SPEECH
OF
Mr. H. M. NELSON,
IN THE STATE CONVENTION,
TUESDAY, MARCH 36th, 1861.
The Convention having resolved itself into Committee of the Whole, Mr.
NELSON of Clarke, obtained the floor and said:
Mr. Chairman, under any circumstances, it would require all the moral
courage which I possess to rise and address this body; for my pursuits and
avocations for the last twenty years, have led me far from the cultivation of
the arts of oratory; during that period my only cares have been to cultivate
and adorn that small portion of this good Old Commonwealth which has fallen
to my lot. But, sir, at this time, after listening to the lofty and impassioned
eloquence of my friend from Montgomery, I am more than ever embarrassed.
"For what can the man do who comes after the king9"—and nothing but a
sense of the duty which! owe to the people whom I have the honor to repre-
sent, could nerve me to make the attempt.
Sir, I have the honor to represent a county which pays a larger tax in
proportion to her aggregate population, than any county in the State, with the
exception of the county of Jefferson and those counties which have large
towns or cities—and which is also the largest slaveholding county in propor-
tion to her white population, west of the Blue Ridge. I have the honor to
represent that county, sir, which was the birth-place of the "Hero of the
Cowpens. I represent a people, sir, who, whilst they are loyal to the State
of Virginia and to this Union, "know their rights, and knowing, dare main-
tain them, Sir, there are swords there "ready to leap from their scabbards
—there are still unerring rifles there ready to be directed with deadly aim,
against any and all enemies ; but, sir, we remember the order of the old hero,
and we mean "to wait till we see the whites of the enemy's eyes. And, sii%
in their behalf I claim the right to present and to advocate before this body
the sentiments which I, and I believe a majority of those whom I represent,
hold on the great questions which now agitate the country. Sir, I may be
behind this fast age; but I do not belong to that school of modern political
philosophers who believe "that the Constitution is effete and gone to seed.
I do not believe that any ten men in any parlor, or in all the parlors of Vir-
ginia and the United States together can make a better. I do not hesitate to
say, that I am one of those who still cherish a fond attachment to this Union,
and who still believe that the Constitution of the United States, if adminis-
tered according to the spirit and intention of its framers, is the best govern-
ment, for our people, that the world has ever seen. Sir, even those who are
most dissatisfied with it—the Southern Confederacy—have adopted it in its
essential features as their form of government, at least for the present.
Nor, sir, have I heard any complaint against the administration of the gov-
ernment.
2
In all the great crises which, up to the present time, have occurred at rcgu-
lar alterfaate periods, of ten and twenty years, since the foundation of the
government, some of which have shaken it to its foundation—either the pass-
ing by Congress of laws considered by some as unconstitutional, or the want
of law, to carry out some constitutional provision, has been the cause of corn-
plaint. In 1798-9, ten years after the formation of our government, what
were called the Alien and Sedition Laws were complained of, and were the
cause of the passage by the Legislature of Virginia of the famous resolutions
of '98 and '99.
. In 1819-20, the refusal to admit Missouri as a slave State, gave rise to a
serious disturbance, which was finally settled by the admission of Missouri,
and the passing by Congress of what is called the Missouri Compromise—
from 1830 to 1833, what was called the Black Tariff of 1828, was near prov-
ing a cause of a disruption of this Union, similar to the present. You all
know, Mr. Chairman, how that difficulty was settled. In 1850 the want of'a
law to carry out the fugitive slave provision of the Constitution gave rise to a
struggle which had well nigh proved fatal to our government. This was set-
tied, as you all know, by the Compromise of 1850.
In the present crisis then, as I have said, there is really no complaint
against the Constitution itself, which cannot be remedied by amendments
declaratory of its intent and meaning, which I believe we can obtain. With
regard to the administration of the Government, the Executive Department is
charged with no usurpation. The Legislative Department—the Congress—
has passer! no unconstitutional laws interfering with any man's rights or liber-
ties, nor has the Judiciary Department of the Government, by any decision,
interfered with our rights in the territory or elsewhere ; on the contrary, they
have decided that the territories are a trust fund for the benefit of all the
States. And if I understand that decision, the slaveholder is entitled to pro-
tection in every part of the common territory during its territorial condition.
What then are the true causes of the present crisis in our affairs,, and for
which we are asked to break up this Government, purchased at the price of so
much treasure and blood of our patriotic ancestors, and bequeathed to us with
the solemn injunction that we-should cherish it is as the "palladium of our
political safety and prosperity; the main pillar in the edifice of our real inde-
pendence; the support of our tranquillity at home, our peace abroad; of our
safety, our prosperity, and of that very liberty which we so highly prize ? 
