The Virginia press on the Inaugural.
We make a few extracts from our Virginia exchanges showing the feeling created by Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural in this State:
[from the Norfolk Herald.]
It has utterly extinguished our small ray of hope in Mr. Lincoln's conservatism, which he had kindled up since his arrival in Washington. The address is offensive to the Southern people. It will arouse the indignation of the true men of the North, who, having seen in the results of the recent elections that there was an earnest desire in all the border slave States to restore the Union upon honorable and fair grounds, now discover that Mr. Lincoln, elected by a plurality only of the votes of the American people, inclines to cut the Gordian knot of our difficulties with the sword.The action of the conservatives in all the Border Slave States--co-operatives, we hope --will demonstrate their devotion to Southern rights and Southern honor, and dissipate the impression unfortunately created in the canvass for the Convention, that we are " submissionists."
We look to see the Virginia Convention taking firm and decided ground. Let no Black Republican imagine that Virginia will fail to be united in resisting the invasion of any portion of the South, or any other attempt to coerce the States which have resumed the powers formerly delegated by them to the Federal Government.
Mr. Lincoln has committed a capital mistake — such a one as Talleyrand pronounced " worse than a crime." He has offended the American people. May we not soon look for an auxiliary revolution in the North--and the downfall of Black Republicanism --in the person of its imbecile head? At all events, we are confident that the Conservative Convention of Virginia will do its duty. We have elected true Virginians, whose action we can sustain without fear of tarnishing Virginia's honor, and with perfect confidence in their wisdom, patriotism and love for the institutions of our State.
[from the Wheeling Union.]
We have believed that war could have been prevented by the prompt and decisive action of Virginia. We have believed that she had it in her power to preserve peace, and at the same time to secure her own rights against any future violation. To this end we have advised, urged and implored our fellow-citizens to act with decision and courage. Too many of them have been deluded with a vain hope of peace to be preserved by a fame submission to wrong. If the Inaugural does not now undeceive them we dread to think of the terrible events which are soon to scatter all hopes, except those which rest upon the armed battalions of a free people. God save Virginia!
[from the Farmville Journal.]
We have been as much attached to the Union as any man in it, and regret as much as it is possible for any one to do, that causes have arisen to make necessary its dismemberment. Yet, now that such causes do exist, and believing that Mr. Lincoln's policy will tend only to increase and magnify them, we cannot hesitate to express our sincere conviction that Virginia should no longer delay to sever her connection with the North--that both her honor and her interest require her to part company with those who will not regard her rights, and a longer connection with whom would place her in an attitude of hostility to those to whom she ought to be united by every tie that can bind a people together.
[from the Bedford Sentinel.]
This is a direct declaration of war against the seceded States. A denial that they are out of the Union imposes on him, in his view, the necessity of enforcing the laws of the General Government, as though they had not declared their connection with that Government at an end. Descending to particulars, he announces his intention to collect revenues in those States. He intends to wring tribute from an unwilling people, and to force them to contribute towards the expenses of a Government no longer recognized by them. He also intends to hold the fortifications in those States, and of course will retake those now in the possession of the Confederate States.
[from the Danville Register.]
Until this address had appeared in print, we were unwilling to believe that any individual elevated to the Chief Magistracy of this nation, though elected upon a sectional platform and by a sectional party, would dare to approach the discharge of his lofty trust with the declarations of a higher-law doctrine upon his lips — pronouncing a miserable threat against the people of one section, while he excuses the lawlessness of those of the other — with one breath essaying to weaken the authority and restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, while with another he intimates that a well defined provision of the Constitution cannot be carried into effect, on account of the opposing moral sense of the Northern community.
[from the Charlottesville Jeffersonian.]
The next breeze from the South may bring to us the clash of resounding arms. Virginia cannot remain neutral in this contest. She must unite with the Confederate States in resistance to Lincoln's despotism, or she must, by simply remaining in this Union, contribute her money, if not her men, to the subjugation of her Southern sisters. We predict that the entire South will now be driven to make common cause in defence of their common safety against a common danger. He that is not for the South is against her. There can be no middle ground. Men of Virginia! choose ye whom you will serve.
