Some evidence of the spirit which animated the people of Virginia may be
gathered from the speeches of her delegates. John Tyler, on assuming the
Presidency of the body, spoke in part as follows:
"The voice of Virginia has invited her co-states to meet her in
council. In the initiation of this Government that same voice was
heard and complied with, and the resulting seventy-odd years have
fully attested the wisdom of the decision then adopted. Is the urgency
of her call less great than it was then? Our God-like fathers created!
We have to preserve. They have built up through their wisdom and
patriotism monuments which have eternized their names. You have before
you, gentlemen, a task equally grand, equally sublime, quite as full
of glory and immortality; you have to snatch from ruin a grand and
glorious Confederation, to preserve the Government and to renew and
invigorate the constitution. If you reach the height of this great
occasion your children's children will rise up and call you
blessed."[359]
In the course of one of his speeches, Ex-Senator Rives said:
"Mr. President, the position of Virginia must be understood and
appreciated. She is just now the neutral ground between two embattled
legions—between two angry, excited and hostile portions of the Union.
Something must be done to save the country, to allay these
apprehensions, to restore a broken confidence. Virginia steps in to
arrest the progress of the country on its way to ruin.... Sir, I have
had some experience in revolutions in another hemisphere, in
revolutions produced by the same causes that are now operating among
us.... I have seen the pavements of Paris covered and the gutters
running with fraternal blood. God forbid I should see this horrid
picture repeated in my own country—and yet it will be, sir! if we
listen to the counsel urged here."[360]
George W. Summers, another of the Virginia delegates, opened his speech
to the conference in these words:
"Mr. President! my heart is full! I cannot approach the great issues
with which we are dealing, with becoming coolness and deliberation!
Sir! I love this Union. The man does not live who entertains a higher
respect for this government than I do. I know its history—I know how
it was established. There is not an incident in its history that is
not precious to me. I do not wish to survive its dissolution."[361]