They are, as I consider,
1st. The passage of certain laws by some of the non-slaveholding States,
called the Personal Liberty Bills.
2d. The alleged intention of the majority in power, to exclude our peculiar
institution from the common territory; and
3d. The fanatical spirit which prevails in the non-slaveholding States,
which threatens ultimately to destroy that institution where it now exists—■
and this spirit as exhibited, in the election of a President, on a sectional plat-
form, with the avowed purpose of its ultimate extinction.
Is there no remedy, Mr. Chairman, for these evils? "Is there no balm in
Gilead ? is there no physician there? That is the question which we have to con-
sider and to decide in this Convention. If there is no mean of adjusting those
difficulties, short of breaking up this Union, I, for one, will have no conscien-
tious scruples in disrupting all the bonds which unite us. But, sir, I am for
adopting that mean, which, whilst it will secure our rights, will best comport
with the interest and the honor of Virginia.
The only remedy proposed by what we call the ultra party is immediate
secession. Sir, what will be the effect of secession on the first of these evils,
the escape of our slaves? Sir, we who live on the border of the slavebolding
States are accustomed to take a practical view of this question, and are much
less excited on this subject than those who live at a distance from the border,
and who reason abstractly upon it. We know that, notwithstanding the
Personal Liberty Bills, we lose comparatively few of our slaves since the pas-
sage of the fugitive slave law. Before that law was passed, they were leaving
my county by tens and twenties at a time. Since 1850, notwithstanding the
3
/
Personal Liberty Bills, we lose, as I stated, comparatively few. Sir, when I
consider that secession will not move Virginia one foot further from Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio, but will, in effect, repeal the fugitive slave law7 and place a
foreign country close upon us, I cannot but conclude that secession, so far
from remedying this evil, will increase it. I am aware, sir, that the honora-
ble Commissioner from Georgia proposed to surround us by a "cordon mili-
taire, to prevent our slaves from escaping across the border. But, sir, I
think there are many serious objections to that system. I think that, like
the Indian's gun, 44 it will cost more than it will come to. Sir, it is as much
as I can do to pay one overseer to attend to my farm ; but if I have to pay
soldiers to watch around it to keep the negroes from running off, I should
soon have to sell both farm and negroes to pay the costs. And, in the second
place, I think it will be ineffective. Now we can pursue our slaves across
the border and recover them. When the border States become a foreign ter-
ritory, neither you nor your soldiers can go one foot across the line in pursuit
of your fugitives. And, if the interest of those States in the preservation of
this Union, will not induce them to give proper guarantees, think you that
you can induce them to restore your slaves, who escape, by treaty stipula-
tions? Sir, I think not.
Will secession secure our rights in the territories? According to the theory
of secession as I understand it, so far from securing our rights there, we
abandon, for a time, at least, the very territory we are contending for, and
leave it all in the possession of those States which remain in the Union. I do
not contend, sir, that we would abandon our equitable claim, yet the only
remedy left to us would be. to obtain it, either by war or by treaty, and
I, for one, am free to confess that I think we can treat better in than out of
the Union, for the present, at least.
Now, sir, as to the third cause of complaint. Whilst I do not consider that
the election of any man to the Presidency of the United States, according to
the forms of the Constitution, is a sufficient cause, of itself, for breaking up
this Union, yet if Mr. Lincoln unyieldingly persists in carrying o\it that spirit
of fanaticism and that policy which will not only deny us our rights in the
common territory, but must result in the ultimate extinction of slavery in all
the States, much as I love this Union, I, for one, am prepared to say,  away
with it. I, sir, am prepared, at any cost, to sever every bond which binds
us together. And in view of this, I say, sir, that the time has now come for
us to settle definitely and forever this vital question. Yet, sii\ when Iremem-
ber the large number of our fellow-citizens of the non-slaveholding States
.who have nobly stood up for us and gallantly fought on our side; when I re-
member that of the 3,400,000 votes, nearly 1,600,000 were cast against the
Republican candidate, and even of the 1,800,000 who voted for Mr. Lincoln,
many voted on other issues than those of Black Republicanism, I am not dis-
posed to embrace them all, both friends and foes, in one common anathema.
