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Under the general head of miscellany may be classed many books of interest and value. Among these are "A History of the Religious Society of Friends," 4 vols., by Samuel M. Janney; Mrs. Johnson's "Hadji in Syria;" Commander Lynch's "Expedition to the River Jordan and Dead Sea; "Wonders of the Deep," "The Great Empress," and other works, by M. Schele de Vere; General Philip St. George Cooke's "Adventures in the Army," and "Conquest of New Mexico;" and in the department of humor, the "Native Virginian" and other productions, by Dr. George W. Bagby, which possess a peculiar charm from their fidelity and pathos. Earlier works, characteristic of the soil, were the "Nuga by Nugator" of St. Leger Landon Carter; and the curious productions of George Fitzhugh, "Sociology for the South," and "Cannibals All," in which the author argues gravely and with apparent conviction that free society is a failure, and that cannibalism will be the ultimate and inevitable result of African emancipation. Of the numerous publications on the subject of the late war, it is unnecessary to speak. Their value as historic authority must be fixed by the future.

This view of Virginia literature during the present century has necessarily been brief. Only the representative books in the various departments have been spoken of; to have adopted a different method would have been to write the history of Virginia literature, a task impossible to attempt in the present volume. The few works and writers referred to will convey an idea of the literature. If no great original genius has arisen to put the lion's paw on Virginia letters, many writers of admirable attainments and solid merit have produced works which have instructed and improved their genera

tion; and to instruct and improve is better than to amuse. Whatever may be the true rank of the literature, it possesses a distinct character. It may be said of it with truth that it is notable for its respect for good morals and manners; that it is nowhere offensive to delicacy or piety; or endeavors to instill a belief in what ought not to be believed. It is a very great deal to say of the literature of any country in the nineteenth century.

XXII.

THE WAR OF THE SECTIONS.

THE great convulsion of 1861-65 is already a thing of the past: a remote event nearly forgotten by the present generation, and gone with other events into history. The hot passions have died out, and the old enemies have become friends again. Those who survive the war are busy with other matters; and the blue and gray who fell fighting for what each believed to be the just cause, sleep in peace side by side under the flowers scattered indifferently by friends and foes.

A detailed history of the Civil War is impossible in this volume, and a mere summary of dates and events would possess no interest. A multitude of writers have also made the subject familiar in its minutest phases; and the long series of military occurrences may be omitted with propriety in a work aiming chiefly at the delineation of Virginia society and the character of the people. The writer has therefore preferred to leave this great episode to the annalists of the future, when more accurate information and the absence of contemporary prejudice will enable the student to arrive as nearly as possible at the absolute truth of history.

What the writer, however, is unwilling to omit is a brief statement of the attitude of Virginia in this new revolution, her persistent pleas for peace, and the causes which impelled her greatest and best citizens to make war on the Federal government. The murderous attack on Harper's Ferry in 1859, profoundly enraged the people, but had no effect whatever in separating Virginia from the Union. Even as late as the spring of 1861, when the Republicans had come into power by a distinctly sectional vote, and the whole tier of Gulf States had seceded, Virginia still refused to move; and it will now be shown that when she finally decided to dissolve her connection with the Union which she had done so much to establish, she did so with reluctance, making her choice between two alternatives, both of them painful.

Early in January, 1861, the Virginia Assembly met at Richmond to determine the action of the Commonwealth in the approaching struggle. It was plain that war was coming unless the authorities of the United States and of the seceding States would listen to reason; and the first proceedings of the Assembly looked to peace and the restoration of fraternal union. Virginia recommended to all the States to appoint deputies to a Peace Convention, to adjust "the present unhappy controversy in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed." Commissioners were appointed to call on the President of the United States and the seceded States or those that should secede, to "respectfully request the President and the authorities of such States to agree to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of this General Assembly, from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the

States and the Government of the United States." With these instructions the Commissioners proceeded to Washington, but effected nothing. The Peace Convention duly met at the Capitol (February 4, 1861), and proposed amendments to the Constitution, among the rest for the restoration of the Missouri Compromise; but when the recommendations of the Convention were reported to Congress they were rejected.

Thus ended in failure the first attempt of Virginia to preserve the national peace; and the crisis demanded that she should promptly decide upon her course. On February 13 (1861), a Convention assembled at Richmond, and a Committee was appointed on Federal Relations. On March 10 (1861), this Committee reported fourteen resolutions protesting against all interference with slavery; declaring secession to be a right; and defining the grounds on which the Commonwealth would feel herself to be justified in exercising that right, namely: the failure to obtain guarantees; the adoption of a warlike policy by the Government of the United States; or the attempt to exact the payment of duties from the seceded States, or to reënforce or recapture the Southern forts. These resolves clearly define the attitude of Virginia at this critical moment. After prolonged discussion, all but the last had passed the Convention when intelligence came that war had begun. The thunder of cannon from Charleston harbor broke up the political discussion.

Thus every effort made by Virginia to preserve the peace had been defeated. Her Peace Commission, sent to Washington, had returned without results; the Peace Convention assembled by her call had accomplished nothing; the seceded States would not listen to her ap

peal to keep the peace; and peace seemed even more remote from the view of the Federal authorities. Mr. Lincoln had expressed himself in his inaugural with perfect plainness. Secession was unlawful, and the Union remained unbroken; it was his duty to execute the laws, and he should perform it. To execute the laws it was necessary to have an army; and (April 15, 1861) President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 troops from the States remaining in the Union.

The direct issue was thus presented, and Virginia was called upon to decide the momentous question whether she would fight against the South or against the North. There was no evading the issue. The crisis pressed, and she must meet it. Many of her sisters of the South had reproached her for her delay. She had been denounced as a laggard, and without her old resolution; but she had resolution to decide for herself, in her own time, and not to shape her action by the views either of her friends or her foes. Against her persistent attachment to the Union the strongest appeals and the bitterest denunciations had beaten in vain. As late as the first week in April the Convention had refused to secede by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five. Virginia was conscientiously following her old traditions and would not move. Now the time had come at last. The naked question was presented on which side she would array herself whether her cannon were to be turned on the blue troops or the gray; and, that issue once defined, there was no more hesitation. On the 17th of April, two days after the Federal proclamation, the Convention passed an ordinance of secession and adhesion to the Southern Confederacy, by a vote of eighty-eight