Dorothy South: A Love Story of Virginia Just Before the War

by George Cary Eggleston

WITH the autumn came that shadow over the land which Arthur Brent had so greatly dreaded. Mr. Lincoln’s election was quickly succeeded by the secession of South Carolina. One after another the far Southern States followed, and presently the seceding states allied themselves in a new confederacy.

The whole country was in a ferment. The founders of the Union had made no provision whatever for such a state of things as this, and even the wisest men were at a loss to say what ought to be done or what could be done. There seemed to be nowhere any power or authority adequate to deal with the situation in one way or in another. All was chaos in the coolest minds while the hotheads on either side were daily making matters worse by their intemperate utterances and by the unyielding arrogance of their attitude.

In the meantime the administration at Washington seemed intent only upon preventing the outbreak of open war until its term should end on the fourth of March, 1861, while those into whose hands the government must pass on that date had not only no authority to act but no privilege even of advising.

It seemed fortunate at the time, that Virginia refused to join in the secession movement. Her refusal and her commanding influence over the other border states seemed for a time to provide an opportunity for wise counsels to assert themselves. There were radical secessionists in Virginia and uncompromising opponents of secession on any terms. But the attitude of the great majority of Virginians, as was shown in the election of a constitutional convention on the fourth of February, was one of earnestness for peace and reconciliation and the preservation of the Federal Union.

The Virginians believed firmly in the constitutional right of any state to withdraw from the Union, but the majority among them saw in Mr. Lincoln’s election no proper occasion for the exercise of that right. They regarded the course of the cotton states in withdrawing from the Union as one strictly within their right, but as utterly unwise and unnecessary. On the other hand they firmly denied the right of the national government to coerce the seceding states or in any manner to make war upon them.

Arthur Brent was an uncompromising believer in the right of a state to secede, and equally an uncompromising opponent of secession as a policy. That part of Virginia in which he lived was divided in opinion and sentiment, with a distinct preponderance of opinion in behalf of secession. But when the call came for the election of a constitutional convention to decide upon Virginia’s course the secessionists of his district were represented by two rival candidates, both fiercely favoring secession. The only discoverable difference in their views was that one of them wanted the convention to adopt the ordinance of secession “before breakfast on the day of its first assembling,” while the other contended that it would be more consonant with the dignity of the state to have muffins and coffee first.

Neither of these candidates was a person of conspicuous influence in the community. Neither was a man of large ability or ripe experience or commanding social position—the last counting for much in Virginia in those days when there was no such thing as a ballot in that state, and when every man must go to the polls and openly proclaim his vote.

Under these circumstances a number of the conservative men of the district got together and decided to make Arthur Brent a candidate. It was certain that the secession vote would be in the majority in the district, but if it were divided between the two rival candidates, as it was certain to be, these gentlemen were not without hope that their candidate might secure a plurality and be elected.

Arthur strenuously objected to the program so far at least as it concerned his own candidacy. He had a pronounced distaste for politics and public life, and he stoutly argued that some one who had lived all his life in that community would be better able than he to win all there was of conservatism to his support. He entreated these his friends to adopt that course. It was significant of the high place he had won in the estimation of the community’s best, that they refused to listen to his protest, and, by a proclamation over their own signatures, announced him as their candidate and urged all men who sincerely desired wise and prudent counsels to prevail in a matter which involved Virginia’s entire future, to support him at the polls.

Thus compelled against his will to be a candidate, Arthur entered at once upon a canvass of ceaseless activity. He did not mean to be defeated. He spoke every day and many times every day, and better still he talked constantly to the groups of men who surrounded him, setting forth his views persuasively and so convincingly that when the polls closed on that fateful fourth of February, it was found that Arthur Brent had been elected by a plurality which amounted almost to a majority, to represent his district in that constitutional convention which must decide Virginia’s commanding course, and in large degree, perhaps, determine the final issue of war or peace.