a society on the pattern of Sir Thomas parent as they are now, and received the More's Utopia. Tradition assigns a beauti- same awards of aversion or esteem." "The ful island in the Rappahannock, two miles punishment for idleness, lying, dishonesty, above Fredericksburg, on which are some and ill-fame generally was that of hating old ruins, but which is now uninhabited, as the offender out,' as they expressed it. This the locality selected for Utopia.* was equivalent to the aruia among the Greeks." "He who did not help at houseraisings or harvest parties was branded with the epithet Laurence, and knew that in no emergency would he ever be helped by his neighbours. If one would not serve in the militia no law could compel him, but he was hated out as a coward unless he was a Quaker." A man on a campaign stole from his comrade an ash-cake (a cake of Indian meal cooked in the ashes) and was named the "Bread rounds." A tattler was "Foultongue." These names were given in such good earnest that some of the descendants have found it impossible to shake them off, and some of them still remain, altered, as family names. This system of tongue-lynching exists still in Virginia. The present Confederate Governor of Virginia is universally known as Extra-Billy Smith, from his having once demanded and received extra pay from the United States as a mail agent for services believed to have been never rendered. It is strongly affirmed by Kercheval and others that a sturdy and powerful race of men began to exist in this portion of Virginia, surpassing the average Englishman in physical stature. A woman, it is declared, was equal in strength to an Indian; and the country is full of Amazonian legends. A young Virginian killed a buffalo on the Alleghany mountains, stretched its skin on some logs lashed together, and upon the raft so made sailed the full length of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. All this development was, it is bitterly declared, checked by the influx to every part of the State of "effeminate and worn-out English gentry" with their London laws and fashions.

What I have said relates almost exclusively to East Virginia. The smaller settlements of West Virginia were developing a different kind of life. Those Germans and Dutchmen were a much more self-reliant and hard-working people. They did not take kindly to the institution of slavery, and if they put the slaves to work they would generally work by their side. That which East Virginia has never had a hardworking, well-to-do common people-West Virginia formed for itself at an early period. For a long time immediately preceding the War of Independence there was an unsettled question concerning the jurisdiction to which the more settled regions of West Virginia belonged, no lines having been satisfactorily fixed between that portion of the territory and those of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The condition of society during this period of thirty or forty years - in which the administration of law itself ceased - is worthy the attention of political philosophers. There was actually no code but public opinion, no administration but that of the mob. No courts were held; and judges were ermined and juries empannelled by the community only as occasion demanded. Old Kercheval, who was born in that region and grew from that state of things, declares that "although they had no civil, military, or ecclesiastical laws," they were a law to themselves in all the relations in which they stood to each other. The turpitude of vice and the majesty of virtue were then as ap

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*Much of this region was settled by Scotch families - the Gordons, Scotts, Knoxes, Moncures, Wallaces, whose descendants have always been the most prominent persons in the neighbourhood. Douglass Gordon of Fredericksburg is perhaps the wealthiest man in Virginia: it is said that, fore

money to England, but returned, and is now devot seeing the present war, he managed to bring his

ing his energies to the Confederacy. Amongst these early Scotch settlers were the brothers Campbell, one of whom was the father of the poet. It would seem that Thomas came near being a Virginian. His father retired from business, and returned to Glasgow about the time of his birth. There is a tradition in Virginia that the poet once visited that State, and that it was in full view of the fine scenery of the Rappahannock that he wrote " Lord Ullin's Daughter," But it is probable that, if the poet had ever gone to America, he would have taken a peep at the valley of Wyoming, in Pennsylvania. A friend of the writer related that he once visited Campbell, who asked him if he had ever seen Wy oming. On being told that he had, the poet asked if the description in Gertrude was anything like the place. My friend told the truth as gently as he could, that there was no resemblance at all; upon

which poor Campbell wept from mortification.

