The Heritage of The South / A History of the Introduction of Slavery; Its Establishment From Colonial Times and Final Effect Upon the Politics of the United States

by Jubal Anderson Early

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.