Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia

by Dorothy Margaret Torpey

In November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. He represented the Republican Party which strongly opposed slavery, and he had made numerous speeches stating his personal opposition to it. Although Lincoln had declared that he had no desire to interfere with slavery in the states where it already existed, he also had made the following statement: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved: I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." Thus, on December 20, it was not a complete surprise that a special convention held at Charleston, South Carolina, resulted in the secession of South Carolina, a strong pro-slavery state, from the Union. By February 1861, six other southern states had acted likewise. The Confederate States of America was organized at Montgomery, Alabama, with Jefferson Davis as its President.

Until this time, Virginia had not declared herself. Like her neighboring states, she had to make the momentous decision. The Governor of Virginia at this time was John Letcher, later known as the "War Governor" of Virginia. The people of Virginia did not enthusiastically favor secession, that is, they did not have an ardent desire to leave the Union as South Carolina had had. Neither did Virginia believe in the national policy of coercion of a state to return to the Union. In an attempt to bring the seceded states back into the Union and to try to find some solution to the slavery problem, the Virginia legislature invited delegates from all the states to attend a national "Peace Conference" at Washington on February 4. Virginia appointed John Tyler (ex-President), Judge John Robertson, James A. Seddon, William C. Rives and George W. Summers to attend this conference. There was so much sectionalism bitter with political and economic rivalries at the conference that it was unsuccessful.

On February 13, 1861, a special state convention was held in Richmond to discuss the possibility of secession. When the counties elected the 152 delegates to this special state convention, their choice resulted in several pro-Union, anti-secession residents of the state. John Janney was the presiding officer of the convention. It was evident that the majority of the delegates hesitated to leave the Union because they had very strong ties with the Federal government. Virginia had played an important role in creating the Union and had furnished one-third of all the Presidents, numerous cabinet members, a Supreme Court Chief Justice who held this position for thirty-four years (John Marshall), and other less important Federal officials. The convention delegates sent a committee consisting of William B. Preston, George W. Randolph and Alexander H. H. Stuart to President Lincoln to plead for a peaceful solution to the slavery and secession problems.

On March 10, 1861, the Committee on Federal Relations at the Richmond convention submitted reports consisting of fourteen resolutions to the convention. These resolutions expressed the doctrine of states' rights, criticized slavery interference, advocated the right of secession and resolved that Virginia would be justified in seceding only if the Federal government usurped state powers or if it attempted to force the payment of tax duties from the seceded states or if it recaptured certain Southern forts. The first twelve resolutions had been adopted at the time of the unofficial firing on Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina on April 12th and the forced surrender of the Federal garrison. The Federal government had sent arms, troops and provisions to the aid of Colonel Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter. The Confederate government had considered the action a hostile act and had acted accordingly. The actual signal for the attack was given by Roger Pryor, a strong secessionist from Virginia; furthermore, the actual shot was fired by another Virginia secessionist, Edmund Ruffin. The ultimate surrender of Fort Sumter to the Confederates resulted in an immediate call from President Lincoln for volunteers to save the Union.

Even as late as April 4, the Richmond convention had rejected secession by a vote of two to one. Some of the minority were strong in their wishes to secede immediately and to join the Confederacy, and they used the issues of self-government, states' rights and slavery as their points of variance with the national government. Furthermore, these advocates believed that an alliance with the Confederacy would at least remove them from the direct influence of high protective tariffs since a clause prohibiting protective tariffs had been included in the Constitution of the Confederacy. Two days after the firing on Fort Sumter, April 15, President Lincoln called on all the states in the Union to send volunteers, numbering 75,000 total, to invade the seceding states and to coerce them back into the Union.

Two days later, April 17, 1861, the Virginia Convention passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of 88 to 55. Many pre-Union Virginians at this convention preferred to choose secession rather than to send troops to fight against their southern neighbor states. In the previous election, the Virginia people voted overwhelmingly to have the convention submit its results for their voting approval or disapproval via referendum. On May 4, a large majority of the Virginia citizens voted their approval of secession. Nevertheless, although eastern Virginia voted almost solidly for secession, western Virginia voted almost as solidly against secession. Governor John Letcher of Virginia sent the following reply to the United States Secretary of War, Simon Cameron: "In reply to this communication I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use of purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a 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 it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited towards the South."

On April 25, the same convention members passed an act which provided for the adoption of the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and Virginia became the eighth state of the Confederate States of America. Although Montgomery, Alabama, had been the capital of the Confederacy, one month after Virginia joined, Virginia invited the Confederacy to make Richmond its capital. The offer was accepted on May 21. Virginia thus became the focus of major battles of the War between the States during the four-year period: 1861-1865.

Colonel Robert E. Lee was a United States Army officer at this time and had one of the most difficult decisions to make. He was recognized as a man of great military ability, and the high regard which the Federal government had for him was expressed in the tremendously responsible position offered to him by President Lincoln. Lincoln was familiar with his great military strategy which had been followed in the Mexican War, his efficient administration as Superintendent of West Point, his excellent cavalry supervision on the frontier and his carefully planned capture of John Brown and his raiders at Harper's Ferry. Consequently, on April 18, President Lincoln had offered him the command of the Union forces. Lee realized the wonderful honor for which he had been selected and was deeply appreciative. However, he was a Virginian, and, after his state had seceded from the Union, he believed that there was no choice in the matter. His love of country was great, but the love of his state and his fellowmen was greater. Therefore, he sadly declined Lincoln's offer and stated that "though opposed, to secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States." Thus, as soon as Virginia seceded from the Union, he resigned his United States Army Commission on April 20 with the words: "Sir: I have the honor to tender the resignation of my commission as Colonel of the first regiment of cavalry. Very respectfully, your obedient servant—Robert E. Lee."

Lee then went to Richmond at the invitation of the convention and was made Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces on April 23. It should be noted here that Virginia did not have an aggressive, warlike attitude toward the Union. Governor John Letcher is quoted as speaking to Robert E. Lee in the convention itself in the following manner: "Yesterday, your mother, Virginia, placed her sword in your hand upon the implied condition that we know you will keep to the letter and in spirit, that you will draw it only in her defense, and that you will fall with it in your hand rather than that the object for which it was placed there shall fail."