It will be seen that at a very early period branches-East Virginia with predomithis young colony had put forth two distinct nant English blood, with slavery the basis of a society which must under it become divided into land and slave owners on the one hand, and on the other than slaves by this fact, that they could not whites-kept poorer poor get employment with wages when the work could be done without wages by negroes; West Virginia with a population mixed of Germans, English, and Dutch, with that disinclination for the institution of slavery which will be found more or less in all the mountain districts of the South (showing that Milton rightly named Freedom, “a

mountain nymph"), and with the hardy taller. The Virginian lady seems to me cercharacteristics which are produced when tainly in airy grace and beauty superior to men are thrown much on their own resources all others. But the Virginian has not so for livelihood and government. At a very good an occiput as the New Englander. early period there were manifestations of jeal- From earliest times he has been lazy. Not ousy between these sections of the State, given to steady and energetic movement in which, however, the Revolutionary War his history, but with long stretches of indoagainst England put to rest for about half a lent calmness ending in revolutionary and century. The breaking out of that war crys- convulsive epochs. tallized Virginia, as it did the Thirteen Colonies, into a kind of unity. But it did more; it showed that Virginia contained some strong and brave men whose existence amongst those crude elements had not been suspected. Washington, though he can scarcely be called a great man, and though he was not above a poor jealousy of Thomas Paine, to whose writings, read by order to his soldiers, he attributed much of their energy, was certainly a man of bravery, strong sense, and of the purest patriotism. Henry was eloquent and earnest; George Mason could "toil terribly;" Jefferson, though he became a trickster in his later, was capable of a pure enthusiasm in his earlier, days; and Madison, Monroe, and Graham were men of honest convictions and good knowledge of law. These men must indeed be credited to England, and perhaps never indicated their origin more plainly than in that war; but with them the English nature seems in that State to have culminated and passed away with the revolutionary climax which was its legitimate fruit. If Mr. Buckle had been able to make his contemplated visit to America, he might have left us an important chapter upon these changes, which are more remarkable in Virginia than elsewhere in America, because there has been no foreign immigration by which the blood could have been mixed as has been the case in the North and Northwest.

Without attempting to go deeply into the physiological question involved, I may say that the change to which I refer seems to me very different from that which appears in the people of New England and the Northwest, who in the process of time have certainly been modified by some of the nobler of the Indian characters. Both in the North and in the South external influences seem to have shown themselves more potent than inheritance. But the Virginian has not shown the Indian characters: I should rather say there was something Spanish. The New Englander is lank and bony, because with less flesh than the Englishman he has a slightly larger skeleton; the Virginian and Carolinian has less flesh also, but with a skeleton less thick though quite as tall as that of the average Englishman, or

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There is one portion of Virginia of which I cannot undertake to give an account, that which consists of the counties Accomack and Northampton, and which is separated from the mainland by the Chesapeake Bay. This is called "the Eastern Shore," and not nearly so much is known of the people who dwell there as of the Japanese. They are said to represent the lowest classes who came originally from England. Printing, books, and newspapers are unknown among them; and they are said to still give their annual presidential vote for General Jackson, being ready to mob any one who ventures to hint that the General is no longer a candidate for earthly honours. Some Munchausens declare that they still imagine themselves living under George III. This was a part of the Congressional District which for many years returned Henry A. Wise to the United States Congress. Once in that body, when Wise had cast some slur upon the "Buckeyes," the popular name for Ohioans, the Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, amused the House with the following story :- Sir, when on one occasion I was conducting a case in Court, we had called as a witness an aged man, of a Rip-vanWinklian aspect, who seemed tottering upon the verge of the grave, and to be certainly more than a century old. On being asked by the Court how old he was, he replied 'Fifty years.' The Judge, in astonishment, put the question again: Fifty years,' was the reply. Sir,' said the Judge, it is evident to all that you are nearer twice fifty; it is only your extreme age that prevents my committing you for contempt. You are under oath, sir,— how old are you?' The old man, with a tear upon his wrinkled cheek, and with trembling cracked voice, replied, 'I did live a matter o' forty year on the Eastern shore o' Virginny; but I hope the Lord hezn't counted that agin me."" It is one of the humours of the present war that when General Dix invaded Accomack he was unable to discover but one man, who was very drunk. General Dix having carried with him from the President a proclamation, the vanquished man was placed before the troops when he had recovered his senses, and had the proclamation, begin

ning solemnly, "Citizen of Accomack!" giving up all they had been fighting for, read to him.

