150 years ago today, Virginia secedes
By Brian Schoeneman | Monday, May 23rd, 2011 | Catch-All, HistoryAs we continue to remember the events as they unfolded during the Civil War sesquicentennial year, I have been doing my best to put up a post marking the milestones of each major day, particularly for those of us in Virginia. Today marks the 150th anniversary of one of the sadder days of the war, the day Virginia’s secession from the union was complete.
Following the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861, the most northern states of the south – Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas and North Carolina – found themselves in a quandry. While these states had withstood the earlier secession of the Deep South cotton states, they were now faced with a decision – to join their fellow slave states in seceding from the Union, or to allow their territory and their militia to be used by the Federal government to put down the insurrection in the South.
Virginia was not as predisposed towards secession as some of its fellow southern states. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, on November 15, 1860, Virginia Governor John Letcher had convened a special session of the General Assembly to take up the issue of secession. The General Assembly then voted to hold a special secession convention, which began on February 13, 1861. In addition to the secession convention, the General Assembly also voted to sponsor a Peace Convention, to be held in Washington in February to try to develop a compromise that could save the Union. The Peace Convention failed. But so did the secession convention in Richmond – at least, for a time. Virginians who favored immediate secession pushed through a resolution that would have removed Virginia from the Union – a resolution which failed by a vote of 88-45. The convention adopted a number of other resolutions, most of them favoring Southern policy positions, but also including a resolution that the eight slave states that remained in the Union at the time meet to discuss a way to compromise and return the 7 Cotton States to the federal fold.
That meeting never happened.
After Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, public opinion began to shift. Those in Virginia who had been staunch unionists blanched at the idea of fighting their colleagues in South Carolina. When President Lincoln telegraphed Governor Letcher, requesting he call out the militia to support Federal efforts to suppress the hostilities in South Carolina, he received the following response:
“?Executive Department, Richmond, Va., April 15, 1861. Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: Sir: I have received your telegram of the 15th, the genuineness of which I doubted. Since that time I have received your communications mailed the same day, in which I am requested to detach from the militia of the State of Virginia “the quota assigned in a table,” which you append, “to serve as infantry or rifleman for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged.” In reply to this communication, I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object – an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 – will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.”
The die was cast. two days later, the secession convention voted to provisionally secede from the Union on an 88-55 vote. Of the delegates who voted against secession, many came from Northern Virginia, including the President of the Convention, John Janney and John Armistead Carter, both of Loudoun, George William Brent of Alexandria, and William H. Dulaney of Fairfax.
The ordinance of secession was provisional pending a referendum of the entire Commonwealth, which was held on May 23rd, 1861. The final vote was 132,201 in favor of secession and 37,451. Virginia became the heart of the new Confederacy of southern states, and seven days after ratification, Richmond began serving as the capital of the new nation.
Half a decade later, the Commonwealth would be in ruins, Richmond nearly destroyed, Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah ravaged, and almost 15,000 Virginia men would have died from combat or disease. 123 battles would be fought on our soil. And countless thousands of civilians would have been displaced, their lives changed forever.
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About the author
A veteran political professional, long-time Republican party activist and attorney Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.
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8 Responses to "150 years ago today, Virginia secedes"
This would be a good day for the state flag to be flying at half staff. The saddest day in Virginia’s history.
Not a bad idea.
Is there no more Damn the Torpedoes?
http://www.bearingdrift.com/damnthetorpedoes/
Great history lesson, Brian. Yes, Lincoln’s biggest nightmare was that slave-holding Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri would follow the Deep South out of the Union. He managed to hang on to Maryland and Missouri and when Virginia seceded then subduing the Old Dominion became his first priority, for both tactical and strategic reasons. And we paid dearly for it. One of the most gripping narratives of this time was how Robert E. Lee, a West Point graduate who was offered command of the Union Army by Lincoln, agonized over his divided loyalties to the US Army and to Virginia.
May I suggest a topic for the next coming anniversary? The secession of the western counties from Virginia and the only time in American history that a new state has been formed from part of an existing state, an action that is forbidden by the Constitution.
“…the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.”
Any problem with his reasoning, or do you guys just pray at the altar of power?
Hisroc: I’ve always considered Lincoln’s actions wrt the western counties of Virginia to present a quandary. As you note, it is specifically unConstitutional to create a new state from within the borders of an existing state. Yet, it was done, and the new state was promptly admitted to the “union”. Expedience wins over the oft-cited and revered “law,” such as it is. The only way it would be legal would be if Virginia were no longer a state. If Virginia were no longer a state, then her secession would have had to be legal, and not merely a rebellion, for if it were merely a rebellion she would still be technically a state. If her secession were legal, then she was no longer a member of the United States but rather another country, and therefore Lincoln’s invasion of the Confederacy was just that, an invasion of a sovereign nation.
On a related note, is anything happening on the imperial presidency War Powers Act 60-day expiration issue, as far as anyone knows? Lessons learned, eh?
It is the dumbest thing Virginia has ever done…
Jamie,
Constitutional Law is much like Voltaire’s definition of History: It is a bag of tricks that the living play on the dead.
Volumes have been written about the Constitutionality of West Virginia’s admission to the Union. Like the forcible return of the Confederate States to the Union, it comes down to a simple fait accompli. I have always found it interesting that the Supreme Court spent so much time in the decade after the Civil War sorting out Lincoln’s abuses of civil liberties (see Ex Parte Milligan), but to my knowledge never took up the larger issue of the Constitutionality of secession in general or the legality of West Virginia in particular.
@Ponder Replay, with the redesign and other ventures, we opted not to continue a separate Damn the Torpedos blog. Rather will cover history here on the main site, as Brian has done.
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