An article by Dave Benner

Today in 1861, a special convention organized by the Commonwealth of Virginia voted to secede from the United States and join the Confederate States of America. The declaration followed President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to resupply Fort Sumter and raise a 75,000-man military force – with the sole purpose of launching a southern invasion – while Congress was not in session.

All throughout “Secession Winter,” Virginia resisted calls from the Deep South to join the Confederate States of America. The state remained bitterly divided on Lincoln and secession, however, and many believed Lincoln would not act as belligerent as the states of the Deep South had alleged. Because the president had publicly endorsed the Corwin Amendment – a constitutional codicil that would have explicitly recognized slavery in the states and made such a guarantee unamendable for all time – many thought the hyperbolic condemnations of Lincoln were unfounded.

The Corwin Amendment passed both houses of Congress on March 2, 1861. In the weeks prior to the resupply of Fort Sumter, the president had also made efforts to write personal letters to each state governor, enclosing within each a copy of the amendment for consideration. In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln reiterated that he “had no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.” Despite the president’s desire to use the overt recognition of slavery as a bargaining chip, none of the southern states decided to return to the union to help assure its ratification.

Virginia’s first secession convention, which met in mid-February of the same year, decided categorically not to secede over slavery. Instead, the assembly adopted a “wait and see” approach, deciding to monitor the new president to determine if he would behave in the manner the states composing the new southern union supposed.

On April 16, 1861, following the April Crisis that ended with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for an army of 75,000 troops while Congress was not in session. For the first time in American history, a president intended to raise an army by himself without congressional approval. The president directed the forces to invade American states and use force against any opposition that stood in his way. Lincoln’s decision had thrown to the wayside several attempts at peaceful reconciliation, including the far-reaching Crittenden Compromise.

In response to the raising of an army, an assembly comprised of delegates representing all of Virginia’s counties organized a second convention to consider secession. Lincoln’s unilateral call for forces was considered an incredibly hostile action in the South, especially in the states that up until that point had given Lincoln the benefit of the doubt. Virginia, being one of these states, was faced with unique apprehension toward the blatant threat of force, as Lincoln’s army would have to march directly through the heart of the state to confront South Carolina and the other seceded states. The new convention in Richmond, selected by republican elections, ultimately voted to secede on April 17. Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee followed shortly thereafter, all expressing similar reasons for withdrawing from the union.

It was only after Lincoln adopted such a brash military posture against the South, then, that Virginia withdrew from the union. In doing so, the state invoked a clause from its original 1788 ratification ordinance that guaranteed the state’s right to rescind its ratification and reassume all authority delegated to the general government. “The powers granted under the Constitution,” the ordinance read, “may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression.” The secession declaration was later endorsed by a popular referendum of Virginia’s citizens, with 132,201 voting to secede and 37,451 against doing so.

The assurance that Virginia could annul its ratification gesture, and withdraw from the union when it suited the public happiness of the state’s citizens, was one of the most pivotal reason the delegates at the Richmond Convention voted to accept the new framework. Without such a guarantee, the narrow margin of adoption demonstrates that the Constitution would likely have been rejected by the state.

Mere days after Virginia’s decision, the president issued blockade proclamation, arguing that the seceded states legally remained in the union and complaining that “the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed therein comfortably.” As Naval Commander Raphael Semmes recognized, Lincoln’s gesture contradicted the law of nations – a set of legal norms guiding international relations – as blockades could only be launched against other powers. If the states remained in the union, as Lincoln supposed, blockading their ports would be a violation thereof.

Virginia’s entry into the Confederacy, and Lincoln’s preparations for war, emboldened the South and significantly altered the balance of power between the two unions. With one of the most populous, economically rich, and militarily strong states now aligned against the Lincoln administration, the Confederate States of America moved its provisional capital in Montgomery, Alabama, to a permanent location in Richmond, Virginia.

These events also convinced General Robert Lee – who privately opposed secession and the formation of the new union – to reject the president’s offer to command the Union Army in Washington, D.C., resign from the United States Army, and accept a role as overall commander of Virginia’s military forces. In a letter to Lincoln’s secretary, Francis Blair, Lee asked: “How can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state?” At the Virginia House of Delegates, the general maintained the same position. “Trusting to Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens,” Lee said, “I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword.”

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Dave Benner is the author of Compact of the Republic, which covers of genesis of the decentralized US political system and the extent to which government has violated its original boundaries and orientation: https://amzn.to/2LIPFWD