John

his appearance in Richmond, the adoration | Garnetts, Daniels, Scots, Barbours. that was extended to him, and the noise S. Barbour, who died recently at an admade over him, was precisely like that vanced age, was more eloquent than any which, in 1807, attended the arrival of Aaron Burr in the same city as a prisoner, charged with high treason in having attempted to divide the Western States from the Union. That Burr had aimed to reach the throne of Mexico there is no doubt; that he wished to divide the Union there is no evidence; but no matter, he stood in a prison at Richmond, the Vice-President of the United States, charged by the President (Jefferson) with a crime against the Federal Government, -that was enough to make him a hero. The fugitive from New York, where he had slain in a duel the Federal leader, Hamilton, was an idol in Richmond, though, or even because, in bonds. Ladies sent him rarest boquets, finest wines, daintiest viands; and his beautiful daughter, Theodosia, was the queen of society during the trial. Mr. Jefferson knew what all this homage at Richmond meant: he knew that behind the case of President v. VicePresident, the radical Virginians were feeling out the case far ahead on the docket, of State-Sovereignty v. the Union.

If it is asked why Virginia should have been the chief battle-field of these forces, I cannot reply. Certain it is that New England, where was the nucleus of Federalism, and the Carolinas, where was the nucleus of States-Rights, saw the theories for which they respectively stood struggling for fifty years with pen and tongue down on those very plains of Virginia where now they are fighting with fire and sword. It was the strong men generated in Virginia by these active forces who gained for her the name of The Mother of States and of Statesmen. It was of course but little foreseen that the fierce clash of political parties was to end in that of armed troops. The young Virginian's training in politics was as strict and normal as that of the young Roman in arms in the olden time. Political meetings were held in the open air, the climate being favourable for that. Platforms were erected in groves adjacent to some town, and the thousands who attended were provided for by a "barbecue," an ox being generally roasted for the occasion. Glee clubs were in attendance to sing partysongs. The excitement attendant upon presidential campaigns was so great that many duels occurred. (Duels in Virginia were always fought with fire-arms.) The Virginian politicians were, I have said, very eloquent on both sides. There were families noted for their gifts,— as the Marshalls,

man I have heard, though I have listened to all the leading speakers of the United States Congress and of Parliament. John Randolph, of Roanoke, was the strongest leader that the radicals of Virginia ever had He was the warrior who prepared the way for the formation of the new school of politics under Mr. Calhoun. He was a small dark man, with beardless face, and an intensely black eye. He was proud of his descent from Pocahontas, and his Indian blood was easily discernible. His voice had a very peculiar ringing quality, which gave the listener the feeling that the fine weapon which he used was twisted around after entering his antagonist. He did not use the tomahawk, but the finest of rapiers. He was remorseless in his sarcasms, and was ready to stand by them in the field. He was not bad-hearted, however; in a duel with Henry Clay, he received Mr. Clay's fire and then discharged his own pistol in the air, exclaiming, "I would not make a widow and orphans for all the Ohio and its tributaries." His caustic and witty sayings were reported throughout the country, like those of Dr. Johnson, as when a writhing antagonist, meeting him full on the main avenue at Washington, said, "I do not give the way to puppies." "I do, sir," said Randolph, yielding the path, and walking on. Many assertions have been circulated against Randolph's personal character, which are utterly unfounded. They are traceable in part to the hate he excited by his relentless attacks, but still more to his contempt for the ignorant and fanatical sects by which he was surrounded. He has for many years served the Methodists and Baptists of Virginia, as Voltaire has elsewhere, to point their exhortations: the allegation being that on his deathbed, when he could speak no longer, he wrote the word Remorse. It has since been proved that he simbly wrote the name of a neighbor — R. E. Morse whom he desired to see! Mr. Randolph was kind to his slaves whilst he lived, and liberated them at his death.

