The Convention assembled the 13th of February, and the friends of the
Union elected to its presidency the venerable John Janney. The spirit
and purpose of this dominant element may be gathered from a few extracts
in the speech of President Janney, on assuming his position:
"It is now seventy-three years since a convention of the people of
Virginia was assembled in this hall to ratify the constitution of the
United States, one of the chief objects of which was to
consolidate—not the government but the union of the states. Causes
which have passed, and are daily passing, into history which will set
its seal upon them, but which I do not mean to review, have brought
the constitution and the Union into imminent peril, and Virginia has
come to the rescue. It is what the whole country expected of her. Her
pride, as well as her patriotism; her interest, as well as her honor,
called upon her with an emphasis she could not disregard, to save the
monuments of her own glory....
"Gentlemen, there is a flag which for nearly a century has been borne
in triumph through the battle and the breeze and which now floats over
this Capitol, on which there is a star representing this ancient
commonwealth, and my earnest prayer, in which I know every member of
this body will cordially unite, is that it may remain there forever,
provided always that its lustre is untarnished.... Is it too much to
hope that we, and others who are engaged in the work of peace and
conciliation, may so solve the problems which now perplex us as to win
back our sisters of the South, who, for what they deem sufficient
cause, have wandered from their old orbits?"[368]
From the day of its opening session down to the 17th of April, the
advocates of secession and union confronted each other in debate.
Prominent among the Secessionists were Robert L. Montague, Lewis E.
Harvie, James P. Holcombe, John Goode and Jeremiah Morton. To this
number should be added Ex-President John Tyler, who, upon the failure of
the Peace Conference to accomplish its mission, advocated the secession
of Virginia.
Foremost among the Union men were John B. Baldwin, George W. Summers,
Jubal A. Early, Alexander H. H. Stuart, John S. Carlile, Williams C.
Wickham, and the President, John Janney. Among other prominent members
of the Convention were William Ballard Preston, Henry A. Wise, Robert Y.
Conrad, James C. Bruce, Eppa Hunton, Robert E. Scott, Allen T. Caperton,
John Echols, Waitman T. Willey, George W. Randolph and William L.
Goggin.