William Axton Stokes was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 who contributed notes and references to an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 edition of Mathew Hale's

Matthew Hale (jurist)

Sir Matthew Hale SL was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ, or The History of the Pleas of the Crown. Born to a barrister and his wife, who had both died by the time he was 5, Hale was raised by his father's relative, a strict...

 (1609–1676) Historia placitorum coronae (History of the pleas of the crown) published by R. H. Small of Philadelphia in 1847.

Civil War service

Stokes later served as a major

Major (United States)

In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, major is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel...

 in the U.S. Infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, including a period in 1861 commanding at the 18th U.S. Infantry Headquarters, Camp Thomas

Camp Thomas

Camp Thomas was a United States Regular Army training facility located in North Columbus, Ohio , during the American Civil War. It was primarily used to organize and train new infantry regiments for service in the Western Theater.-Establishment:...

, Franklin County, Ohio

Franklin County, Ohio

Franklin County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. In 2010 the population was 1,163,414, making it the second largest county in Ohio and the 34th largest county in population in the United States. Franklin County is also the largest in the eight-county Columbus, Ohio...

.

His stirring speech, at the Union Convention of Westmoreland County

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 369,993 people, 149,813 households, and 104,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 361 people per square mile . There were 161,058 housing units at an average density of 157 per square mile...

, PA in 1861, was delivered in support of the united American Republic and in favor of the war to crush rebellion. He denied the rebel cause by systematically positing that the rebel states

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 have no right of secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

, no grounds for revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

, and no justifiable argument against Abraham Lincoln’s

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 election to the presidency.

After the war

In 1874, Stokes was part of a committee appointed to report upon the operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

The Special Collections at Villanova University

Villanova University

Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States...

 contains some of Stokes’s personal papers as well as other donations of the Stokes family to the university. A small collection of Stokes documents can also be found in the Special Collections Department at the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

Library.

External links

• Stokes Collection at Villanova University
• Stokes Collection at the University of Delaware