VIRGINIA. 



735 



its favor and 55 against it. Only 91 delegates 

 had s5j:ned it at the expiration of the first month 

 after it< passage. It is stated by a memher that 

 when the Convention assembled, a clear ma- 

 jority was for the Union, at which a mob ex- 

 citement existed in Richmond. It was then 

 calculated that if ten Union men could be kept 

 away, there would be a majority for secession. 

 Accordingly, ten members were waited upon 

 and informed that they were given the choice 

 of doing one of three things : either to vote 

 for the secession ordinance, to absent them- 

 selves, or to be hanged. Resistance was found 

 to be useless, and the ten yielded and were 

 absent. The report of the vote, however, 

 shows that at the final moment the majority 

 in favor of the ordinance was large. 



The following is the Ordinance of Secession : 



An Ordinance to repeal the ratification of the Consti- 

 tution of the United States of America, by the State 

 of Virginia, and to resume a"ll the rights and powers 

 granted under said Constitution. 

 The people of Virginia, in the ratification of the 

 Constitution of the United States of America, adopted 

 by them in Convention, on the 25th day of June, in the 

 year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 

 eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted 

 under the said Constitution were derived from the peo- 

 ple of the United States, and might be resumed whenso- 

 ever the same should be perverted to their injury and 

 oppression, and the Federal Government having per- 

 verted said powers, not only to the injury of the people 

 of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern 

 slaveholding States ; 



Now, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do 

 declare and ordain, that the Ordinance adopted by the 

 people of this State in Convention on the twenty-fifth 

 day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand 

 seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Con- 

 stitution of the United States of America was ratified, 

 and all acts of the General Assembly of this State rati- 

 fying or adopting amendments to said Constitution, 

 are hereby repealed and abrogated ; that the union 

 between the State of Virginia and the other States 

 under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, 

 and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession 

 and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which be- 

 long and appertain to a free and independent State. 

 And they do further declare that said Constitution of 

 the United States of America is no longer binding on 

 any of the citizens of this State. 



This Ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this 

 day, when ratified by a majority of the votes of the 

 people of this State, cast at a poll to be taken thereon, 

 on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of 

 a schedule hereafter to be enacted. 



Done in Convention in the city of Richmond, on the 

 seventeenth day of April, in the'year of our Lord one 

 thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the 

 eighty-fifth year of the commonwealth of Virginia. 

 A true copy, JXO. L. EUBANK, 



Secretary of Convention. 



At the same time the Convention passed an 

 ordinance requiring the Governor to call out as 

 many volunteers as might, be necessary to repel 

 invasion, and to protect the citizens of the 

 State. The following is the Governor's Procla- 

 mation : 



Whereas seven of the States formerly composing a 

 part of the United States have, by authority of their 

 people, solemnly resumed the powers granted by them 

 to the United States, and have framed a Constitution and 

 organized a Government for themselves, to which the 



people of those States are yielding willing obedience, 

 and have so notified the 1'rcsidont of the Lnitcd .- 

 by all the formalities incident to such action, and 

 thereby become to the United States a separate, inde- 

 pendent, and foreign Power; apd whereas the ('(insti- 

 tution of the United States has invested Congress with 

 the sole power " to declare war," and until such decla- 

 ration is made the President baa no authority to call 

 for an extraordinary force to wage offensive war 

 against any foreign Power; and whereas on- the 15th 

 instant the President of the United States, in plain 

 violation of the Constitution, issued a proclamation 

 calling for a force of seventy-five thousand men, to 

 cause the laws of the United States to be dtilv executed 

 over a people who are no longer a part of the Union, 

 and in said proclamation threatens to exert this un- 

 u>ual force to compel obedience to his mandates ; and 

 whereas the General Assembly of Virginia, by a ma- 

 jority approaching to entire unanimity, declared at its 

 last session that the State of Virginia would consider 

 such an exertion of force as a virtual declaration of 

 war, to be resisted bv all the power at the command 

 of Virginia ; and subsequently, the Convention now 

 in session, representing the sovereignty of this State, 

 has re-affirmed in substance the same policv, with 

 almost equal unanimitv ; and whereas the ^tate of 

 Virginia deeply sympathizes with the Southern States 

 in the wrongs they have suffered and in the position 

 they have assumed, and having made earnest efforts 

 peaceably to compose the differences which have 

 severed the Union, and having failed in that attempt 

 through this unwarranted act on the part of the Presi- 

 dent ; and it is believed that the influences which op- 

 erate to produce this proclamation against the Seceded 

 States will be brought to bear upon this Common- 

 wealth if she should exercise her undoubted rights to 

 resume the powers granted by her people, and it is 

 due to the honor of "Virginia that an improper exercise 

 of force against her people should be repelled : 



Therefore I, John Letcher, Governor of the Com- 

 monwealth of Virginia, have thought proper to order 

 all armed volunteer regiments or companies within 

 this State forthwith to hold themselves in readiness 

 for immediate orders, and upon the reception of this 

 proclamation to report to the Adjutant-General of the 

 State their organization and numbers, and prepare 

 themselves for efficient service. Such companies as 

 are not armed and equipped will report that fact that 

 they may be properly supplied. 



In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my 

 hand, and caused the seal of the Cotnmon- 

 [L. s.] wealth to be affixed, this 17th day of April, 

 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year o'f the Com- 

 monwealth. JOHX LETCHER. 



During the next day, it was announced from 

 the hall of the Convention, that an ordinance 

 of secession had been passed, to take effect as 

 an act of that day, should the same be ratified 

 by the people on a vote to be taken thereon on 

 the fourth Thursday of May. The intelligence 

 spread throughout Richmond and produced 

 immense excitement. Loud and prolonged 

 cheering proceeded from the assembled crowds. 

 In a very short time a rush was made by a 

 party of citizens to the cnstom-house, for the 

 purpose of signalizing the act of secession in a 

 more demonstrative manner. The gilt letter 

 sign, " United States Court," over the portico 

 was speedily displaced and taken down, and 

 the occupants of the building notified that the 

 United States jurisdiction over the property had 

 ceased. The next act was to raise a Southern 

 Confederacy flag, with eight stars, over the 

 capitol, in which the Convention held its 

 sessions. 



