Hunter and Mr. Toombs made
the concurrence of the former in the chief views presented by the
latter the more significant. The careful habits of thought, the
unostentatiousness, and the practical common sense for which the
Virginian farmer is esteemed, and which had made his name a prominent
one for President of a Central Confederacy, in case of the separate
secession of the Border States, were curiously manifested both in
his apartments and his manner. The chamber was apparently at a
boarding-house, but very plainly furnished with red cotton serge
curtains and common hair-cloth chairs and sofa. The Senator's manner of
speech was slow, considerate,--indeed, sometimes approaching awkwardness
in its plain, farmer-like simplicity. One of the first questions was the
central one, concerning the chief grievance of the South, which had been
presented to Mr. Toombs.
"Yes," was Mr. Hunter's reply, somewhat less promptly given, "it may be
said to come chiefly from that,--the non-recognition of our property
under the Constitution. We wish our property recognized, as we think the
Constitution provides.
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