coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line, once conceived would never more, I fear, be obliterated from the mind: that it would be recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to eternal discord." To John Holmes, he wrote: "I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle (emancipation) more likely to be effected by union than scission, they would pause before they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of the world." Three years later he reviewed the attitude of parties towards fundamental principles in a long letter to LaFayette. "On the eclipse of federalism (he wrote) with us, although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of producing a geographical division of parties which might insure them the next President. The line of division now, is the preservation of State rights as reserved in the Constitution, or by strained constructions of that instrument, to merge all into a consolidated government."

It will appear that the National party, of Hamilton, passed down the years to become the Federal party, of John Adams, the Whig party, of Henry Clay, and the Republican party, of William H. Seward, in orderly succession. It lead the way in all its stages of existence and varying names to acts of consolidation and to enforced emancipation of slaves. In its last form, its leaders declared the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution to be the controlling law of the Union: that the Declaration was the interpretation of the Constitution, binding the consciences of all citizens: that States could confer on their organism, or Union, no grant of power inconsistent with the "illuminated initial letter of our history "the Declaration. The party claim, that the Declaration,

and not the Constitution, was the charter of compact between the States, avoided the closing clause of the document, which declared the States, in all respects, sovereign, having "full power to levy war (each for itself) conclude peace (each for itself) contract alliances, establish commerce," etc. The party construed the Declaration to be superior to all national acts in the dogma laid down in the opening clauses, that, "all men are created equal." It becomes important to the fame of Mr. Jefferson to preserve his own interpretation of this much abused phraseology, so far as it relates to the African race. That the words quoted were borrowed from Montesquieu, where they were used only to emphasize the proposition, that domestic slavery is contrary to "natural reason," is evident. That Mr. Jefferson consistently, on all occasions, denied the equality of the African race, is unequivocally shown in his own words. Permitting him to hold to his view of the inequality of the Caucasian and African, there is no inconsistency between the apothegm quoted from the opening clause of the Declaration, as he wrote it, and the fundamental principles set forth in his correspondence. When Congress deliberated on the Articles of Confederation he urged that the importation of Africans be at once discontinued, on the broad ground, that at some future time their emancipation would become necessary as an economy, and when that time arrived their deportation would be required for the reason, that the inferior race and the superior could not live together in a free country. South Carolina and Georgia, supported by the New England States, in the Congress, objected; the first, because of the profits of slave labor and the last, because of the profits of commerce in slaves. (Jefferson's Correspondence, Vol. I, Autobiographical Section) So was his plan lost.

Under date, Monticello, August 30, 1803, President Jefferson wrote to Levi Lincoln, suggesting an amendment to the federal Constitution conferring citizenship upon the people of Louisiana Territory, and prospectively upon the people of the Floridas with this "special exception," that the "white inhabitants shall be citizens." (Jefferson's Correspondence, Vol. IV, pp. 1 and 2.)

No State was ever admitted to the Union under the act enacting the line 36° 30,' with the consent of the party which

compelled the measure. At a later time the Supreme Court held the act and all others of the same class preceding it to be unconstitutional. Ir order to invalidate this decree, known as the Dred Scott decision, Congress passed an act, approved by President Lincoln, April, 1862, prohibiting slavery, except for crime, in any of the common estate.*

The Southern States, in 1861, believing the federal theory had been lost, and the government had degenerated to a gov. ernment of the numerical majority, resolved, under the appeals of Mr. Yancey, as well as other leaders, to attempt to restore the Constitutional system to its original beneficence in a re-organized Union of homogeneous States. In those States, a surviving devotion to the principles of the Constitution has been the silent force calling forth talent, moral and physical energies, whose action commands the confidence of millions of citizens in the country at large, and calls forth the admiration of enlightened people in all lands.

* Some opinions of Mr. Jefferson on the subject of emancipation are worthy of revival. He wrote, in 1807, while President, that the acquisition of Louisiana Territory would permit the diffusion of slaves and hasten thereby their emanci pation. His plan of effecting emancipation, early matured, was deportation. He would fix a date after which all born should be free. When these reached years of self-support he would deport them by the authority of the Government, but not to Africa. San Domingo then desired them. Thus those left in slavery, falling off in course of nature, both the institution of slavery and the presence of the unassimilating race would be disposed of. He considered deportation of the whole race of all ages impracticable.

LIFE OF YANCEY.

CHAPTER I.

A Young Editor and Orator.

1814-1838.

Four brothers, Charles, William, Joel and Robert Yancey, Welchmen, came with their families to Virginia, in 1642, with Governor Sir William Berkeley. The Welch names of the British American settlements hold places of honor in the history of American free institutions far above the ratio of Welch colonists. The Welch ancestor of Thomas Jefferson sat in the first Legislative Assembly of the New World, convened in the chancel of the Church at Jamestown, July 30, 1619. The Welch ancestor of Chief Justice John Marshall was the progenitor of a numerous family of ardent American patriots.

The Yanceys opened plantations in the James river region, and prospered. Indentured servants were imported from Europe, the African slave trade flourished, and in the Virginia planter was laid the foundation of the American revolution. Governor Berkeley's seat, "Green Spring," near Jamestown, was the abode of limitless hospitality. "His plate, wines, servants, carriages, seventy horses, and fifteen hundred apple trees, besides peaches, pears, quinces, and mellicottons," were sources of enjoyment to the planters for thirty-five years. "Charles, of Buckingham," was one of the Yanceys of note

in the early times. He owned a great landed estate, served thirty years in public life, and at last suffered defeat by a young man, in revenge of the denial to him of the hand of his daughter. Lewis Davis Yancey, a son of one of the four pioneers, toward the middle of the seventeenth century, settled upon a landed estate in Culpepper county, which his descendants have since continuously held. Of those of the patronymic who fought for Independence, was Captain Joel Yancey, who fell at Cowpens. The sword and epaulettes he wore on that field are now in the possession of one of his descendants. In succeeding generations the name has maintained high social position and political importance. Major General Robert Emmet Rodes, son of Martha Yancey, of Virginia, greatly distinguished himself in the military service of the Confederate States. From Lewis Davis Yancey, of Culpepper, was descended Major James Yancey, of the Virginia Continental army. It is probable he was of General Greene's Southern forces. Certain it is, that at the close of the war, he settled in the western part of South Carolina, Laurens District, it is believed, and entered upon the practice of the law. He married a lady of Charleston, of excellent family, Miss Cudworth. To them was born a son, Benjamin Cudworth, in 1783. Some authorities allege the birth of the child took place while his parents were on a visit to Charleston, others while they visited Baltimore, and yet others while they visited Boston.* The lad Benjamin was sent to the academy of classics, in Laurens, taught by Dr. Pyles. His bold spirit and handsome person excited the fondest expectations of his parents and, at a proper age, he was placed as midshipman on Captain Truxtun's flag ship. The threat of a naval war with France promised early service. The duties of the midshipman, then, were at the mast head. Volunteer preceptors for bright and willing lads were found, however, among the higher officers on board. The literary culture received by Midshipman Yancey in the several years of his service at sea is a subject of conjecture. In the shock of two severe naval engagements it is known that he acquitted

A desk containing a family record which had been prepared by W. L. Yancey was taken from his residence at Montgomery by United States soldiers in 1865, and not returned. The genealogical description I have made here is the result of an extensive correspondence with the Yancey family in several States. Their accounts differ only in immaterial matters.