Full Text of Article:
Conventions have been called in one or two of the Congressional Districts of
Virginia to appoint delegates to the Philadelphia Convention. We regret this
course and much prefer that the whole matter should be left in the hands of
the State Central Committees of 1860. These Committees might judiciously
appoint a few gentlemen to be present in Philadelphia during the session of
the Convention, to confer with the members, as suggested by several of our
leading newspapers; but we can conceive of no good to result to us or the
country generally from the appointment of delegates. The presence of
delegates from the South at Philadelphia would only embarrass the
proceedings. It is probable that at the outset an attempt would be made to
exclude at least a portion of our delegates, on account of their alleged
disloyalty, and there would be a fracas right away. If admitted into the
Convention without opposition, every act, word and look of Southern
delegates would closely watched by hostile outsiders, and some evidence of
disloyalty discovered, and heralded to the country, as a reason why the
Radicals in Congress should impose new pains and penalties upon us. No fears
of this sort should restrain us from sending delegates, if they could effect
any good; but we see no use in being represented in a popular Convention
while we have no voice in the National councils. The object of such
Conventions is to combine popular sentiment with a view to political action.
The South having no power to act politically, no combination of the sort is
needed here -- it would be idle for us to go through the forms when no
result could possibly follow. Will the presence and co-operation of Southern
men in the Philadelphia Convention help to give a right direction to popular
sentiment at the North, where the power of action lies? That is the
question. As we have said, it seems to us that only embarrassment and new
troubles would result.--But let us, in every proper way, testify our
interest in the proceedings at Philadelphia, and our respect for the
gentlemen who have called the Convention. It is eminently proper that they
should meet as proposed, and we heartily wish them success in their effort
to restore "national unity, fraternity, and harmony."
