In regard to the recent discussions of state versus national loyalties,
the truth seems to lie somewhere between the two poles of "my country is
Virginia" (Randolph of Roanoke) and "I am not a Virginian but an
American" (Patrick Henry -- please excuse the rough paraphrasing).  Many
Virginians in the antebellum era saw Virginia as their identity, & loved
to celebrate all things Virginian (like famous native sons, their
colonial past, Pocahontas, etc.), but they still turned out for the
national 4th of July -- and not just because George Washington was a
Virginian.  Gregg Kimball's fine work on Richmond shows how important
national identity was for people in the growing metropolis.

Identifying with one's native state was not contrary to such a national
identity.  Most people in the United States saw their national identity
as Americans founded on the union of states created under the
Constitution of 1787.  The doctrine of states' rights did not become
anti-union until Lincoln made it so with his insistence that the union
was perpetual and indisoluable.

And even then though the Civil War did not destroy the tug of state
loyalities -- particularly in the south, but really everywhere in the US;
if state loyalty had diminished, people wouldn't identify themselves with
such descriptions as "10th generation Virginian."

David Kiracofe
A Virginian amongst the Carolinians

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