(42 



VIRGINIA. 



VIRGINIA, WESTERN. 



it succeeds from the immense amount issued 

 and the character of the leaders, we may safely 

 assume the repudiation of the debt as inevi- 

 table." 



An amended constitution of the State was 

 adopted during the year. It provides that the 

 members of the Assembly shall be elected an- 

 nually, and hold annual sessions. It abolishes 

 the Board of Public Works, and provides for a 

 new one. The district courts were abolished. 

 The judges of the appellate and circuit courts 

 are to be elected by the Assembly instead of 

 an election by the people. Their term of office 

 expires when they arrive at the age of seventy 

 years. Clerks and attorneys for the State are 

 to be appointed by the courts, and the attorney- 

 general elected by the Assembly and not by 

 the people. A right of voting is preserved to 

 volunteers in the service. Numerous other 

 amendments were made of local importance. 



Virginia, east of the Chesapeake Bay, consists 

 of the counties of Accomac and Northampton. 

 It is a peninsula, having the Atlantic ocean 

 on the east, and the bay above mentioned on the 

 west. It was understood, near the close of the 

 year, that a body of secessionists, who were 

 chiefly residents, were in arms and exercising 

 a hostile control over the inhabitants of these 

 two counties. General Dix, then in command 

 of that Department, with his head-quarters at 

 Baltimore, despatched a body of troops to re- 

 store the Federal authority. At the same time 

 - he issued a proclamation, stating the objects of 

 the expedition, which produced the happiest re- 

 sults. The troops as they advanced met with 

 no opposition. The people declared their inten- 

 tion to submit to the authority of the United 

 States before the arrival of the military force. 

 On the night of November 15, a force of Con- 

 federate troops, in Accomac County, mostly 

 drafted militia disbanded. They gave as rea- 

 sons that they were satisfied with the procla- 

 mation, and they believed they could not with- 

 stand the military force. In Northampton 

 County, the secessionists to the number of 1,800 

 laid down their arms, and the Union troops 

 held peaceful possession of the entire county. 

 The following was the proclamation of General 

 Dix: 



HEAD-QUARTERS, BALTIMORE, Nov. 13, 1861. 

 To the People of Accomac and Northampton Coun- 

 ties, Fa. : 



The military forces of the United States are about 

 to enter your counties as a part of the Union. They 

 will go among you as friends, and with the earnest 

 hope that they may not by your own acts be com- 

 pelled to become your enemies. They will invade no 

 right of person or property. On the contrary, your 

 laws, your institutions, your usages, will be scrupu- 

 lously respected. There need be no fear that the 

 quietude of any firesides will be disturbed, unless the 

 disturbance is caused by yourselves. Special direc- 

 tions have been given not to interfere with the condi- 

 tion of any person held to domestic servitude ; and, in 

 order that there may be no ground for mistake or pre- 

 text for misrepresentation, commanders of regiments 

 or corps have been instructed not to permit such per- 

 sons to come within their lines. 



The command of the expedition is intrusted to 



Brigadier-General Henry H. Lockwqod, of Delaware 

 a State identical in some of the distinctive features of 

 its social organization with your own. Portions of his 

 force come from counties in Maryland bordering on 

 one of yours. From him and from them you may be 

 assured of the sympathy of near neighbors, as well as 

 friends, if you do not repel it by hostile resistance or 

 attack. 



This mission is to assert the authority of the United 

 States, to reopen your intercourse with the loyal States, 

 and especially with Maryland, which has just proclaim- 

 ed her devotion to the Union by the most triumphant 

 vote in her political annals ; to restore to commerce 

 its accustomed guides, by reestablishing the lisrhts on 

 your coast ; to afford you a free export for the produce 

 of your labor, a free ingress for the necessaries and 

 comforts of life which you require in exchange, and in 

 a word, to put an end to the embarrassments and re- 

 strictions brought upon you by a causeless and un- 

 justifiable rebellion. 



If the calamities of intestine war which are desolat- 

 ing other districts of Virginia, and have already crim- 

 soned her lands with fraternal blood, fall also upon 

 you, it will not be the fault of the Government. It 

 asks only that its authority may be recognized. It 

 sends among you a force too strong to be successfully 

 opposed a force which cannot be resisted in any 

 other spirit than that of wantonness and malignity. 

 If there are any among you, who, rejecting all over- 

 tures of friendship, thus provoke retaliation and draw 

 down upon themselves consequences which the Gov- 

 ernment is most anxious to avert, to their account 

 must be laid the blood which may be shed, and the 

 desolation which may be brought upon peaceful 

 homes. On all who are thus reckless of the obliga- 

 tions of humanity and duty, and all who are found in 

 arms, the severest punishment warranted by the laws 

 of war will be visited. 



To those who remain in the quiet pursuit of their 

 domestic occupations, the public authorities assure all 

 they can give peace, freedom from annoyance, protec- 

 tion from foreign and internal enemies, a guarantee of 

 all constitutional and legal rights, and the blessings of 

 a just and parental Government. 



JOHN A. DIX, 

 Major-General Commanding. 



The following were the wholesale prices of 

 certain articles at Richmond, on November 

 20th : Bacon, hog round, 23 to 26 cts. But- 

 ter, 45 to 50 cts., very scarce. Corn meal, 80 

 to 85 cts. Candles, tallow, 20cts. ; adaman- 

 tine, 45 to 49 cts. Coffee, none in the market. 

 Hay, timothy or clover, $1.35 per hundred. 

 Halifax herrings, $8 to $10, but none to be had. 

 Pig iron, $40 to $45, stock small. Nails T to 

 Y| cts. Refined English iron, $115 to $120. 

 Leather, 60 to 65 cts. ; demand immense, stock 

 very light. Lead 7^ to Yf. New Orleans mo- 

 lasses, 52 to 65 cts. " Pepper, YO to 75 cts., very 

 scarce. Salt, fine Liverpool, $9.50 to $10. 

 Wool, washed Virginia, (common) 50 to 60 

 cts. ; fine merino do., 50 to 60 cts. Exchange 

 on New York in Richmond, 6 to 6 per cent, 

 premium ; silver at 15 per cent., and gold at 20 

 per cent. ; Confederate States bonds, ($15,000,- 

 000 issued,) 98 to 98, Confederate money being 

 rated at par. 



VIRGINIA, WESTERN, is that part of the 

 State of Virginia which refused to acquiesce 

 in the vote by which the Ordinance of Seces- 

 sion was passed. The attachment to the Union 

 was here so strong and so nearly unani- 

 mous, that the people rejected the authority at 

 Richmond. By the aid of the United States 



