Staunton Vindicator: March 8, 1861 — Newspapers

Page 1

Page Description:

Report of the Peace Conference, column 3

The Inauguration of President Davis

(column 4)

Summary:

Describes the inaugural procession and ceremony of Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama.

Origin of Article:

Montgomery Advertiser

Speech of Col. Geo. Baylor

(column 6)

Summary:

Reprint of the text of Col. Baylor's lengthy speech at the State Convention. In his speech, Baylor argued that Virginia should not leave the Union. He stated that, while Southern states should demand the repeal of Personal Liberty laws, these laws are not sufficient reason to destroy the Union. He also questioned the constitutionality of secession.

Page 2

Dedication of the M.E. Church

(column 3)

Summary:

The new church will be dedicated next Sunday.

Full Text of Article

Dedication of the M.E. Church

The new M.E. Church in this place will be dedicated on Sabbath next. Several distinguished Ministers from a distance are expected to be in attendance, by whom the exercises will be conducted.

Col. Baylor's Speech

(column 3)

Summary:

The Vindicator directs its readers' attention to the text of Col. Baylor's speech, reprinted on page one. The paper completely disagrees with Col. Baylor, arguing that his policies would be fatal to "the honor, the prosperity, and the independence, not only of Virginia, but the entire South." However, the Vindicator believes that "when the bugle blast of the Democracy sounds the rallying note for the conflict with Federalism, we expect to stand side by side with him, as in days gone by, in battling against our lifelong foe."

Action of the Peace Conference

(column 4)

Summary:

The Vindicator rejects the report of the Peace Conference. The report proposed to prohibit slavery north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, prohibit the acquisition of any more territory that could be made into a slave state, forbid the passing of slaves through free territory, reaffirm the prohibition on the slave trade, and provide that all the states would pay for any escaped slaves who had been seized by abolitionists to prevent them from being returned South.

Excerpt:

"We regard it [e.g. the Peace Conference] as a significant verification of the fact that the free States do not mean to make any concession to the just demands of Virginia and the South, but to seek by every agency to seduce us into fatal delay, and when too late for successful resistance, to plant the iron [illegible] of power upon us to compel submission to Black Republican iniquity and out- [illegible]."

(column 5)

Summary:

Disagrees with the Spectator's criticisms of Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter and argues that these men accurately represented the sentiment of Virginia when they opposed the report of the Peace Conference.

Full Text of Article

"The Spectator attempts . . .

The Spectator attempts to be very severe on Senators Mason and Hunter, because they opposed in the Senate the report of the Peace Conference, and says they "paid no respect to the voice of Virginia, recently expressed in thunder-tones at the polls." Our neighbor is not authorized, as we conceive, to assume as a verity in advance, that the people of Virginia are willing to enslave themselves by adopting or acquiescing in the proposition of the Peace Conference. That body originated at the suggestion of the Virginia Legislature, which at the same time endorsed the Crittenden amendments as the basis of adjustment, and nothing like the ambiguous and jesuitical emanation of the Peace Congress. We, as every one who reads our paper, well knows, have no especial partiality for either Mr. Mason or Mr. Hunter, nor is it our purpose or inclination to defend their past course, but in this instance we think they represented the sentiment of Virginia. If they did not, then Virginia ought to array herself under the black flag of Lincoln, and exclaim, Allah is great and Mahomet is prophet. Libertad y deos.

(column 5)

Summary:

Reports that Judge Brockenbrough, one of the Commissioners from Virginia to the Peace Congress, passed through Staunton on March 4th. He told the editor of the Vindicator that "there was very little hope of an adjustment of our national difficulties."

Full Text of Article

"Judge Jno. W. Brockenbrough . . . "

Judge Jno. Brockenbrough, one of the Commissioners from Virginia to the Peace Congress, passed through Staunton on the 4th, on his way to his home in Lexington. In a brief conversation with the Judge, he expressed it as his opinion that there was very little hope of an adjustment of our national difficulties. He regards the amendment to the Constitution proposed by Mr. Corwin, and the report of the Peace Commissioners, as mere patch work, and falling immeasurably short of a remedy, or a just and fair basis of settlement. The Judge seemed to feel exceedingly despondent for the country, and loth to contemplate the sad disasters which loom up in the future for the only truly free government in the world.

(column 6)

Summary:

The Times claims that John Brown, Jr. and Fred Douglass plan to enlist 8,000 black residents of Canada.

Origin of Article:

Chicago Times

For the Vindicator

(column 7)

Summary:

Letter to Mr. Yost, editor of the Vindicator, that expresses the writer's agreement with Yost's view that Virginia should join the Southern Confederacy.

(column 5)

Summary:

Died on February 19.

Names in Announcement:

Mrs. Mary Koiner; Col. David W. Koiner

Page 4

Page Description:

No Page Information Available