The anti-slavery sentiments of prominent Virginians, expressed in the
speeches delivered in the notable debate which occurred in the
Virginia Legislature of 1832, may well be considered in a group by
themselves. The speakers were all young men and represented a later
generation than those from whom quotations have already been given.
Many of them were destined to fill important roles in the political
life of the state and some of them, with undiminished influence,
survived the period of the Civil War. McDowell became Governor of the
state and a member of Congress; Preston was a member of Congress, a
member of President Taylor's Cabinet, and one of the leading spirits
in the Virginia Convention of 1861; Randolph was repeatedly returned
to the Legislature and was a prominent member of the Reform Convention
of 1850-51, and Faulkner was for years a member of Congress and also
Minister to France.
The position of these Virginians was significant as representative of
the widespread anti-slavery sentiments which pervaded the state.
Chandler, of Norfolk County, represented the largest slaveholding
county in Tide-water Virginia; Broadnax and Bolling, two large
slaveholding counties in the Black Belt; Randolph and Marshall,
counties in the Piedmont section; Preston, the Southwest; McDowell,
the Upper Valley, and Berry and Faulkner, the two counties in the
extreme lower end of the valley.
Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier County, speaking in the Virginia House of
Delegates, January 14th, 1832, when the subject of the gradual
abolition of slavery was under discussion, said:
"Wherefore, then, object to slavery? Because it is ruinous to the
whites, retards improvements, roots out an industrious
population—banishes the yeomanry of the country—deprives the
spinner, the weaver, the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, of
employment and support. The evil admits of no remedy, and it is
increasing and will continue to increase until the whole country
will be inundated by one black wave covering its whole extent, with
a few white faces here and there floating on the surface."[130]
John A. Chandler, a representative from Norfolk County, speaking on
the 17th of January in the same debate, said:
"It will be recollected, sir, that when the memorial from Charles
City was presented by the gentleman from Hanover, and when its
reference was opposed, I took occasion to observe that I believed
the people of Norfolk County would rejoice could they even in the
vista of time see some scheme for the general removal of this
_curse_ from our land. I should have voted, sir, for its rejection
because I was desirous to see a report from the committee declaring
the slave population an evil and recommending to the people of this
commonwealth the adoption of some plan for its riddance."[131]
William H. Broadnax, speaking as a representative from the County of
Dinwiddie, on the 19th of January, in the same debate, said:
"That slavery in Virginia is an evil and a transcendent evil it
would be idle and worse than idle for any human being to doubt or
deny. It is a mildew which has blighted in its course every region
it has touched from the creation of the world. Illustrations from
the history of other countries and other times might be instructive
and profitable had we time to review them, but we have evidence
tending to the same conviction nearer at hand in the short histories
of the different states of this great confederacy which are
impressive in their admonitions and conclusive in their
character."[132]
Henry Berry, speaking as a representative from Jefferson County, on
the 20th of January, in the same debate, said:
"Sir, I believe that no cancer on the physical body was ever more
certain, steady and fatal in its progress than is this cancer on the
political body of the State of Virginia. It is eating into her very
vitals. And shall we act the part of a puny patient, suffering under
the ravages of a fatal disease, who would say the remedy is too
painful, the dose is too nauseous, I cannot bear it; who would close
his eyes in despair and give himself up to death? No, sir, I would
bear the knife and the cautery, for the sake of health. I would
never despair of the Republic. For myself, I would abandon hope on
this subject and the state together."[133]
Charles James Faulkner, speaking as a representative from Berkeley
County, on the 20th of January, in the same debate, said:
"Wherever the voice of your people has been heard since the
agitation of this question, it has sustained your determination and
called for the present enquiry. I have heard of county meetings,
county petitions, and county memorials; I have heard from the North,
the East, and the South. They are all, with one voice, against the
continuance of slavery. None for it. The press, too, that mirror of
public sentiment, that concentrated will of a whole community, has
been heard from one extremity of the state to the other. Its power
is with us, its moral force is united, efficient and encouraging. In
this city, the capital of the Old Dominion, the heart of the
commonwealth, which by one ventricle receives and through the other
discharges the life blood of intelligence and public spirit
throughout your empire, aye, and from a quarter and from many
quarters where such a voice was least expected its tones have been
firm, manly, and intrepid. Honor, sir, to those who dare speak the
truth in the worst of times."
In conclusion he said:
"In the language of the wise and prophetic Jefferson, 'you must
approach it, you must bear it, you must adopt some plan of
emancipation, or worse will follow.'"[134]
James McDowell, speaking as a representative from Rockbridge County,
on the 21st of January, in the same debate, said:
"Sir, you may place the slave where you please—you may dry up to
your uttermost the fountains of his feelings, the springs of his
thought—you may close upon his mind every avenue of knowledge and
cloud it over with artificial night—you may yoke him to your labors
as the ox which liveth only to work and worketh only to live—you
may put him under any process, which, without destroying his value
as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being—you may
do this and the idea that he was born to be free will survive it
all. It is allied to his hope of immortality—it is the ethereal
part of his nature which oppression cannot reach; it is a torch lit
up in his soul by the hand of the Deity and never meant to be
extinguished by the hand of man."[135]
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, speaking as a representative from Albemarle
County, on the 21st of January, in the same debate, said:
"Does slavery exist in any part of civilized Europe? No, sir, in no
part of it. America is the only civilized Christian nation that
bears the opprobrium. In every other country where civilization and
Christianity have existed together they have erased it from their
codes."[136]
Philip A. Bolling, speaking as a representative from Buckingham
County, on the 25th of January, in the same debate, said:
"Mr. Speaker, it is vain for gentlemen to deny the fact that the
feelings of society are fast becoming adverse to slavery. Moral
causes which produce that feeling are on the march and will on until
the groans of slavery are heard no more in this else happy country.
Look over this world's wide page—see the rapid progress of liberal
feelings—see the shackles falling from nations who have long
writhed under the galling yoke of slavery. Liberty is going over the
whole earth, hand in hand with Christianity."[137]
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Footnote 130:
_Virginia Slavery Debate_, 1832, White, Speech of Thomas Marshall,
p. 6.
Footnote 131:
_Idem_, Speech of J. A. Chandler, p. 3.
Footnote 132:
_Idem_, Speech of William H. Broadnax, p. 10.
Footnote 133:
_Idem_, Speech of Henry Berry, p. 2.
Footnote 134:
_Idem_, Speech of C. J. Faulkner, p. 5 and p. 22.
Footnote 135:
_Idem_, Speech of James McDowell, p. 20.
Footnote 136:
_Idem_, Speech of T. J. Randolph, p. 15.
Footnote 137:
_Idem_, Speech of Philip A. Bolling, p. 15.