Benj. Watkins Leigh
The Unionist 1834-03-13
Unionist content
Transcription
Benj. Watkins Leigh, Esq., has been appointed Senator from Virginia, in the place of Mr. Rives, resigned.
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Benjamin Watkins Leigh (1781-1849) was an anti-Abolitionist. In 1835 he would contend that Virginia had a right to ban any literature it found "inflammatory." Apparently the Abolitionists already knew his true colors. “Virginia Senator Benjamin Watkins Leigh proposed a statewide boycott of newspapers that favored emancipation. Virginians, Leigh wrote, had the right “to suppress to the utmost of our power what we deem inflammatory, dangerous, mischievous.” (Susan Dunn, Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the decline of Virginia. New York: Basic Books, 2007, p. 195)
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