the
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VIRGINIA LITERATURE. 493
first settlement and the Indian wars. Many aged bor- derers still survived, and he wrote down their statements from their own lips. They related what they had wit- nessed, and described the old frontier life in all its phases ; and the book is thus the complete picture of an epoch. It was published in 1833 at the provincial press of Win- chester, and is so similar in spirit and treatment to the Chronicles of Froissart that its author may be styled the Froissart of Virginia.
A work of unique character, which appeared in 1856, was " Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Vir- ginia," by the venerable William Meade, Bishop of Virginia. This book was the result of original re- searches in the parish registers of his diocese, of the examination of family records, and the writer's recol- lections. It is not only a history of the Episcopal Church, but may be called the genealogical history of Virginia. The author was imbued with a strong attach- ment for everything connected with the past; and his work contains a multitude of details relating to old times and people in Virginia, which are not to be found anywhere else in print.
In physical science the eminent name of Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury overshadows every other. His fame was national, and his " Physical Geography," and "Wind and Current Charts," obtained for him the name of the Pathfinder of the Seas. As the head of the Hydrographical Office, Commander Maury instituted uniform observations of winds and currents, and after- wards reduced them to a system ; and it is not an exag- geration to say that the commerce of the world owes him an incalculable debt.
In theology, one of the most distinguished of the
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early writers was Dr. Archibald Alexander, a native of Rockbridge, but best known as Professor of Theology at Princeton College. His "Evidences of Chris- tianity," and " Canon of Scripture," occupy a very high rank, and his memory is especially revered by the Pres- byterian Church, of which he was a pastor. Bishop Meade came later, and other prominent Virginia theolo- gians were Dr. John H. Rice, Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, the author of a "Memoir of Davies;" Dr. J. B. Jeter, the author of "Campbellism Examined," and one of the ablest ministers of the Bap- tist Church; Dr. R. L. Dabney, the author of " Po- lemical Theology," and Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth, the most distinguished American advocate of the Lu- theran faith, who has translated the " Augsburg Confes- sion," and is the author of an important treatise con- trasting the Romish and Evangelical Mass.
Among the works on constitutional and other law, written in Virginia, are the "Laws of Ancient and Modern Nations," by Professor Thomas R. Dew, "Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia," by Judge Henry St. George Tucker ; and excellent manuals and digests by Conway Robinson, James P. Holcombe, and others. To the former department also belong the works of John Taylor, of Caroline, early in the century : " Construction Construed," and "Tyranny Unmasked," which ardently supported the States'-rights views of Jef- ferson. A recent volume on the same general subject, was "Seven Decades of the Union," by Governor Henry A. Wise, in which he develops his peculiar views with characteristic vigor.
A few exquisite fugitive poems and songs have been written by Virginians : among them the " Belles of
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VIRGINIA LITERATURE.
Williamsburg," by James McClurg, in the last century, and "Days of my Youth," by St. George Tucker. This little song is said to have produced so great an impres- sion on John Adams in his old age, that he declared he " would rather have written it than any lyric of Milton or Shakespeare." To these may be added the "Flor- ence Vane " of Philip Pendleton Cooke, a love-song, which has had the rare good fortune to touch the popu- lar heart ; and "Slain in Battle," by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, which appeals to universal sympathy. To these might be added detached poems by James Barron Hope, the author of " Leoni de Minota," and W. Gor- don McCabe, who has produced songs of great delicacy. At an earlier period Richard Dabney translated por- tions of Euripides, Alcous, and Sappho, and William Munford, the Iliad of Homer, which is entitled to an honorable place in literature. Edgar A. Poe passed his early life in Virginia; but this great and sombre genius was rather a cosmopolite than a citizen of any particular State.
