The Times and the War [pp. 1-13]

- 3B3^OIT'S RE3-T-3TI/
ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1846.
JULY, 1861.
VOL. XXXI, O. S.] ENLARGED SERIES. [VOL. VI, No. 1, N. S.
ART. I.-THE TIMES AND THE WAR.
EVERY-DAY events have become so interesting and absorbing that it is useless to attempt to write about anything else
than those events; for one writes with great pain to himself, and with little interest or edification to the reader, oil
one subject whilst he is thinking about another.
We removed to Richmond the day before the meeting of
the Virginia Convention, and have been carefully observing
the progress of events and the changes of opinion. Nor
have we been an idle spectator; for all the while we have
been industriously engaged in trying to encourage the bold
and hopefuil, in lashing forward the timid and desponding,
and in denouncing an([ ostracising the venal and treacherous
few. We never doubted the issue of events, and foresaw,
from the first, that the rupture with the Federal Government could be delayed but a few weeks after the inauguration of the new administration i-for if Lincoln did not
very soon attempt to coerce the seceded States he would
be deserted and denounced by the North; and if he made
that attemplt, the Border States were pledged to fly to the
rescue.
The majority of the Convention were not true to the
South, but were ready to barter away the honor, the dignity, the liberty and independence of Virginia, in order to
obtain a little temporary ease, or a disgraceful truce with
abolition, instead of an honorable peace.
The Report of the Committee of twenty-one, as adopted
by the Convention, proposes that negro slavery shall be
excluded from all territory north of 36.30. This is a distinct admission that slavery is wrongful; an abolition
VOL. VI-NO. I.
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