I will not call those enemies whom I know to be our warm friends; I will even
dare in this presence to call them friends. Nay, sir, I cannot but hope that
we shall not appeal in vain to the great conservative element of the North, to
award us our just rights without an appeal to the ultima ratio regum. I would
have this Convention to present to the non-slaveholding States clearly and
distinctly our ultimatum of adherence to the Union. I have already indi-
cated those conditions in the resolutions which I offered to the body on the
20th of February.
[The following resolutions were offered in the Virginia State Convention,
on the 20th day of February, 1861, by Hugh M. Nelson, of Clarke county,
and referred to the Committee on Federal Relations:
 Resolved by the Convention of Virginia, That the differences between the
slaveholding and non-slaveliolding States can only be settled by the adoption
of amendments to the Constitution, and that the interests of both sections of
the country imperiously demand that the slavery agitation should be removed
now and forever from the halls of Congress.
"2. Resolved, That whilst we hold that the Constitution of the United
4
States makes all the States equal and gives them all equal rights in the
common territory, yet, in view of the fact that ours is a Government founded
upon compromise, we are willing to divide said territory by a line on the
parallel of 36 deg. 30 min., and that we will insist that in all the territory
South of said line of latitude, slavery of the African race shall be recognized
as property during the continuance of the Territorial Government—by a
constitutional provision irrepealable—except by the consent of all the slave-
holding States.
44 3. Resolved, That a like provision should? be made to prohibit Congress
from interfering with the subject of slavery ip. any of the States, without the
consent of every State; and also to make it the interest of the people of
the States to which fugitive slaves escape, to have them delivered to their
owners.
44 4. Resolved, That if no adjustment of the differences between the States
can be effected, it is the duty of the American people to provide the way for a
dignified, peaceful, and fair'separation, upon equitable terms and conditions—•
and for a proper division of the common property."]
These resolutions I think the report of the majority of the Committee on
Federal Relations substantially contain.
This ultimatum I would present in the calm and dignified language of
settled purpose. If it be heeded, the tide of fanaticism rolled back, peace and
harmony restored, this great Republic, returning to its ancient usages, acting
within the scope of its constitutional limitations, will go on to illustrate the
grand theory of popular sovereignty, and to perpetuate the great blessings of
liberty, prosperity and happiness to us and to our posterity. If, unfortu-
nately, it should be unheeded, then, conscious of having done all that for-
bearance can do, wisdom suggest, or patriotism demand, to save from
destruction this glorious Union, we will—nay, of necessity we then must—
withdraw from a Confederacy no longer compatible with our interest or our
honor.
But, Mr. President, the question is asked on the other side, in case the Gulf
States will not come back into this Confederacy, will you go with the South
or with the North ? Do gentlemen forget or mean to ignore the border slave
States ? Sir, I will not ignore them. They are a mighty empire, embracing
within themselves all the elements of greatness and power—they contain at
this time a population double that of the Gulf States, and I, for one, Mr.
Chairman, am prepared to say that if I can get such constitutional guarantees
as will be satisfactory to Virginia and the border slave States, and which
ought to be satisfactory to the Gulf States, much as I will deplore a separation
from them, though they will have my strongest sympathies and my best
wishes for their prosperity, I will not consent, as far as my humble influence
can effect it, to take Virginia out of this Union, and in this my action I shall
be guided solely by what I think will be for the interest of Virginia. For,
sir, of all the stars upon our national flag, the star of Virginia 44 is the bright
particular star which fills my vision. To her I owe my first allegiance: to
her I am bound by the strongest ties. Sir, if any man can have a birth-right
in Virginia, I have one. All my ancestors, for near two hundred years, have
lived and died in Virginia. Sir, I cannot say, with the eloquent gentleman
from Kanawha, that I never left Virginia. Stern necessity, sir, once com-
pelled me to leave her border. I felt like an exile from my native land—I
thought of her by day, I dreamed of her by night. When laid upon the bed
of sickness, in the delirium of fever, I was singing 44 carry me back to Old
Virginia. I never breathed freely .till I got back within her bounds. Yes,
sir, the memories of the dead enter into my love of Virginia ; the potent asso-
ciations of my childhood bind me to her—all the joys and all the griefs of my
manhood have daguerreotyped her on my heart—and I can say, as Mary of
England said of Calais, when I am dead, take out my heart and you will find
Virginia engraved upon it. May she be my home through life, and when I
am dead, may my ashes repose within her soil.
Mr. President, whilst I would not say one word to wound the feelings of
5
our Southern friends, I must say that I think that neither one nor all the
grievances which I have enumerated, are the real causes of their seceding at
this time.
