=Action of the Border Slave States--Convention of Virginia=
The "Border Slave States," as they were called, including North Carolina,
Tennessee and Arkansas, which immediately joined the "Cotton States" on
the south, though equally appreciating the outrages upon their rights and
the dangers to be apprehended in the future, were not at first disposed
to secede, as they had cherished such an habitual attachment to the Union
that they were exceedingly loth to give it up, being governed by that
sentiment described in the Declaration of Independence in the assertion
"that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
The majority of the people of those states were actuated by hope that the
party which was about to obtain possession of the government would not
long hold together, and they trusted that the sober second thought of the
people of the North would keep the dominant party within bounds until it
could be ejected from power, and that in the meantime guaranties might be
obtained for the rights of the states, so as to bring the government back
to a conformity with its original designs, and effect a restoration of the
Union. This was especially the case with the State of Virginia, which had
made so many sacrifices to establish and perpetuate the Union, which in
great part had been the work of her own hands. The legislature of Virginia
was in session when the secession of the "Cotton States" began, and the
crisis was of such a threatening nature that an act was passed, providing
for the assemblage of a convention, vested with the sovereign power of
the state, but directing at the same time, that a vote should be taken
upon the question of any ordinance of secession which might be adopted,
and that it should be submitted to the popular vote for ratification
before it should be effectual. The legislature also by resolution, invited
a convention of commissioners from all of the non-seceding states, North
and South, to assemble at Washington for the purpose of consulting upon
and devising some plan for adjusting the pending difficulties with a view
to a restoration of the Union. This latter convention assembled and was
known as the "Peace Convention."
The election for members of the Virginia convention took place on the
first Monday in February, 1861, and a large majority of the delegates
elected were opposed to secession. The convention assembled at the Capitol
in Richmond, on the 13th of February, and a decided union man, Mr. John
Janney, of Loudoun, was chosen President. A deliberative body containing
more general talent and worth had rarely, if ever, assembled in the state,
and all of the members seemed to be impressed with the momentous character
of the crisis. This convention contained one distinguished gentleman who
had been President of the United States, another who had been governor of
the state, a number who had filled seats in the Federal Congress, two who
had been heads of departments in the Cabinet at Washington, besides many
others among the most talented and distinguished statesmen and lawyers of
the state.
There was a variety of sentiment among the Union members as to the terms
upon which it would be safe for the state to remain in the Union, but a
very large majority were earnestly in favor of some adjustment in the
way of amendments to the Constitution of the United States, by which the
seceded states could be induced to return, while the members favoring
immediate secession constituted a very small minority. A committee was at
once appointed, which after considerable deliberation reported a plan of
adjustment for submission to the other states through Congress, after its
adoption by the convention. In the meantime the Peace Convention which
assembled at Washington, had adopted a proposition for adjustment which
met with no favor at the hands of the Republican members of Congress, and
was not entirely satisfactory to a majority of the Virginia Convention.
Propositions of compromise in Congress had also failed.
The Virginia Convention engaged earnestly in the discussion of the
report of its committee and counter propositions, and continued it until
the month of April, having in the meantime voted down, by a very large
majority, a direct proposition for secession.
It is difficult to describe the intense anxiety felt by most of the
members of the convention to preserve the peace of the country and effect
an amicable settlement of the troubles. Lincoln had been inaugurated
president on the 4th of March, and had delivered an inaugural address that
was enigmatical in its terms. During the whole of the discussion which was
progressing in the Virginia convention, the members engaged in the effort
to preserve peace and restore the Union, received no offer whatever of
co-operation from the occupant of the White House, and no direct answer
ever reached them as coming from him to persons who approached him on the
questions engrossing all hearts and minds in the state.
In the early part of April, the convention had become very anxious in
regard to the uncertain condition of things, and appointed a committee of
three of its members, of great ability and experience to wait upon Mr.
Lincoln and ascertain from him, in a respectful manner, what course he
proposed to take in regard to the seceded states. This committee reached
Washington a little before the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor,
and had an interview with Mr. Lincoln, receiving very little encouragement
from him. While the committee was awaiting a formal answer, which was
promised, the news of the commencement of the bombardment of Fort Sumter
was received, and the reply from Mr. Lincoln appeared in extra issues from
the press without having been communicated to the committee.
