Such was the attitude of the great body of the Virginia people. That no
new principle was asserted to meet the exigencies of the hour, all
acquainted with the history of the state will readily appreciate. Even
men who denied the constitutional right of secession, joined with those
who believed in that right in opposing coercion.
Robert E. Lee, writing on the 23d of January, 1861, said:
"Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our constitution
never exhausted so much labor, wisdom and forbearance in its formation
and surrounded it with so many guards and securities if it was
intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will....
"Still a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets and
in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love
and kindness, has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and the
Government disrupted I shall return to my native state and share the
miseries of my people—and save in defense will draw my sword on
none."[401]
William C. Rives, speaking on the 19th of February, 1861, in the Peace
Conference at Washington, as one of the Commissioners from Virginia,
said:
"I condemn the secession of states, I am not here to justify it. I
detest it, but the fact is still before us. Seven states have gone out
from among us and a President is actually inaugurated to govern the
new Confederacy.... Force will never bring them together. Coercion is
not a word to be used in this connection."[402]
George Baylor, speaking on the 1st of March 1861, in the Virginia
Convention, said:
"I have said, Mr. President, that I did not believe in the right of
secession. But whilst I make that assertion, I also say that I am
opposed to coercion on the part of the Federal Government with the
view of bringing the seceded states back into the Union.... I am
opposed to it first because I can find no authority in the
Constitution of the United States delegating that power to the Federal
Government, and second because if the Federal Government had the power
it would be wrong to use it."[403]
The foregoing sentiments were not confined to the Virginia people,
either of the Revolutionary or Civil War periods. A few deliverances by
men of international reputation made during the three decades preceding
the Civil War will serve to illustrate the truth of this suggestion:
M. de Tocqueville, in his work, _Democracy in America_, discussing the
subject, says:
"However strong a government may be, it cannot easily escape from the
consequences of a principle which it has once admitted as the
foundation of its constitution. The Union was formed by the voluntary
agreement of the states; and in uniting together they have never
forfeited their nationality nor have they been reduced to the
condition of one and the same people. If one of the states chose to
withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove
its right of doing so; and the Federal Government would have no means
of maintaining its claims directly, either by force or by right."[404]