And this leads me to remark that this anti-federal and State-sovereignty party, of which Randolph was the shaping leader, was by no means an especially pro-slavery party. It is only in modern times that it seized upon the rapid growth of anti-slavery opinion in the North as a means of alarming the South, in order to secure its own darling project-a dissolution of the Federal Union. It has been frequently asserted, and is to be

9

elected; but they preferred to divide their party and insure the election of an anti-slavery man, which they knew would convert the entire South to their views. There is, then, no doubt that these Virginians and Carolinians threw away deliberately the power to rule the Union in the interest of slavery, in order to regain State-sovereignty; and there is no doubt that they are ready to liberate every slave in the South rather than There is destined, of return to the Union.

found in some of Mr. Seward's despatches, that the real wish of the Secessionists was not to destroy the Union but to rule it. This is true of most of the Gulf States. King Cotton would no doubt have been satisfied with perpetual rule over the Union. But the power behind his throne - represented by the Carolinians and Virginians— was that of men determined to dissolve the Union at any risk to slavery. They were by far the most earnest and cultivated men in the South. For the end of regaining that course to be a fearful struggle on this point Sovereignty of their States which their fa- in the South; already the Virginians and thers had voted away, they did not hesitate Carolinians are calling for the arming and to incite the North to a more hostile attitude emancipation of negroes for their higher ob towards slavery. John Randolph, for exam-ject, and the alarmed cotton-planters are deple, scathed every Northern man who took nouncing those measures; but it is likely his (Randolph's) side. "Non tali auxilio," he that the compact minority will win in shouted at Webster, who staggered like the the end. Could the South have been unitPhilistine when the Virginian called him, as ed on a decision to pay emancipation for he always did, "the attorney for Boston," independence its victory had been won. and Edward Everett," the ever strong upon Mr. Calhoun, the great representative of Sethe stronger side," sank trembling into his cession, always, I know, declared amongst seat when Randolph pointed his terrible his private friends that it might be one day finger and said, "I envy not the heart or necessary for the Southerners to pay slavery head of that man, who bred amidst free in- for independence. It would, however, have stitutions, stands here defending human killed the States-rights cause with the plantslavery." During the debate on the Mis-ers and the majority everywhere if this souri question, Randolph said: "We do not govern them (the people of the free States) by our black slaves, but by their own white slaves. We know what we are doing. We have conquered you once, and we can, and we will, conquer you again. Ay, sir, we will drive you to the wall, and when we have you there once more we mean to keep you there, and nail you down like bad money." This tone could and did have but one result, to form that very anti-slavery majority in the North which would secure the rule of the disunionist in the South. This tone was kept up to the last. The only prominent Northerners whom I have ever heard spoken of with any respect in the South have been Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, Emerson, and Garrison. When the great compromiser, Daniel Web ster, died, Theodore Parker's terrible sermon about him was printed in the Richmond Examiner, as "the best portrait" of that "elephantine coward," though Parker's invective against Webster was based entirely upon his (Webster's) conciliations of slavery. It was in the line of this traditional policy of the southern radicals that they should have adroitly forced the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. They had only to concede their extreme States-rights position, which the Northern democracy were unprepared for, and the most pro-slavery man in America could have easily been

had been more than whispered at the beginning of the Secession. It seems to me that it would be a glorious end to the American war -one worthy a new world and a new era peace should come by the North conceding its Uniolatry and the South its much worse Slaveolatry.

- if

But this martial condition of the political

* Mr. Calhoun was idolized in Virginia beyond all other men. When, after any adjournment of Congress," the great Carolinian" was about to return to his home, the usual traffic on the railway throughout the State of Virginia, through which he must needs pass, was altered, that he might travel on special trains, and be welcomed by committees and cheered by crowds at the various towns on the way. I remember well the last time he came through Fredericksburg. The parents demanded a half-holiday of the schools, that their children might see their hero. The pale, thin, bushy-haired man at the station, with his restless eyes and lips quivering with enthusiasm, came out of his carri ge, and greeted all the gentlemen by name (such was his memory) though he had never seen any of them before or since a similar railway-station recept on a year or two before. His look and his voice, as he entreated them to prepare for a coming struggle, made a deep impression upon me as a boy. "Who was it that spoke so?" I said to an uncle who was protecting me in the crowd. "The greatest man in the world!" cries he, his eyes filling with tears as he spoke;" and I hope you will live to see all he has said coming to pass." The year after President Lincoln's inauguration, I was walking along Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, and paused a moment with a group of men, who were much amused at a litt e boy carrying along the trunkless and bustless head of Calhoun, in plaster, of life size; the eye seemed to have become rigid, glaring upon the tents and soldiers all around. "It's Calhoun's head-smash it!" cried the mob; yet I thought rather with an aged man, who said softly, "He was a good man in his day.”