On the 16th of March, the report of the committee was taken up for
consideration in the Committee of the Whole Convention. The majority
report embodied the views of some two-thirds of the membership of the
committee. There were several individual reports, but the views of the
minority were expressed in the report signed by Messrs. Montague, Harvie
and Williams, which simply recommended the immediate adoption of an
ordinance providing for the secession of the state.
The report of the majority consisted of fourteen sections, and with it
was submitted an amendment to the constitution of the United States,
which the states of the Union were requested to endorse and make it a
part of that instrument. The discussion with respect to this report and
the amendment so proposed, continued from the 16th of March to the 15th
of April, when before final and complete action by the Convention, the
secession of the state was precipitated, under the conditions hereafter
described.
The report of the majority is a lengthy document setting forth the
attitude of Virginia with respect to the character of the Federal
Government—the rights and powers of the latter in the territories, and
over the forts, arsenals, etc.—in the states which had seceded, and all
the many questions growing out of the contest over slavery.
The maintenance of peace was declared to be the foremost duty of the
hour. "Above all things, at this time, they esteem it of indispensable
necessity to maintain the peace of the country, and to avoid everything
calculated or tending to produce collision and bloodshed," said the
report.
The sixth section of the report deplored the present "distracted
condition of the country," and expressed the earnest hope, "That an
adjustment may be reached, by which the Union may be preserved in its
integrity; and peace, prosperity and fraternal feeling be restored
throughout the land."
To this section the report of the minority, providing for Virginia's
immediate secession, was offered as a substitute; and on the 4th of
April the latter was voted down by a recorded vote of forty-five "Yeas"
to eighty-nine "Nays," and the section as reported by the majority
adopted by a vote of one hundred and four "Yeas" to thirty-one
"Nays."[381]
The eighth section declared:
"The people of Virginia recognize the American principle, that
government is founded in the consent of the governed ... and they will
never consent that the Federal power, which is in part their power,
shall be exerted for the purpose of subjugating the people of such
states (the seceded states) to the Federal authority."
By the eleventh section appeal is made to the states to make response to
the position assumed in the resolutions and the proposed amendment to
the constitution of the United States, and the warning given that unless
satisfactory assurances were forthcoming, Virginia would feel compelled
to resume the powers granted by her under the constitution. Time and
again the report declares that "any action of the Federal Government
tending to produce collision of forces," or any such action on the part
of the seceded or confederated states, would be deemed offensive to the
state, and greatly to be deplored.