THE STATUS OF THE CONTROVERSY REGARDING
SLAVERY AT THE TIME VIRGINIA SECEDED
FROM THE UNION
In considering the status of the controversy with respect to slavery
just prior to the Civil War, and whether Virginia in seceding was
actuated by a desire to extend or perpetuate the institution, it will
assist to a clearer understanding if we present in detail the several
phases over which conflicts had arisen, and the parties to the same.
The right and obligation of the Federal Government to prevent, by
legislation, slaveholders from emigrating into the territories with
their slaves; the duty of the Federal Government to provide through
its officials for the capture and return to their owners of fugitive
slaves; and the existence or abolition of slavery in the Southern
States—these constituted the three principal subjects of discussion
and points of conflict.
Coupled with this three-fold aspect of the problem, Virginia was
confronted by four factors, more or less potential in their relation
to the subject—the Federal Government, the Republican Party, certain
of the Northern States, and the Abolitionists.
With respect to the Federal Government, neither Virginia nor her
slaveholders could lodge any complaint.
The compromise measures of 1850 had accorded slaveholders the right to
carry their slaves into the territories of Utah and New Mexico (which
embraced the present states of Nevada, Utah, a portion of Colorado,
and the present territories of Arizona and New Mexico); while the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, enacted in 1854, repealed the restrictions
imposed by the Missouri Compromise.
Independent of these measures the Supreme Court of the United States
had, in 1857, in the Dred Scott case, decided that slaveholders
possessed the right under the constitution, to carry their slaves into
the territories, and that Congress could not deprive them of it. In
like manner, the Federal Government had enacted a fugitive slave law
with most efficient provisions for its enforcement by Federal
officials, and, finally, the continued existence of slavery in
Virginia found a sure defense from illegal assaults in the Federal
Constitution and the power and obligation of the National Government
to maintain its provisions.