University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.

Arthur Trevor was the youngest son of a gentleman
who resided in the neighborhood of Richmond.
He was a man in affluent circumstances, and
had long and honorably filled various important and
dignified stations in the service of his native State.
Endowed with handsome talents, an amiable disposition,
and all the accomplishments that can adorn a
gentleman, he added to these the most exemplary
virtues. His influence in society had, of course,
been great, and though now, at the age of seventy,
withdrawn from public life, his opinions were enquired
of, and his counsel sought, by all who had access to
him. Through life he had been remarkable for firmness,
and yet more for prudence. The steadiness of
his principles could never be questioned, but, it was
thought, he had sometimes deemed it wise to compromise,
when men of less cautious temper would
have found safety in prudent boldness.

To this temperament had been attributed his conduct
in regard to the politics of the last twenty years.
Bred up in the school of State rights, and thoroughly
imbued with its doctrines, he had, even before that
time, been accustomed to look, with a jealous eye,
on the progressive usurpations of the Federal Government.
In the hope of arresting these, he had
exerted more than his usual activity in aiding to put
down the younger Adams, and to elevate his successor.
Though no candidate for the spoils of victory,
no man rejoiced more sincerely in the result of that
contest; and, until the emanation of the proclamation
of December, 1832, he had given his hearty approbation,
and steady, though quiet support, to the
administration of Andrew Jackson.

From that moment he seemed to look with fearful
bodings on the affairs of his country. His disapprobation
of that instrument was expressed with as
much freedom and force as was consistent with his
habitual reserve and moderation. He was, indeed,
alarmed into a degree of excitement unusual with
him, and might have gone farther than he did, had
he not found that others were disposed to go, as he
thought, too far. He had entirely disapproved the
nullifying ordinance of South Carolina; and, though
he recognized the right of secession, he deprecated
all thought of resorting to that remedy. He was
aware that many of his best friends, thinking that
its necessity would be eventually felt by all, feared

that that conviction might come too late. They remarked
the steady tendency of Federal measures to
weaken the mal-content States in the South, and to
increase the resources of their northern oppressors
and those of the General Government. Hence they
feared, that whenever Virginia, or any other of the
slave-holding States, should find itself driven to secession,
the other party, in the confidence of superior
strength, might be tempted forcibly to resist the exercise
of the right. They thus arrived at the conclusion
that separation (which they deemed inevitable)
to be peaceable, must be prompt.

These ideas had been laid before Mr. Trevor, and,
in proportion to the urgency with which they were
pressed, was his alarm and his disposition to adhere
to the Union. He, at last, had brought himself to
believe union, on any terms, better than disunion,
under any circumstances. As the lesser evil, therefore,
he determined to forget the proclamation, and,
striving to reconcile himself to all the acts of the administration,
he regarded every attempt to unite the
South, in support of a southern president, as a prelude
to the formation of a southern confederacy. By
consequence, he became a partisan of Martin Van
Buren; and united with Ritchie, and others of the
same kidney, in endeavoring to subdue the spirit, and
tame down the State pride of Virginia. These endeavors,
aided by the lavish use of federal patronage
in the State, were so far successful, that when, at the

end of Van Buren's second term, he demanded a
third election, she alone, in the South, supported his
pretensions.

By the steady employment of the same pernicious
influences, the elections throughout the State had
been so regulated, as to produce returns of a majority
of members devoted to the views of the usurper.
This had continued until the spring of 1848, at which
time the results of the elections were essentially the
same which had taken place since the memorable
1836; when Virginia, at one stroke of the pen, expunged
her name from the chronicles of honor, expunged
the history of all her glories, expunged herself.
From that time the land of Washington, and
Henry, and Mason, of Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph,
sunk to the rank of a province, administered
and managed by the Riveses and Ritchies, the Barbours
and Stevensons, the Watkinses and Wilsons,
whose chance to be remembered in history depends,
like that of Erostratus, on the glories of that
temple of liberty which they first desecrated and then
destroyed.