For years past the Southern States have been laboring under a chronic ex-
citement, produced by what I consider a mistaken view of a question of
political economy, and that is, that the South is burdened with the larger
portion of the duties paid to support the General Government. Sir, it has
been a long time since I have read Adam Smith, Say, and other works on po-
litical economy, but if I remember well, the theory used to be that the
consumer paid the duties on imports. Now, sir, I would like to know who
consumes the larger portion of the articles imported into the United States?
The 19,000,000 who inhabit the non-slaveholding States, or the 9,000,000
who live in the slaveholding States? Sir, I had almost said there are more
of them consumed in the city of New York, than in all the Gulf States
together.
Sir, the fact is, that although the South is the great producer of cotton,
yet, by the time they pay for the bacon, corn and mules of the West, the
clothing for their negroes, which is mostly manufactured at the North, and
the other Yankee notions which they purchase, they have comparatively little
left. Like Triptolemus Yellowly, in one of Scott's novels, "The carles and
the cart havers make it all, but the carles and the cart havers eat it all.
And the statement which my friend, the honorable gentleman from Halifax,
made yesterday, of the result of his farming or rather planting in the South,
confirms this view which I have presented. Sir, it always will happen that
those who sell the raw material, and purchase the manufactured article, will
never make as much profit as those who, by their labor and skill, convert the
raw material into the manufactured article. Sir, in proof of this, I beg leave
to refer to a speech made in the House of Representatives, March 80th, 1858,
by the Hon J. M. Sandidge, of Louisiana. In that speech Mr. Sandidge un-
dertakes to show how much richer the South is than the North; and he
commences his speech by saying figures cannot lie. I have combined Ms
figures iu a different manner, and bring out, as you will see, a very different
result. Iu that speech he shows, from the census tables of 1850, that the
North had a deficiency in 1850 of six millions of agricultural products, (I give
the round numbers,) whereas the South had a surplus of $125,000,000. The
South had to purchase from the North that year $103,000,000 worth of manu-
factures, to make up her deficiencies, which left the South only $22,000,000,
whereas, the North that year, after paying the South $6,000,000, had
$97,000,000 in her favor, which, added to eighteen million dollars worth ex-
ported, gave the North that year a surplus of $115,000,000 on her manufac-
tures alone. And, sir, when you add to that what she made by her commerce,
you can very readily see how the North is really richer than the South, or at
least has more money to expend in the luxuries of life, and therefore pays a
large proportion of the duties on imports. Sir, it seems to have been ordained
by Providence that ever since man was driven from the Garden of Eden, and
the decree went forth,  by the sweat of thy brow, shalt thou eat bread, that
purely agricultural people of all countries, though I believe them to be the
happiest portion of the human family, are, as compared to the commercial and
manufacturing people, poor—nay, sir, are the "hewers of wood and the
drawers of water for the rest of the world. Sir, the history of the world
from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, would
bear me out in this assertion. What made Tyre the "crowning city, whose
"merchants were princes, whose "traffickers were the honorable of
earth;  the merchants of Zidon replenished her treasures, "the harvest
of the river was her revenue, and she was the mart of nations.
What made Babylon "abundant in treasures? She is represented as
 dwelling on many waters. In later times, what made Athens and Corinth
so inch, that in the times of Pericles, the former was built of marble—and the
latter so expensive that none but the rich could visit her—whilst the other
portions of Greece, much more productive, were comparatively poor ? Even
Rome, herself, with all her conquests, was comparatively poor, till she en-
gaged in commerce and manufacturing.
6
Coming down to later times, I might point you to the Italian cities in the
middle ages, magnificent and wealthy, whilst the rest of the world was steeped
in poverty? What made the cities of Belgium and Holland to attain a height
of almost fabulous wealth in the time of Charles the Fifth, whilst Spain, the
seat of monarchy, was comparatively poor ; and England had scarcely emerged
from barbarism? And,, sir, at this day what makes England so great and
powerful? I answer, sir, her commerce and her manufactures, combined
with her agriculture.
