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 denounced 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 persistent 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 her 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 Convention passed an ordinance of secession and adhesion to the Southern Confederacy, by a vote of eighty-eight

to fifty-five, which was ratified by the people by a majority of ninety-six thousand seven hundred and fifty votes out of a total of one hundred and sixty-one thousand 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.

Having once made their decision, the Virginians hastened to arm. Their first thought was to protect Virginia, and they enrolled themselves under the State flag. It was impossible for them to feel toward the new Confederacy the immemorial allegiance which they had felt toward Virginia, that was a part of the very life-blood of the people, and exerted an overmastering influence. Many of the best citizens of the State disapproved of secession. Like the illustrious Commander-in-chief of the Confederate army, General Lee, they "recognized no necessity for this state of things," and some of them, like him, "wept tears of blood" at the dire necessity which drove them to take up arms against the Union. But the State allegiance was paramount. Virginia called them and they obeyed the call.

Their decision once made, the Virginians entered on the war with ardor, and the State troops bore an important part in military operations to the end of the struggle. There was at first in the minds of the people only a sentiment of defiance and indignation at the invasion of the State, but this ripened as the years wore

on, and General Pope and others ravaged the country, into a determined animosity which was thenceforth the prevailing sentiment. This will largely account for the desperate fighting which characterized the operations in Virginia, and for the bloody partisan warfare north of the Rappahannock. In regard to the efficiency of the Virginian troops there has never arisen any question. They exhibited a peculiar endurance, an obstinate courage in action, and all the best qualities of the soldier. It is conceded that at the first Manassas, the regiments from the Valley under Jackson decided the fate of the battle; and the most determined assault of the war, perhaps, that on the Federal centre at Gettysburg, was made by a division of Virginians. The Southern forces, as a whole, were doubtless as good soldiers as the world ever saw; and it is certain that the troops of the Gulf States regarded their comrades of Virginia as men to be relied upon in any emergency.

As the war went on what was most notable in the Virginia troops and the people, was the resolute determination not to give up the contest until they were forced to do so. The sufferings undergone, both by soldiers and citizens, will never be fully known. The State was ground under the armed heel until life seemed nearly extinct in it. The Federal forces occupied the bulk of the country, and used or destroyed the supplies of food of every description, until the army and people were threatened with famine. The ravages committed by certain commanders - notably by Generals Pope and Sheridan — were conceded, even at the North, to be in violation of all the laws of civilized warfare. The result was very nearly starvation to the families of the soldiers, and it was under circumstances so depressing

that the Virginians resolutely adhered to the struggle, refusing to the last to surrender their flag. Even at Appomattox the half-starved remnant received the intelligence of General Lee's capitulation with bitter anguish, and apparently refused to acquiesce in his conviction that it was necessary.

The facts here briefly stated are so well known as not to demand proof. They will remain the lasting glory of a people who loved peace, but chose war and were willing to fight to the end, rather than submit to what they believed to be a wrong. It is impossible that magnanimous foes did not and do not respect that principle. It has at least been the controlling principle of the Virginians of every generation, and ought to be the principle of the people of all the States of the American Republic in all time.

That even the old enemies of the South appreciated the motives of the representative Virginians in the war, is shown by the general mourning at the death of Jackson and Lee. The one fell at Chancellorsville in the heat of the struggle; and the other died at Lexington

in the quiet days of peace and both were equally regretted by generous enemies. It was known that they had acted from a sentiment of duty, and had been blameless as men and Christians. Like the State of which they were the representatives, they had desired peace, and had shrunk from disunion and civil war as the greatest of all misfortunes to the country. But when no choice was left them they had followed their State flag; had fought a good fight in defense of their native soil; and even the enemies of the Southern cause conceded the purity of their motives, and honored their

memories.

XXIII.

VIRGINIA SINCE THE WAR.

THE Civil War is the last great event in the history, of Virginia. The years following it have been only a dreary waste of party wrangling; of political intrigue, personal ambition, bad faith in regard to the State debt, and, worse than all, with reference to the future, of the array of class against class, the black race against the white. The writer shrinks from the ungracious subject, leaving the task of treating it to the writers of the future. It is this future which is going to try the present; and the party leaders of the time who have brought the name of Virginia into discredit, would do well to remember the words of President Lincoln: "You cannot avoid history."

A few words relating to the process of "reconstruction," and the present aspect of affairs in Virginia, will conclude this volume. The result of the war was to leave the State prostrate. The hardest fighting had taken place on her soil; and it seemed that it would require generations for the Commonwealth to recover from its effects. The whole face of the country betrayed the ravages of war, and confronted by this gloomy spectacle utter depression might have been looked for in the people. There was little then or thereafter. The Virginia character is hopeful and disposed to make the best of things. The people refused to repine, and looked to the future with that obstinate confidence which is the mainspring of success in human affairs. The new order of things was accepted with philosophy, and it may be