From some cause, not understood at the time, an
unexpected reaction had taken place between the
spring elections and the recurrence of that form of
presidential election in the fall, the observance of
which was still deemed necessary to display, and, by

displaying, to perpetuate the usurper's power. This
reaction appeared to show itself chiefly in those
counties heretofore most distinguished for their loyalty.
It would have seemed as if the spirit of John
Randolph had risen from the sleep of death, and
walked abroad through the scenes where his youthful
shoulders had received the mantle of his eloquence
from the hand of Henry. For the first time,
in twelve years, the vote of Virginia was recorded
against the re-election of Martin Van Buren to the
presidential throne.

But not the less subservient were the proceedings
of the Legislature elected for his use, the spring before.
Yet enough had been done to justify the hope
that the ancient spirit of old Virginia would yet show
itself in the descendants of the men who had defied
Cromwell, in the plenitude of his power, and had cast
off the yoke of George the Third, without waiting
for the co-operation of the other colonies. At the
same time, the power and the will of a fixed majority
in the North, to give a master to the South, had been
made manifest. It was clearly seen, too, that he had
determined to use the power thus obtained, and to
administer the government solely with a view to the
interest of that sectional faction, by which he had
been supported. “Væ victis!” “Woe to the vanquished!”
was the word. It had gone forth; and
northern cupidity and northern fanaticism were seen

to march, hand in hand, to the plunder and desolation
of the South.

Under these circumstances, the southern States
had been, at length, forced to see that the day for decisive
action had arrived. They therefore determined
no longer to abide the obligations of a constitution,
the forms of which alone remained, and having,
by a movement nearly simultaneous, seceded from
the Union, they had immediately formed a southern
confederacy. The suddenness of these measures
was less remarkable than the prudence with which
they had been conducted. The two together left
little doubt that there had been a preconcert among
the leading men of the several States, arranging provisionally
what should be done, whenever circumstances
should throw power into hands of those
whom, at the bidding of the usurper, the people had
once driven from their councils. It is now known
that there was such concert. Nor was it confined to
the seceding States alone. In Virginia, also, there
were men who entered into the same views. But
while the President believed that no decisive step
would be taken by the more southern States without
her co-operation, he had devoted all his power,
direct and indirect, to control and influence her elections.
Of tumultuary insurrection he had no fear.
The organized operation of the State Government
was what he dreaded. By this alone could the measure
of secession be effected; and this was effectually

prevented by operating on the elections of members
of the Legislature. From the November vote
on the presidential election, less evil had been apprehended,
and less pains had been taken to control it.
In consequence of this, something more of the real
sentiments of the people had been allowed to appear
on that occasion; and, from this manifestation, the
more southern States were encouraged to hope for
the ultimate accession of Virginia to their confederacy.
They had therefore determined to wait for her
no longer, but to proceed to the execution of their
plan, leaving her to follow.

The disposition of the usurper, at first, was to treat
them as revolted provinces; and to take measures for
putting down, by force, their resistance to his authority.
But circumstances, to be mentioned hereafter,
made it impolitic to resort to this measure. But
these did not operate to prevent him from using the
most efficacious means to prevent Virginia from following
their example. Though restrained from attacking
them, nothing prevented him from affecting
to fear an attack from them. This gave a pretext
for raising troops; and the position of Virginia, as
the frontier State, afforded an excuse for stationing
them within her borders. Under these pretences,
small corps were established in many of the disaffected
counties. Should the presence of these be
ineffectual to secure the return of delegates devoted
to the crown, an ultimate security was taken against

the action of the Legislature. Richmond, the seat of
government, became the head-quarters of the army
of observation, as it was called, and, surrounded by
this, the mock deliberations of the General Assembly
were to be held.

The money thus thrown into the country seduced
the corrupt, while terror subdued the timid. On Mr.
Trevor, who was neither, these things had a contrary
effect. He now, when it was too late, saw and lamented
the error of his former overcaution. He now
began to suspect that they had been right who had
urged him, eighteen years before, to lend his aid in
the work of arousing the people to a sense of their
danger, and preparing them to meet it as one man.