From Charleston.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.]The Virginians here are mostly old men.--Capt. Shirley Carter Turner, for many years the noble Commander of the "James Adger" steamer, from this port to New York, had several brothers in the Navy and Army of the United States. All have resigned but one, and he is out of the country. Capt. Turner belongs to the old Virginia Carters, of Shirley, and a nobler specimen of Virginia's best blood does not live on the green earth. His health is bad and his means limited, and his family, which is large and young, is dependent on his daily toil. The Captain said to me yesterday, with great emotion, ‘"if any good man will take care of my wife and little one's for six months, I will be on the soil of my old mother in forty-eight hours, to serve her in this extremity."’
Capt. Fauntleroy, of the Navy; just resigned, is an own cousin of Capt. Turner. I know Capt. Fauntleroy well. A nobler Virginian don't live. When last I saw him here, about four months ago, I said to him, ‘"Well, Captain, what will our old State do?"’ ‘"She will do right, sir,"’ was the laconic reply.
My own health is exceedingly bad, and I am enfeebled daily, but I nevertheless intend to serve my country; if not in the camp, I will, to the utmost of my ability, in some other way. I have three grown nephews in Virginia, to whom I have written to enlist immediately for the war, and draw on me at sight for all outfit, and never lay down their arms till victory is won, or never claim me as their relative. Cowardly or unpatriotic blood has never coursed through the veins of my name, and God forbid it ever shall.
Virginians, our cause is just. We have never done aught to the North out to enrich them. We begged them for twenty-five years to let us and our negroes alone. They have ceased not to make aggressions on us daily. We warned them year after year that if they did not cease their unlawful crusade that we would withdraw from them. They did not believe us. Seward, for two years past, has preached all over the land his doctrine of the "irrepressible conflict," which, being interpreted, is to take our property from us by force of arms. They sent into your State an armed bandit and murdered your peaceful citizens. They harbored the miscreants and rejoiced over the bloody deed. They have stolen your property daily and insulted you in every possible way. We bore it for the sake of peace until we saw that our homes and lives were unsated. We then peaceably withdrew, and asked to be permitted to live apart. We have exhausted every possible means to leave and live in peace.
Seward has deceived us, by making us believe he was for peace, and that no war was meditated, when he and Scott were preparing to tie us hand and foot. Virginia, in her great heart, desired peace, and stood between the belligerents for months, with the olive branch extended. Her counsels were unheeded, and the proclamation of that arch-scoundrel, Seward, aided by Virginia's Benedict Arnold, went forth to subjugate the South. Will the young men of Virginia stand by and see this outrage perpetrated? No! no!! no!!! Then rise, young Virginians, as one man, and vindicate your soil and your ancient renown, and drive the invader from your soil. Your cause is just. It is a sacred cause. You act on the defensive. God is with you, because your cause is just. Let no craven heart be found to pollute the soil of Virginia. Be temperate, be orderly, be brave, but be invincible.
