It is not questioned that among the people of Virginia were men of
widely divergent views; Secessionists of the most ultra type, insisting
on the state's right to secede, and demanding her immediate withdrawal
from the Union; anti-secessionists of the strongest mould, denying the
right of secession and protesting against its attempted exercise;
Unionists who admitted the right in the state, as a desperate measure of
relief, but denying that any such occasion had arisen; advocates of
slavery who regarded the institution as approved of Heaven,—a blessing
to the blacks, and essential to the safety of the whites; apostles of
emancipation who denounced slavery and called for its abolition; men who
would make Virginia "neutral territory" between the hostile sections,
and those who would fight for her rights, but "fight within the Union."