Judge Brockenbrough at VMI in July 1850

Maybe it's time to talk some about Judge John Brockenbrough, who ran the Lexington Law School before the Civil War.  He was an important counter-weight to Henry Ruffner in Lexington; they sparred over slavery at the Franklin Literary Society, which is where Ruffner gave the anti-slavery speech that became his Appeal to the Citizens of West Virginia.

But right now I want to talk about Brockenbrough's July 1850 address given at the dedication of the new barracks at VMI.  There are a few things to talk about here.

Brockenbrough gave the address in the midst of debate over the Compromise of 1850, as some southerners were talking seriously about disunion.  More, of course, were talking about the virtues of Union.  At UNC the graduation speakers were still so in love with the idea of Union that they said things like it is impossible to calculate the value of Union.  At moderate schools like UNC it wasn't until much later in the decade that graduation speakers were talking about calculating the value of Union -- and at that point they were thinking that the value was less than the cost.  (Of course many of the University of Alabama speakers were already quite radical.)

Much of Brockenbrough's speech is about the value of Union, about sentiments of patriotism, and about how much Americans love and ought to love Union.  It also contained key democratic rhetoric, such as the virtues of widely dispersed knowledge.  So far, it made sense and wasn't all that different from addresses given around the country in July 1850 at schools and to public gatherings.  But what I am particularly interested are the last few pages of Brockenbrough's address.  There he reveals his fear that there may be disunion.  

But what really interests me is that he then departs from the usual fear of disunion into talk  of the Constitution.  He remarks that the day of disunion may be coming and that perhaps the South should do something to prepare for disunion.  "The Union is dear to the hearts of our people, not only because it is identified in their convictions and judgment with their freedom and happiness.  The Union they love is the Union which the Constitution gave us, and its chief value consists in the protection it affords to the rights of minorities."  There is a subtle shift that takes place on that campus and in Brockenbrough’s mind.  The people only loved the Union "which the Constitution gave us."  This reveals the emergence of an idea that becomes central to the secession debates: that the South should be loyal to the Constitution as they interpret it.  And he thought it a distinct possibility that there would be such a departure from the Southern interpretation of the Constitution: that a "fanatical majority in Congress may effectually subvert the Constitution while its forms may be studiously protected."  And here Brockenbrough thought that if disunion was possible, indeed likely, that the South ought to prepare for it.  To seriously discuss disunion and to prepare for it, I suppose, made it all the more likely.  In that way I think that Brockenbrough's 1850 address -- while it was almost entirely about the virtues of Union -- was also a preparation for disunion.

The image at the upper right is of Brockenbrough's grave at the Lexington City Cemetery.  The image at the left is of the Stonewall Jackson statue in front of some of the barracks.  Those are post-war barracks -- that just happens to be a cool picture.  I don't have a picture of the barracks that were built after Brockenbrough's dedication, then destroyed during the war and rebuilt, as I understand it.  The final image is the title page of Brockenbrough's VMI address.

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