Virginia fiction may be said to have begun with the " Cavaliers of Virginia," and the " Knights of the Horse- shoe," by William A. Carruthers ; the one dealing with Bacon's Rebellion, and the other with Spotswood's march to the mountains. Some striking fictions, among them "Lionel Granby," appeared in the "Southern Literary Messenger," afterwards under the supervision of a writer of elegant culture, - John R. Thompson ; but these vol- umes first attracted attention. They are excellent ro- mances in the style of Scott, and still retain their inter- est. A little later appeared "George Balcombe," and "The Partisan Leader," by Judge Beverley Tucker, the last a work of very curious interest. It was pub-
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
lished in 1837; but the writer laid the scene of his drama in the future, when President Van Buren was in his third term, and the Federal government had been consolidated into a virtual monarchy under the form of a republic. Jefferson had accused Hamilton of meaning to effect that ; and now Judge Tucker, an ardent States'- right man, meant to show that it was going to be accom- plished. The encroachments of the Federal govern- ment - to follow the author - have resulted in civil convulsion. The Southern States have seceded, with the exception of Virginia; and the author relates the adventures of his hero, a young Virginian, in the war which follows on Virginia soil. This singular book was thus something like a prophecy. If the events did not come so quickly as the writer fancied they would, they nevertheless came. A curious circumstance in connec- tion with " The Partisan Leader" was its republication in New York in 1861, under the title of " A Key to the Disunion Conspiracy." The impression apparently meant to be produced was that the author had foreshad- owed the designs of the Southern leaders, which was pure fancy. Of Judge Tucker, an excellent gentleman and eminent writer, the late William Gilmore Simms said : " He was a brave old Virginia gentleman, a stern States'-right doctrinaire, intense of feeling, jealous of right, in his style pure and chaste, full of energy yet full of grace." These names are the most distinguished in the department of Virginia fiction ; but the name of John Pendleton Kennedy, the author of "Swallow Barn," ought not to be omitted. He was a Marylander by birth, like Wirt, of whom he wrote a delightful biog- raphy, but his mother was of a Virginia family, and " Swallow Barn " remains the best picture of Virginia country life in literature.
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Under the general head of miscellany may be classed many books of interest and value. Among these are " A History of the Religious Society of Friends," 4 vols., by Samuel M. Janney ; Mrs. Johnson's " Hadji in Syria ; " Commander Lynch's "Expedition to the River Jordan and Dead Sea ; " " Wonders of the Deep," "The Great Empress," and other works, by M. Schele de Vere; General Philip St. George Cooke's " Adven- tures in the Army," and " Conquest of New Mexico ;" and in the department of humor, the " Native Virgin- ian " and other productions, by Dr. George W. Bagby, which possess a peculiar charm from their fidelity and pathos. Earlier works, characteristic of the soil, were the " Nugæ by Nugator " of St. Leger Landon Carter ; and the curious productions of George Fitzhugh, " Soci- ology for the South," and " Cannibals All," in which the author argues gravely and with apparent conviction that free society is a failure, and that cannibalism will be the ultimate and inevitable result of African emanci- pation. Of the numerous publications on the subject of the late war, it is unnecessary to speak. Their value as historic authority must be fixed by the future.
This view of Virginia literature during the present century has necessarily been brief. Only the represent- ative books in the various departments have been spoken of; to have adopted a different method would have been to write the history of Virginia literature, - a task impossible to attempt in the present volume. The few works and writers referred to will convey an idea . of the literature. If no great original genius has arisen to put the lion's paw on Virginia letters, many writers of admirable attainments and solid merit have produced works which have instructed and improved their genera-
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tion ; and to instruct and improve is better than to amuse. Whatever may be the true rank of the litera- ture, it possesses a distinct character. It may be said of it with truth that it is notable for its respect for good morals and manners; that it is nowhere offensive to delicacy or piety ; or endeavors to instill a belief in what ought not to be believed. It is a very great deal to say of the literature of any country in the nineteenth cen- tury.
XXII.
THE WAR OF THE SECTIONS.
THE great convulsion of 1861-65 is already a thing of the past : a remote event nearly forgotten by the present generation, and gone with other events into his- tory. The hot passions have died out, and the old ene- mies have become friends again. Those who survive the war are busy with other matters ; and the blue and gray who fell fighting for what each believed to be the just cause, sleep in peace side by side under the flowers scattered indifferently by friends and foes.
A detailed history of the Civil War is impossible in this volume, and a mere summary of dates and events would possess no interest. A multitude of writers have also made the subject familiar in its minutest phases ; and the long series of military occurrences may be omitted with propriety in a work aiming chiefly at the delineation of Virginia society and the character of the people. The writer has therefore preferred to leave this great episode to the annalists of the future, when more accurate information and the absence of contempo- rary prejudice will enable the student to arrive as nearly as possible at the absolute truth of history.