Sir, agriculture is said to be the nursing mother of the arts and sciences,
but like some other nursing mothers, she is often poor while the children ai*e
the reverse. And, hence, sir, I assert, without fear of contradiction, that it is
an universal law of nature, that any country which depends upon agriculture
alone, however rich and productive its soil, will, as compared to countries
which combine manufactures and commerce with agriculture, be poor—and
that wealth, moneyed wealth I mean, will accumulate at the great commercial
centres in spite of all efforts to prevent it* From these facts, sir, I argue that
the Northern or manufacturing States, are really more interested in the insti-
tution of slavery than we of the South, because they receive a greater portion
of the profits than we do, and that in fact, we really manage our estates for
their.benefit; and when they awake up, as I think they are fast doing, to see
this, (for no people have a keener sense of their interest, than the people of
the North,) I think their interest, if not their sense of justice, will force them
to award us all our just rights- •
Mr. Chairman, my friend from Halifax undertook, yesterday, the stupen-
dous task of estimating the value of the Union. Sir, if any gentleman can
do that, I am sure that gentleman can, and I listened to him with great in-
terest. But, sir, to my great disappointment, the gentleman only presented
the dark side of the picture. Sir, I could not help thinking, that if he had
spoken for one hour longer in presenting the bright side, as he could have
done so well, it would, according to his own prescription, have been a sove-
reign antidote to those dyspeptic symptoms with which he seems to be afflicted.
Sir, would you break up this Union because there are acknowledged evils
in our system of government? Is there any human institution which is un-
attended with evils ? Is it, sir, an easy matter to make everything in the
actual world conform to the ideal pattern which we have conceived in our
minds, of absolute right? Sir, I would ask the gentleman if he is really of
the opinion that .this government fias been a source of evil, and only of evil,
to Virginia? Sir, the gentleman tells us that in the Southern Confederacy
Virginia will gradually become a manufacturing State, with a duty of 5 or
10 per cent, in her favor. Sir, if the Northern States, with all their capital,
with their manufactories built and in operation, and with their dense popula-
tion, can scarcely keep them going, with a duty of 20 per cent, in their favor
and only England to contend against, do you think that Virginia, with her
sparse population, and without capital, can build up and sustain manufac-
tures with a duty of only 5 per cent, in her favor, with both England and the
Northern States her competitors? Sir, any man who knows anything of man-
txfactures, knows she could not.
Mr. Chairman, I listened with great pleasure to the beautiful and eloquent
philippic of the gentleman from Albemarle on Mr. Seward. I agree with him
in the sentiment that posterity will hold Mr. Seward to a strict accountability
for the hatred he has so persistently excited at the North against us and our
institutions; but, sir, is there not danger that the gentleman himself and
those who are acting with him, will contribute largely, by the course they are
pursuing, to produce a reciprocal feeling of hatred on the part of the South
towards the North, by their indiscriminate anathemas against the whole peo-
pie of the North, the innocent as well as the guilty?
The gentleman quotes largely from the famous French writer De Tocqueville.
Sir, I can tell the gentleman that no Frenchman can by any possibility appre-
ciate our system of Government, and that every French writer on Govern-
ment, from Montesquieu to De Tocqueville, confounds Democracy with Agra-
rianism; for with the French, Democracy and Agrarianism are synonymous
terms.
7
Napoleon the First, "who understood the French character perfectly, said
long years ago "Les Francais aiment Vegaliie, metis Us ne se soucient pas de la
libertb"The French love equality, but they dont care for liberty.
Mr. Chairman, I hope we have not yet passed our golden age; but, judging
by the warlike sentiments I have heard on this floor, I think we certainly have
arrived at the heroic period of our history. There is the gentleman from
Bedford, whose voice, like that of Sempronius, is still for war. There are the
gentlemen from Prince Edward and Mecklenburg, like Horatius and Spurius
Lartius at the bridge, ready to risk their lives in their country's defence.
There is the gentleman from Princess Anne, ready to leap, like another Cur-
tius, horse and all, into the yawning gulf; and last, though not least, even
my venerable friend, my Christian brother from Orange and Greene, was
willing, like the Horatii and the Curatii to engage in a patriotic duello with'
Mr. Seward to decide the question. Sir, if that mode of deciding contests is
ever justifiable, it surely would be in such a case. Sir, gentlemen on this
floor have intimated that even the ladies of Virginia are far ahead of the
Union party of this body in their zeal for war; and I have heard it stated,
that in one county the ladies had held a meeting and resolved, that they would
come here and teach "our hands to war and our fingers to fight. Sir, when
I heard this I could not help exclaiming, in the words of the Poet, "Tantce ne
irce animis codistibusF
Sir, I have read in history of females who have distinguished themselves on
the battle-field, but they were individual cases. The only community of
female warriors of which we have any account, is far back in the world's his-
tory, and I believe that is a myth. They are represented though as "strong-
minded women, called Amazons, and they were brave and independent of
men. But, sir, from the very nature of things, there was only one generation,
of them.
