ready for a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering
apprehension, nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with
which it falls upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has
helpless dependants to protect, nothing but this could have thrown a
brave people into consternation, or could have made any portion of
this powerful Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and
trembled."



In the same year and month, Henry Berry, Esq., another delegate,
thus spoke:--



"Sir, I believe that no cancer on the physical body was ever more
certain, steady and fatal in its progress, than this cancer on the
political body of Virginia. It is eating into her very vitals. And
shall we admit that the evil is past remedy? Shall we act the part of
a puny patient, suffering under the ravages of a fatal disease, who
would say the remedy is too painful? Pass as severe laws as you will
to keep these unfortunate creatures in ignorance, it is in vain,
unless you can extinguish that spark of intellect which God has given
them. Sir, we have, as far as possible, closed _every avenue by which
light might enter their minds._ We have only to go one step further--
to extinguish the capacity to see the light--and our work will be
completed. They would then be reduced to the level of the beasts of
the field, and we should be safe; and I am not certain that we would
not do it, if we could find out the necessary process, and that under
the plea of necessity. But, sir, this is impossible; and can man be