This reply was enigmatical in its terms like the inaugural, but was rather
stronger on the question of coercion. The committee at once returned and
reported to the convention the result of its mission, and Fort Sumter
having fallen, a proclamation from Lincoln soon followed, on the 15th of
April, calling on the states, Virginia included, for 75,000 troops "to
repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the
Union."
There was no mistaking that this meant war on the seceded states, and
the Virginia convention went into secret session, when an ordinance
of secession was introduced by Mr. Ballard Preston, Chairman of the
Committee, which had waited on Lincoln, and up to that time an opponent of
secession. After a very earnest discussion, that ordinance was adopted on
the 17th day of April.
A number of members of the convention, including myself, who afterwards
fully sustained the action of the state, voted against the passage of
this ordinance with the hope, even in that stage of the controversy, that
the people of the North would not respond to the call of Lincoln for
troops, and that a disruption of the Union and the horrors of war might
still be avoided. The scenes which occurred during the discussion which
ensued after the convention went into secret session, were characterized
by a solemnity rarely witnessed in a deliberative body and several
members while speaking were unable to restrain their tears. As for
myself, it was exceedingly difficult to surrender the attachment of a
lifetime to that Union which had been cemented by the blood of so many
patriots, and which I had been accustomed to look upon (in the language
of Washington) as the palladium of the political safety and prosperity
of the country, and therefore I had hoped even against hope, but I soon
became convinced fully that the action of the convention was right, and
that it could have pursued no other course, consistently with the honor
and dignity of Virginia, and in this opinion I have remained firmly fixed,
notwithstanding the result of the war which ensued.
After the passage of the ordinance of secession, provision was made for
submitting it to the popular vote for ratification, at the elections to
be held on the fourth Thursday in May. In the meantime steps were taken
for placing the state in a condition of defence, and an ordinance was
passed directing the governor to call into service of the state as many
volunteers as might be necessary to defend it against invasion. Colonel
Robert E. Lee, a native and citizen of Virginia, who had resigned his
commission in the United States Army on hearing the action of his state,
was appointed by the governor, with the consent of the convention,
commander-in-chief of all of the forces of the state with the rank of
Major General.
In the meantime an arrangement was made with the Confederate Government
for assistance in defending the state, in the event of an attempt by the
government at Washington to march troops into or through it with a view to
an invasion of any of the seceded states, and the Confederate Government
was invited to remove to the City of Richmond.
The convention remained in session until the first day of May, when it
adjourned over to the second week in June to await the result of the
popular vote on the ordinance of secession. The ratification was given by
an overwhelming majority of the popular vote, and upon the re-assembling
of the convention the ordinance was duly signed by the greater part of
the members. I had voted for the ratification at the polls and now put my
signature to the ordinance.
Virginia now had fully and completely dissolved her connection with
the United States, and resumed the powers she had delegated when she
ratified the Constitution. To this step she had been impelled against her
previous inclinations, by the course of the government at Washington,
to avoid being dragged into an unholy war against the Cotton States,
and to maintain the cherished principles for which she had fought, and
which she had uniformly asserted since the adoption of the United States
Constitution. When the act of secession was complete, she adopted the
Constitution of the Confederate States, both provisional and permanent,
and was fully admitted into the Confederacy.
North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas likewise withdrew from the
Union and became members of the Confederacy for the same reasons which
influenced Virginia. Missouri subsequently passed an ordinance of
secession and joined the Confederacy, but that state was soon overrun
by United States troops, and the regular government was subverted and
another substituted in its place by the force of Federal bayonets.
Kentucky undertook to occupy a neutral position until the greater part
of that state was in the power of the Federal troops, when an irregular
government was formed which passed an ordinance of secession and joined
the Confederacy. The situation of Maryland was such that she was soon
overrun by troops and prevented any legislative expression of opinion, the
members of her legislature being seized and imprisoned. Little Delaware
was so situated that its voice was never heard at all.