Mothers, wives, sisters of Virginia! I doubt not that when your sons,
your husbands, and your brothers are called to the battle, like the Spartan
mother you will tell them "to return with their shields or to return on them.
But when they are brought back to you in the cold embrace of death, will it
assuage your grief to reflect that you have urged them on to an unnecessary
contest in a deadly civil war? Will you call me coward when I tell you, that,
like Lucius, "my thoughts are turned on peace"—because, "when the war
does come, those who are dearer to me than my own life, my wife and chil-
dren, will be much nearer to the seat of war, much more exposed to its dangers
than you will be.
I come from the banks of the sparkling Shenandoah, "daughter of the
stars, as its name imports. I live within a day's march of the Thermopylae
of Virginia. That valley, now beautiful and peaceful "as the Vale of Tempe,
may be a very Bochim—a place of weeping. Those green fields, where now
"lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea, may become fields of blood. Can
you blame me, then, if I wish to try all peaceful means, consistent with Vir-
ginia's honor, of obtaining our rights, before I try the last resort? I promise
you, when the contest does come, if come it must, the people whom I have the
honor to represent on this floor, will meet it like men. I hope, in that event,
I shall not be wanting in my duty. If I know myself, I will try and not dis-
grace that commission which I hold, which was presented to me by the
gentleman from Princess Anne, when Governor of the State. When Virginia
spreads her broad banner to the breeze and gives me my orders, no Moharn-
medan ever followed the sacred Banner of the Prophet with greater zeal than
I will follow her standard. I hope, if need be,  I'll follow it to the death.
Mr. Chairman, I have said that my sympathies are with the South—and I,
for one, will never consent for the Government of the United States to attempt
to coerce them, either directly or indirectly. Sir, if we can get such constitu-
tional guarantees as will be satisfactory to Virginia, and ought to be so to
them—as I think we can—I would entreat them to return to this Union. Sir,
I hope, nay, I have an abiding faith, that they will return. I pray to God
that the time may not be far distant when all our difficulties will be adjusted,
and we shall again be a united, prosperous and happy people. I think, Mr.
8
Chairman, that Virginia, by the noble sacrifices and successful efforts she has
from time to time made, for the formation and preservation of this Union, has
well earned for herself the proud position of a great pacificator. I trust her
* voice will again be potent to still the troubled waves, and that the North and
the South will listen to that voice.
Mr. Chairman, philosophers say that every star which spangles the heavens
is a sun around which systems of worlds revolve—that there is a point in the
universe which is a common centre of gravity to all these systems, and that
point is one of the stars in that beautiful constellation, called the Pleiades or
the seven stars. Sir, I wish to stand under my country's flag with all its stars
and all its stripes. I want the Pole star there—I want the Southern Cross to
shine out brightly there. But should the Pole star retreat far into Northern
regions, and veil its face in icy clouds—should the Southern Cross shoot
madly from its sphere—I want Virginia to be that great central point in our
political system, by her unfettered influences, to draw them all back, to
revolve once more in union and in harmony in their accustomed orbits.
 God bless my native land!
Firm may she stand
Through storm and night;
AVhen the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Do thou my country save!
In Convention, Monday, April 1, 1861.
personal explanation.
Mr. Nelson—I desire to make a correction of my remarks as they appear
published in the ''Enquirer. The reporters have not only made me use bad
grammar in English—that I could have stood—but they have made me also to
appear somewhat ignorant. They have made me say that I have read Adam
Smith's essay. I spoke of Adam Smith, Say, and other works on political
economy.
But worse than this, they make me say:
"Like Triptolemus Yellowlegs, in one of Scott's novels, the carts and the
cart horses make it all, but the carts and the cart horses eat it all.
[Laughter.]
When it should read:
"Like Triptolemus Yellowly's farming, 'The carles and the cart havers
make it all, but the carles and the cart havers eat it all.' 
Again: They make me use bad Latin, in an appeal which I make to the
ladies ; and being a Master of Arts of the University of Virginia, independent
of any personal feeling I may have in the matter, I have some regard, at least,
for the reputation of my Alma Mater.
In the quotation which I give from Virgil, they make it read:
 Tantm ne irce animis ccelestib cutting off the "ws. In connection with
such celestial beings, I insist, as I always do, on claiming the