The Long Roll | Page 2

delivered in a solemn and a ringing voice. The season was
December and the year, 1860.
* * * * *
The people of Botetourt County, in general meeting assembled, believe
it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth, in the present
alarming condition of our country, to give some expression of their
opinion upon the threatening aspect of public affairs....
In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the effort
of the latter to tax the Colonies without their consent, it was Virginia
who, by the resolution against the Stamp Act, gave the example of the
first authoritative resistance by a legislative body to the British
Government, and so imparted the first impulse to the Revolution.
Virginia declared her Independence before any of the Colonies, and
gave the first written Constitution to mankind.
By her instructions her representatives in the General Congress
introduced a resolution to declare the Colonies independent States, and
the Declaration itself was written by one of her sons.

She furnished to the Confederate States the father of his country, under
whose guidance Independence was achieved, and the rights and
liberties of each State, it was hoped, perpetually established.
She stood undismayed through the long night of the Revolution,
breasting the storm of war and pouring out the blood of her sons like
water on every battlefield, from the ramparts of Quebec to the sands of
Georgia.
A cheer broke from the throng. "That she did--that she did! 'Old
Virginia never tire.'"
By her unaided efforts the Northwestern Territory was conquered,
whereby the Mississippi, instead of the Ohio River, was recognized as
the boundary of the United States by the treaty of peace.
To secure harmony, and as an evidence of her estimate of the value of
the Union of the States, she ceded to all for their common benefit this
magnificent region--an empire in itself.
When the Articles of Confederation were shown to be inadequate to
secure peace and tranquillity at home and respect abroad, Virginia
first moved to bring about a more perfect Union.
At her instance the first assemblage of commissioners took place at
Annapolis, which ultimately led to a meeting of the Convention which
formed the present Constitution.
The instrument itself was in a great measure the production of one of
her sons, who has been justly styled the Father of the Constitution.
The government created by it was put into operation, with her
Washington, the father of his country, at its head; her Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Independence, in his cabinet; her Madison,
the great advocate of the Constitution, in the legislative hall.
"And each of the three," cried a voice, "left on record his judgment as
to the integral rights of the federating States."

Under the leading of Virginia statesmen the Revolution of 1798 was
brought about, Louisiana was acquired, and the second war of
independence was waged.
Throughout the whole progress of the Republic she has never infringed
on the rights of any State, or asked or received an exclusive benefit.
On the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all
the States, the smallest as well as the greatest.
But, claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the
common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and
kindness for her citizens from the citizens of other States.... And that the
common government, to the promotion of which she contributed so
largely, for the purpose of establishing justice and ensuring domestic
tranquillity, would not, whilst the forms of the Constitution were
observed, be so perverted in spirit as to inflict wrong and injustice and
produce universal insecurity.
These reasonable expectations have been grievously disappointed--
There arose a roar of assent. "That's the truth!--that's the plain truth!
North and South, we're leagues asunder!--We don't think alike, we
don't feel alike, and we don't interpret the Constitution alike! I'll tell
you how the North interprets it!--Government by the North, for the
North, and over the South! Go on, Judge Allen, go on!"
In view of this state of things, we are not inclined to rebuke or censure
the people of any of our sister States in the South, suffering from injury,
goaded by insults, and threatened with such outrages and wrongs, for
their bold determination to relieve themselves from such injustice and
oppression by resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve
the compact which they had formed and to provide new guards for their
future security.
"South Carolina!--Georgia, too, will be out in January.--Alabama as
well, Mississippi and Louisiana.--Go on!"

Nor have we any doubt of the right of any State, there being no
common umpire between coequal sovereign States, to judge for itself
on its own responsibility, as to the mode