ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENTS OF PROMINENT THE anti-slavery sentiments of prominent Virginians, expressed in the speeches delivered in the notable debate which occurred in the Virginia Legislature of 1832, may well be considered in a group by themselves. The speakers were all young men and represented a later generation than those from whom quotations have already been given. Many of them were destined to fill important rôles in the political life of the state and some of them, with undiminished influence, survived the period of the Civil War. McDowell became Governor of the state and a member of Congress; Preston was a member of Congress, a member of President Taylor's Cabinet, and one of the leading spirits in the Virginia Convention of 1861; Randolph was repeatedly returned to the Legislature and was a prominent member of the Reform Convention of 1850-51, and Faulkner was for years a member of Congress and also Minister to France. The position of these Virginians was significant as representative of the widespread anti-slavery sentiments which pervaded the state. Chandler, of Norfolk County, represented the largest slaveholding county in Tide-water Virginia; Broadnax and Bolling, two large slaveholding counties in the Black Belt; Randolph and Marshall, counties in the Piedmont section; Preston, the Southwest; McDowell, the Upper Valley, and Berry and Faulkner, 92 ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENTS, 1832 the two counties in the extreme lower end of the valley. Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier County, speaking in the Virginia House of Delegates, January 14th, 1832, when the subject of the gradual abolition of slavery was under discussion, said: "Wherefore, then, object to slavery? Because it is ruinous to the whites, retards improvements, roots out an industrious population-banishes the yeomanry of the country-deprives the spinner, the weaver, the smith, the shoemaker, the carpenter, of employment and support. The evil admits of no remedy, and it is increasing and will continue to increase until the whole country will be inundated by one black wave covering its whole extent, with a few white faces here and there floating on the surface." John A. Chandler, a representative from Norfolk County, speaking on the 17th of January in the same debate, said: "It will be recollected, sir, that when the memorial from Charles City was presented by the gentleman from Hanover, and when its reference was opposed, I took occasion to observe that I believed the people of Norfolk County would rejoice could they even in the vista of time see some scheme for the general removal of this curse from our land. I should have voted, sir, for its rejection because I was desirous to see a report from the committee declaring the slave population an evil and recommending to the people of this commonwealth the adoption of some plan for its riddance."2 William H. Broadnax, speaking as a representative from the County of Dinwiddie, on the 19th of January, in the same debate, said: Virginia Slavery Debate, 1832, White, Speech of Thomas Marshall, p. 6. 'Idem, Speech of J. A. Chandler, p. 3. ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENTS, 1832 93 "That slavery in Virginia is an evil and a transcendent evil it would be idle and worse than idle for any human being to doubt or deny. It is a mildew which has blighted in its course every region it has touched from the creation of the world. Illustrations from the history of other countries and other times might be instructive and profitable had we time to review them, but we have evidence tending to the same conviction nearer at hand in the short histories of the different states of this great confederacy which are impressive in their admonitions and conclusive in their character."1 Henry Berry, speaking as a representative from Jefferson County, on the 20th of January, in the same debate, said: "Sir, I believe that no cancer on the physical body was ever more certain, steady and fatal in its progress than is this cancer on the political body of the State of Virginia. It is eating into her very vitals. And shall we act the part of a puny patient, suffering under the ravages of a fatal disease, who would say the remedy is too painful, the dose is too nauseous, I cannot bear it; who would close his eyes in despair and give himself up to death? No, sir, I would bear the knife and the cautery, for the sake of health. I would never despair of the Republic. For myself, I would abandon hope on this subject and the state together." Charles James Faulkner, speaking as a representative from Berkeley County, on the 20th of January, in the same debate, said: "Wherever the voice of your people has been heard since the agitation of this question, it has sustained your determination and called for the present enquiry. I have heard of county meetings, county petitions, and county 'Idem, Speech of William H. Broadnax, p. 10. 94 ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENTS, 1832 memorials; I have heard from the North, the East, and the South. They are all, with one voice, against the continuance of slavery. None for it. The press, too, that mirror of public sentiment, that concentrated will of a whole community, has been heard from one extremity of the state to the other. Its power is with us, its moral force is united, efficient and encouraging. In this city, the capital of the Old Dominion, the heart of the commonwealth, which by one ventricle receives and through the other discharges the life blood of intelligence and public spirit throughout your empire, aye, and from a quarter and from many quarters where such a voice was least expected its tones have been firm, manly, and intrepid. Honor, sir, to those who dare speak the truth in the worst of times." In conclusion he said: "In the language of the wise and prophetic Jefferson, 'you must approach it, you must bear it, you must adopt some plan of emancipation, or worse will follow."" James McDowell, speaking as a representative from Rockbridge County, on the 21st of January, in the same debate, said: "Sir, you may place the slave where you please—you may dry up to your uttermost the fountains of his feelings, the springs of his thought-you may close upon his mind every avenue of knowledge and cloud it over with artificial night-you may yoke him to your labors as the ox which liveth only to work and worketh only to live-you may put him under any process, which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being-you may do this and the idea that he was born to be free will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality-it is the ethereal part of his nature which oppression cannot reach; it is a torch lit up in his soul by 'Idem, Speech of C. J. Faulkner, p. 5 and p. 22. ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENTS, 1832 96 95 the hand of the Deity and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man.' Thomas Jefferson Randolph, speaking as a representative from Albemarle County, on the 21st of January, in the same debate, said: "Does slavery exist in any part of civilized Europe? No, sir, in no part of it. America is the only civilized Christian nation that bears the opprobrium. In every other country where civilization and Christianity have existed together they have erased it from their codes." Philip A. Bolling, speaking as a representative from Buckingham County, on the 25th of January, in the same debate, said: "Mr. Speaker, it is vain for gentlemen to deny the fact that the feelings of society are fast becoming adverse to slavery. Moral causes which produce that feeling are on the march and will on until the groans of slavery are heard no more in this else happy country. Look over this world's wide page-see the rapid progress of liberal feelings -see the shackles falling from nations who have long writhed under the galling yoke of slavery. Liberty is going over the whole earth, hand in hand with Christianity." Idem, Speech of James McDowell, p. 20. |