The action of the Virginia Convention was quick and decisive. On the
17th of April, an ordinance was adopted providing for Virginia's
secession from the Union and submitting this action of the Convention to
the people for ratification or rejection at a special election to be
held on the 23d of May. In the Convention the tentative ordinance was
passed by a vote of eighty-eight ayes to fifty-five noes (nine not
voting), and before the people a month later it was confirmed by a vote
of 128,884 against 32,134. Mr. Rhodes records that, in the concluding
hours of the Convention, strong men spoke for or against secession, with
sorrowful hearts and in voices trembling with emotion.[388]
This action of the Convention was the logical and inevitable result of
the President's proclamation. There had never been any doubt as to
Virginia's position. With all her loyalty to the Union, she had
repeatedly declared in the most authoritative manner, her opposition to
the coercion of the Cotton States and her determination to resist such a
policy.
To the requisition upon Virginia for her quota of troops Governor
Letcher made reply to the Secretary of War:
"I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished
to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have
in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States and the
requisition made upon me for such an object—an object in my judgment
not within the purview of the constitution or the act of 1795, will
not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war; and
having done so we will meet you in a spirit as determined as the
Administration has exhibited toward the South."[389]
The Governors of Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and North
Carolina returned like answers to the requisitions of the Federal
authorities for troops.
Mr. Henderson, the English writer, in his work from which we have
heretofore quoted, says with reference to Virginia's position:
"So far Virginia had given no overt sign of sympathy with the
revolution. But she was now called upon to furnish her quota of
regiments for the Federal Army. To have acceded to the demands would
have been to abjure the most cherished principles of her political
existence.... Neutrality was impossible. She was bound to furnish her
tale of troops and thus belie her principles; or secede at once and
reject, with a clean conscience, the President's mandate. If the
morality of secession may be questioned, if South Carolina acted with
undue haste and without sufficient provocation, if certain of the
Southern politicians desired emancipation for themselves, that they
might continue to enslave others, it can hardly be denied that the
action of Virginia was not only fully justified, but beyond
suspicion...."[390]
-----
Footnote 383:
_Journal of Virginia Convention_, 1861, p. 143.
Footnote 384:
_Life of James Buchanan_, Curtis, Vol. II, p. 534.
Footnote 385:
_My Diary, North and South_, Russell, Vol. I, p. 37.
Footnote 386:
_Speeches, Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln_, N. & H., Vol.
II, p. 29.
Footnote 387:
_Journal of Virginia Convention_, 1861, Document No. XVII.
Footnote 388:
_History of United States_, Rhodes, Vol. III, p. 386.
Footnote 389:
_American Conflict_, Greeley, Vol. I, p. 459.
Footnote 390:
_Stonewall Jackson_, Henderson, Vol. I, p. 122.