* * * * *
SENATE CHAMBER, February 6, 1861.
MY DEAR ANDREW,--It seems to me that nothing is gained for the
Union by the Virginia election _except delay_, unless the North
surrender everything. I have always trusted that the North
would not, and therefore look to the secession of Virginia as
impending,--sooner or later to occur.
This delay seems like a beneficent intervention of Providence
to arrest the conflict, which a sudden movement would have
precipitated. It suspends the revolutionary movement in Maryland,
which was to begin the 18th,--five days after the Virginia
Convention,--and thus gives security to the capital.
Since General Scott has become wakeful, and has received powers
from the President, I have felt safe against everything but a
revolutionary movement.
Be assured I will keep you advised. I shall scent the coming
danger.
But do not be deceived by that fatal advice which sees nothing
but peace and security in the recent elections.
Chase has just left me. He thinks there may be thirty Unionists
_per se_ in the Virginia Convention; all the rest _only
conditionally_,--the condition being the resolutions on which the
Massachusetts commissioners are to deliberate. Bah! A friend,
who was with Mr. Rives this morning, tells me that he was very
bitter against Johnson, of Tennessee, for his Union speech, and
especially for saying “Secession is treason.” He says that the
persons called Unionists will be for secession, if the South
cannot have “Constitutional guaranties.” The course of such a
person as Mr. Rives, who is said to be conservative, foreshadows
the result.
I have just seen Colonel Ritchie: a most intelligent gentleman,
who does honor to our Commonwealth,--God bless her! But the
crisis is adjourned.
Ever yours,