ntenance among us. We
receive no accusation but from the conscience of the accused. His
honor is the only witness to which we appeal; and should he be even
capable of prevarication or falsehood, we admit no proof of the fact.
But I beg you to observe, that in this cautious and forbearing spirit
of our legislation, you have not only proof that we have no
disposition to harrass you with unreasonable requirements, but a
pledge that such regulations as we have found it necessary to make
will be enforced.... The effect of this system in inspiring a high and
scrupulous sense of honor, and a scorn of all disingenuous artifice,
has been ascertained by long experience."[104]

A society in which grew up such a system as this could have no place
for the petty artifices of the trader nor the frauds of leading men in
public affairs. It is clear that at this period the old customs had
passed away; that there was a new atmosphere in Virginia; that the
planter was no longer a merchant but a Cavalier. The commercial spirit
had become distinctly distasteful to him, and he criticised bitterly
in his northern neighbors the habits and methods that had
characterized his own forefathers in the 17th century. Governor Tyler,
in 1810, said in addressing the Legislature, "Commerce is certainly
beneficial to society in a secondary degree, but it produces also what
is called citizens of the world--the worst citizens in the world." And
In public affairs honesty and patriotism took the place of deceit and
fraud. Even in the Revolutionary period the change is apparent, and
long before the advent of the Civil War the very memory of the old
order of affairs had passed away. The Virginia gentleman in the 19th
century was the soul of honor. Thomas Nelson Page says, "He was proud,
but never haughty except to dishonor. To that he was inexorable.... He
was chivalrous, he was generous, he was usually incapable of fear or
meanness. To be a Virginia gentleman was the first duty."[105] The
spirit of these men is typified in the character of Robert E. Lee. To
this hero of the Southern people dishonesty was utterly impossible.
After the close of the Civil War, when he was greatly in need of money
he was offered the presidency of an insurance company. Word was sent
him that his lack of experience in the insurance business would not
matter, as the use of his name was all the company desired of him. Lee
politely, but firmly, rejected this proposal, for he saw that to