Jefferson Davis, in his farewell address to the United States Senate,
expressed the sentiments of Virginia upon this point when he said:
"Now, sir, we are confusing language very much. Men speak of
revolution; and when they say revolution, they mean blood. Our fathers
meant nothing of the sort. When they spoke of revolution, they meant
an inalienable right. When they declared as an inalienable right, the
power of the people to abrogate and modify their form of government
whenever it did not answer the ends for which it was established, they
did not mean that they were to sustain that by brute force.... Are we,
in this age of civilization and political progress ... are we to roll
back the whole current of human thought and again to return to the
mere brute force which prevails between beasts of prey as the only
method of settling questions between men?...
"Is it to be supposed that the men who fought the battles of the
Revolution for community independence, terminated their great efforts
by transmitting posterity to a condition in which they could only gain
those rights by force? If so, the blood of the Revolution was shed in
vain; no great principles were established; for force was the law of
nature before the battles of the Revolution were fought."[400]