Roger A. Pryor: "sink it in the deepest abyss of the ocean"

trice

Colonel
Joined
May 2, 2006
From the New York Times of January 14, 1861:
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WASHINGTON, Saturday, Jan. 12.

Mr. PRYOR, of Virginia, (Dem.,) moved to strike out the appropriation of $4,438,000 for the pay of the officers and men of the navy. Sir, said Mr. PRYOR, so long as the navy was engaged in the laudable and beneficent enterprise of protecting the interests of the country, enlarging the bounds of discovery, and sustaining the honor of our flag against foreign attacks, I should have accorded it a generous support. But now, Sir, since it is to be employed for the humiliating purpose of subjugating Southern States, and imposing the yoke of a military despotism upon the people, who are guilty of no crime beyond that of presenting a gallant defence against oppression, I would sink it in the deepest abyss of the ocean before I would grant it one farthing. As the bulwark of national defence, it invokes a nation’s regard; the dread instrument of death and desolation in fratricidal strife, it deserves a nation’s execration. Sir, to my mind, the most distressing portent of these unhappy times is the obvious and absolute prevalence of military temper in the councils of the nation. What do we see? An imbecile Executive under the complete ascendancy of an ambitious and enterprising soldier; and the country, in the most critical period of her history, ruled by the Mayor of the Palace; the experience and good sense of the Administration no longer appealed to in the solution of its political difficulties, but the sword cast into the balance of sectional conflict. Instead of measures of conciliation to a malcontent people, the, Government dispatches men and munitions of war to control and subject them to an abject obedience to an obnoxious Government. Though no foreign foot treads the soil of America with hostile purpose, troops are distributed and concentrated as if to repel imminent invasion.
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BTW, as with so many other charges thrown about by the Fire-Eaters, that last is absolutely balderdash. No troops had been "distributed and concentrated as if to repel imminent invasion" unless we count the men of Anderson's command under siege by the South Carolina rebels.


The Virginian Pryor was at this time newly re-elected to Congress for his second term, and probably the best-known Fire-Eater orator in the Upper South. He would resign from Congress on March 3rd, apparently because Lincoln took office on March 4th, even though his native Virginia had not seceded. Although he urged immediate secession upon them, the Virginia Convention had not acted. Frustrated, Pryor then went to Charleston to serve as a volunteer military aide for Beauregard, and gave a firey speech urging the secessionists to "Strike a blow!" to bring Virginia into the Confederacy.

Although Pryor was never tried for it, this is all a clear case of Treason as defined by the US Constitution. He was a US citizen, and Virginia -- even by secessionist and Fire-Eater logic -- was still a US State.

During the war, Pryor served as a Confederate Colonel and then Brigadier General. He resigned his commission in 1863 because of his dispute with Jefferson Davis (who else?) over his desire for promotion and higher field command. He later enlisted as a private and scout in F. Lee's cavalry, was captured (November 28, 1864) as a suspected spy, and released on parole by Lincoln.

After the war, the fervent Fire-Eater moved to New York and became a law partner of Ben "Beast" Butler, then the top Justice in New York State courts. This was spoken of as his "conversion". Buried in Princeton, NJ.

Tim
 
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