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What the writer, however, is unwilling to omit is a brief statement of the attitude of Virginia in this new revolution, her persistent pleas for peace, and the causes which impelled her greatest and best citizens to make war on the Federal government. The murderous at- tack on Harper's Ferry in 1859, profoundly enraged the people, but had no effect whatever in separating Virginia from the Union. Even as late as the spring of 1861, when the Republicans had come into power by a distinctly sectional vote, and the whole tier of Gulf States had seceded, Virginia still refused to move; and it will now be shown that when she finally decided to dissolve her connection with the Union which she had done so much to establish, she did so with reluctance, making her choice between two alternatives, both of them painful.
Early in January, 1861, the Virginia Assembly met at Richmond to determine the action of the Commonwealth in the approaching struggle. It was plain that war was coming unless the authorities of the United States and of the seceding States would listen to reason ; and the first proceedings of the Assembly looked to peace and the restoration of fraternal union. Virginia recom- mended to all the States to appoint deputies to a Peace Convention, to adjust " the present unhappy controversy in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed." Commissioners were appointed to call on the President of the United States and the seceded States or those that should secede, to "respectfully request the President and the authorities of such States to agree to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of this General Assembly, from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the
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States and the Government of the United States." With these instructions the Commissioners proceeded to Wash- ington, but effected nothing. The Peace Convention duly met at the Capitol (February 4, 1861), and pro- posed amendments to the Constitution, among the rest for the restoration of the Missouri Compromise ; but when the recommendations of the Convention were re- ported to Congress they were rejected.
Thus ended in failure the first attempt of Virginia to preserve the national peace ; and the crisis demanded that she should promptly decide upon her course. On February 13 (1861), a Convention assembled at Rich- mond, and a Committee was appointed on Federal Rela- tions. On March 10 (1861), this Committee reported fourteen resolutions protesting against all interference with slavery ; declaring secession to be a right ; and de- fining the grounds on which the Commonwealth would feel herself to be justified in exercising that right, namely : the failure to obtain guarantees ; the adoption of a warlike policy by the Government of the United States ; or the attempt to exact the payment of duties from the seceded States, or to reinforce or recapture the Southern forts. These resolves clearly define the atti- tude of Virginia at this critical moment. After pro- longed discussion, all but the last had passed the Conven- tion when intelligence came that war had begun. The thunder of cannon from Charleston liarbor broke up the political discussion.
Thus every effort made by Virginia to preserve the peace had been defeated. Her Peace Commission, sent to Washington, had returned without results ; the Peace Convention assembled by her call had accomplished nothing ; the seceded States would not listen to her ap
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peal to keep the peace; and peace seemed even more remote from the view of the Federal authorities. Mr. Lincoln had expressed himself in his inaugural with perfect plainness. Secession was unlawful, and the Union remained unbroken ; it was his duty to execute the laws, and he should perform it. To execute the laws it was necessary to have an army ; and (April 15, 1861) President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 troops from the States remaining in the Union.
The direct issue was thus presented, and Virginia was called upon to decide the momentous question whether she would fight against the South or against the North. There was no evading the issue. The crisis pressed, and she must meet it. Many of her sisters of the South had reproached her for her delay. She had been de- nounced as a laggard, and without her old resolution ; but she had resolution to decide for herself, in her own time, and not to shape her action by the views either of her friends or her foes. Against her persist- ent attachment to the Union the strongest appeals and the bitterest denunciations had beaten in vain. As late as the first week in April the Convention had refused to secede by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five. Virginia was conscientiously following her old traditions and would not move. Now the time had come at last. The naked question was presented on which side she would array herself : whether hier cannon were to be turned on the blue troops or the gray; and, that issue once defined, there was no more hesitation. On the 17th of April, two days after the Federal proclamation, the Con- vention passed an ordinance of secession and adhesion to the Southern Confederacy, by a vote of eighty-eight
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to fifty-five, which was ratified by the people by a ma- jority of ninety-six thousand seven hundred and fifty votes out of a total of one hundred and sixty-one thou- sand and eighteen. West Virginia refused to be bound by the action of the Convention, and became a separate State, but the Virginia of the Tidewater and Valley went with the South.
Such is a statement in few words of the circumstances attending the secession of Virginia. If her course in this trying emergency has not shown her attachment to the Union, it is impossible that any further statement can establish it.
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