VIRGINIA'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SLAVERY AND SECESSION
This work is designed as a contribution to the volumeof information from which the historian of the future willbe able to prepare an impartial and comprehensive narrativeof the American Civil War, or to speak more accurately—TheAmerican War of Secession.
No attempt has been made to present the causes whichprecipitated the secession of the Cotton States, nor thestates which subsequently adopted the same policy, exceptVirginia. Even in regard to that commonwealth theeffort has been limited to the consideration of two featuresprominent in the public mind as constituting the mostpotent factors in determining her action—namely, devotionto slavery and hostility to the Union. That thepeople of Virginia were moved to secession by a selfishdesire to extend or maintain the institution of slavery,or from hostility to the Union, are propositions seeminglyat variance with their whole history and the interestswhich might naturally have controlled them in the hourof separation. Yet how widespread the impression andhow frequent the suggestion from the pen of historian andpublicist that the great and compelling motives which ledVirginia to secede were a desire to extend slavery intothe territories and to safeguard the institution within herown borders, coupled with a spirit of hostility to theUnion and the ideals of liberty proclaimed by its founders.To present the true attitude of the dominant element ofthe Virginia people with respect to these subjects is thework which the author has taken in hand.
As cognate to this purpose the effort has been madeto show what was the proximate cause which influencedthe great body of the Virginia people in the hour of finaldecision. There were unquestionably many and widelysevered causes—some remote in origin and some immediateto the hour, yet it may be safely asserted that butfor the adoption by the Federal Government of the policyof coercion towards the Co