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promise because of the hostile attitude of the Northern agitators and the party which had voted for Lincoln, was not prepared to sever the ties which bound Virginia to the Union. There were some ultra-secessionists in the Convention, and among them were some very eloquent and persuasive speakers, but a majority of them were still Union men. Among the latter were John Janney, John B. Baldwin, Robert Y. Conrad, Robert E. Scott, R. L. Montague, Valentine W. Southall, William C. Rives, and Alexander H. H. Stuart.

The Committee on Federal Relations, which was composed of twenty-one members, sixteen of whom were Union men, submitted a report on March 9th, in which the committee set out the wrongs under which the Southern States were suffering, and declared that the powers granted under the Constitution were derived from the people of the United States, and might be resumed whenever those powers should be perverted to their injury and oppression. The report recommended various constitutional amendments and compromises, and also recommended that a convention of the Border States be held at Frankfort, Kentucky, on May 27th, to determine what course should be pursued by them toward the United States Government and the Confederate States.

This report, and substitutes which were offered for it, led to a protracted debate in which the subject was discussed, in all its details with the greatest ability, both by those who favored secession and those who were opposed to it. Finally, on April 4th, a motion was made to instruct the Committee on Federal Relations to report an ordinance of secession and the motion was defeated by a vote of 88 to 45. The anxious deliberations of the Convention, and its indisposition to pass an ordinance of secession, met with bitter opposition and ridicule from secessionists in all parts of the State, and those who opposed secession were denounced as submissionists. It was, no doubt, to this attitude of those who favored immediate secession that Mr. Stuart referred in a speech delivered in the Convention, when he said:

"I choose to dictate to nobody, and will submit to no dictation from anybody. I will listen with candor and fairness to the views of every gentleman that may be presented, and will endeavor, when we come to the closing scene of this great drama, to do what my judgment shall dictate as the best for the interest of our State and Country."

President Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th, and neither from his inaugural address nor from the personnel of his Cabinet was there any indication of a satisfactory adjustment of the differences separating the North and the South. The position of Virginia was most unsatisfactory. Her desire to preserve the Union, if possible, and her unwillingness to secede brought down upon her the adverse criticism of both the North and the South.

On April 8th the Convention determined to make one more effort to prevent the dissolution of the Union and passed the following resolution:

"Whereas in the opinion of this Convention the uncertainty which prevails in the public mind as to the policy which the Federal Executive intends to pursue towards the seceded States is extremely injurious to the industrial and commercial interests of the country, tends to keep up an excitement which is unfavorable to the adjustment of pending difficulties, and threatens a disturbance of the public peace; therefore,

"Resolved, That a Committee of three Delegates be appointed by this Convention to wait upon the President of the United States, present to him this preamble and resolution, and respectfully ask of him to communicate to this Convention the policy the Federal Executive intends to pursue in regard to the Confederate States."

Immediately after the adoption of this preamble and resolution, William Ballard Preston of Montgomery County, Alexander H. H. Stuart of Augusta County, and George W. Randolph of Richmond, were chosen as the delegates. The committee left the City of Richmond on the morning

of the 9th of April for Washington, but owing to a washout on the railroad caused by a violent storm, they did not reach the city until eleven o'clock on Friday, April 12th. They called upon the President at one o'clock that day and informed him that they had been appointed a committee by the Convention of Virginia, then in session, to make a communication to him from that body, and requested him to designate an hour when it would be agreeable to him to receive them. He replied that he would be happy to receive them at nine o'clock the next morning. At the appointed hour the committee waited upon the President and delivered to him the preamble and resolution of the Convention. The President then read to the committee a paper which he stated he had just prepared as his answer to the delegates from the Convention, stating that he had seen in the newspapers the proceedings of the Convention and the character of their mission. In it he referred to his inaugural address as the best evidence of his purposes, especially to that part of it where he had said:

"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what is necessary for those objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. * * *

"But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuit of a purpose to drive the United States authorities from these places, an unprovoked assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to repossess, if I can, like places which had been seized before the government was devolved upon me. And in any event I shall to the extent of my ability repel force by force."1

The committee on their return to Richmond submitted their report to the Convention, accompanied with the answer of the President to the preamble and resolution of the Convention. The answer was considered by the committee, as

'Munford, Code of Virginia, 1873, page 5.

well as by the members of the Convention, as highly unsatisfactory. Excitement was running high, and the feeling was steadily gaining ground that there was little, if any, escape from secession. Fort Sumter had been fired upon by South Carolina, and surrendered on April 14th. On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 troops to suppress combinations which were opposing and obstructing the execution of the laws of the United States, and to cause the laws to be duly executed in the States that had seceded. This call for troops produced alarm and indignation in the Border States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. It was regarded as indicating a purpose to wage war upon the Confederate States.

CHAPTER XXV

INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT LINCOLN-MR. STUART OPPOSES SECESSION

IN APRIL 16th William Ballard Preston offered an ordinance of secession, and at this critical moment Mr. Stuart addressed the Convention. This speech has an historical interest because it gave a co-temporaneous account of his mission to Lincoln; exhibited an accurate forecast of what the results of war would be to Virginia; and was an eloquent and patriotic appeal to delay the passage of the ordinance until further efforts were made with the Border States to preserve harmony and peace. The speech was set up in type, and a copy, pasted on brown paper, was sent to Mr. Stuart by the reporter for correction before publication. By an oversight of the reporter, a part of the speech of some other speaker was substituted for the conclusion of Mr. Stuart's address, which thus ends abruptly.

President Lincoln's call for troops to make war upon those States which had seceded caused many members of the Convention to change their attitude on the question of secession, and in the afternoon of April 17, 1861, the ordinance was adopted by a vote of 88 to 55. Under these circumstances, Mr. Stuart did not revise his speech and it was never published. He spoke as follows:

"I had not expected to open my lips during the remainder of this session, but in consequence of what has been said by the gentlemen who were associated with me in my mission to Washington, and in consequence of what seems to me to be an understanding that each member of that Commission shall give the benefit of his observations on that mission, I feel bound to say a few words.

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