Gov. Letcher of Virginia, in his late Message advises that slaveholders be compensated for the loss of their slaves. He says:
Many cases of peculiar hardship, arising from the loss of slaves, have been brought to my attention, and much complaint has been made by the owners, in consequence of the fact that they have not received the value as provided for in this act. In several cases the only slave capable of field labor that the owner possessed, has been lost, and compensation not having been made, he has been unable to supply his place. If the value had been promptly paid, the hardship in such cases would have been greatly relieved. I invoke your early attention to this subject, of so much importance to our common constituents.
The Governor does not propose that men shall be paid for the losses which they have sustained in other property. It is only the man who has lost a slave who receives the sympathy of the Southern aristocracy. If a white man be hung for murder the helpless family which was dependent on him receives no compensation; but if a slave commit murder and be hung, his owner, although worth a million, is paid by the State, i.e., by the people for the loss of his slave. Slave States have more sympathy for rich slaveholders who lose their slaves than for widows and orphans who lose there natural protectors. Is this justice?
The Daily Nashville Union, Nashville, TN, September 18, 1863
