Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/369

 The Secession of Virginia. 363

favor of secession — that " the Governor turned over the entire mili- tary force and equipment of the State to the Confederate authori- ties"— and that a vote against secession was " impossible," because, at the time of the popular vote, " the soil of Virginia was overrun by soldiers from the cotton States," TAe Convention, and not the Gov- ernor, formed the alliance with the Confederate States — the election was one of the fairest ever held in America — and while the vote stood 125,950 in favor of ratifying the ordinance of secession to 20,373 against it (most of these last being cast in Northwest Virginia, where Federal bayonets did influence the vote) — yet there were no soldiers at the polls, no sort of intimidation was used, and men voted freely their honest convictions. The simple truth is, that Mr. Lincoln's proclamation caused the immediate secession of Virginia, and so dis- sipated the "Union" sentiment of the people, that Hon. John B. Baldwm (the Union leader of the Convention, and one of the ablest, purest men the State ever produced) but voiced the geperal senti- ment when he wrote a friend at the North — who had asked him the day after the proclamation was issued : " What will the Union men of Virginia do now?" — " We have no Union men in Virginia 7iow, but those who were 'Union' men will stand to their guns and make a fight which shall shine out on the page of history as an example of what a brave people can do after exhausting every means of pacifica- tion."

Yes ; old Virginia clung lo the Union and the Constitution with filial devotion. The voice of her Henry had first aroused the colo- nies to resist British oppression. The pen of her Jefferson had written the Declaration of Independence. The sword of her Washington had made good that Declaration. The pen of her Mason had written the Constitution, and her great statesmen had expounded it. Through long, prosperous, and happy years her sons had filled the presidential chair, and her voice had been potential, in Cabinet and Congress, in shaping the destinies of the great republic to whose prosperity she had contributed so largely.

But now there had arisen " another king that knew not Joseph" — the very fundamental principles of the Constitution were, in her judg- ment, subverted — civil war, with all of its horrors, had been inaugu- rated, and she must choose on which side she would fight. She did not hesitate ; but knowing full well that her soil would be the great battlefield, she took up the "gage of battle" and called on her sons to rally to her defence. From mountain-valley to the shores of her resounding seas — from Alleghany to Chesapeake — from the