Excerpt from The Two Virginias; Genesis of Old and New, a Romance of American History: State Sovereignty, Phantom of a Stupendous Folly Why was The Two Virginias written? Altruism. The writer thought it might profit the Old Virginians of the present day to be reminded of some of the things their distinguished forbears did, and some they omitted, in the long ago in which they feel so just a pride. Besides, he himself, like the Kaiser, wanted a place in the sun. Such an aspiration is but the longing of nature - the true reptilian instinct. The first thing the snakes do when they come out of cold storage in the Spring, is to try for the sunny side of a rock. The instinct is as old as Eden, and as modern as the submarine. It was my fortune - or misfortune - to get mixed up with the Virginia ruction at the beginning of the civil war, in 1861; and I have grown old and blind (as George Washington once said) trying to elucidate the merits and demerits of this ancient discord in the Virginia household. The elder of the Two is my original mother; the younger who claimed my allegiance in 1863, is my really and truly mother. If my story is well told, it will doubtless appear that I am partial to the younger matron. The old mother she being also the Mother of Presidents - Washington to Wilson - seems to me now more like a step-grandmother, for whom I have the utmost respect but cannot pretend any affection. Indeed, as far back as I can remember anything political, I never did quite like the way the old lady kept the house or ran the farm, nor the kind of people she had around the place. The recent probate in the United States Supreme Court of the Old Grandmother's will - bequeathing to her daughter one-third of her beautiful I owe you's - has dragged both, once more, into the lime-light; and it may be what I have herein chronicled about their wrangles long ago, across the back fence, will be not untimely, whatever else it may be. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.