Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession - Beverley B. Munford

The Civil War and the Constitution, Burgess, Vol. I, pp. 42-44.

Lincoln-Douglass Debates, p. 74. See also Abraham Lincoln, Letters, Speeches and State Papers, N. & H., Vol. I, p. 187.

[266]

Century Magazine, March, 1906, p. 106.

XXVI

The Status of the Controversy Regarding

Slavery at the Time Virginia Seceded

from the Union

In considering the status of the controversy with respect to slavery just prior to the Civil War, and whether Virginia in seceding was actuated by a desire to extend or perpetuate the institution, it will assist to a clearer understanding if we present in detail the several phases over which conflicts had arisen, and the parties to the same.

The right and obligation of the Federal Government to prevent, by legislation, slaveholders from emigrating into the territories with their slaves; the duty of the Federal Government to provide through its officials for the capture and return to their owners of fugitive slaves; and the existence or abolition of slavery in the Southern States—these constituted the three principal subjects of discussion and points of conflict.