  Efforts to Promote Reconciliation and Union As Virginia had borne a conspicuous part in founding the Union, so, when civil dissensions arose and its integrity was threatened, she was foremost in mediation. At no time were her efforts more earnest than in the troublous days of 1860-61. James Ford Rhodes says: "Virginia, whose share in forming the Union had been greater than that of any other one state, was loath to see that great work shattered, and now made a supreme effort to save it." Following the announcement of Mr. Lincoln's election, South Carolina seceded and in all the other Cotton States the manifestations of popular sentiment foreshadowed like action. The people of Virginia, though profoundly moved by the considerations which influenced their brethren of the far South, were yet opposed to secession, and proceeded to put forth every effort to avert war, and bring back the Cotton States to their former allegiance. GOVERNOR LETCHER'S MESSAGE, 1861 On the 7th of January, 1861, her General Assembly was called in extra session. Governor Letcher's message set forth the dangers and problems which confronted the state and nation. "The condition of our country at this time," he declared, "excites the most serious fears for the perpetuation of the Union.... Surely no people have been blessed as we have been, and it is melancholy to think that all is now about to be sacrificed on the Altar of Passion. If the judgments of men were consulted, if the admonitions While thus expressing devotion to the Union, he yet proclaimed his belief in the legal right of secession. He deplored the precipitate action of South Carolina, declaring that in a movement "involving consequences so serious to all the slaveholding states, no one state should have ventured to move without first having given timely notice to the others of her purpose." He reviewed at length the action of that great element of the Northern people, which, for years, had been unceasing in their assaults upon the constitutional rights of the South on the questions growing out of the existence of slavery. He alluded to the recent messages of the Governors of South Carolina and Mississippi in which the Border States were referred to in no over-friendly terms, and with suggestions of legislative enactments hostile to their interests. "While disavowing," he declared, "any unkind feeling toward South Carolina and Mississippi, I must still say that I will resist the coercion of Virginia in the adoption of a line of policy whenever the attempt is made by Northern or Southern States." He expressed his opposition to the plan for calling a state convention at that time, suggesting that instead the General Assembly should appoint commissioners to visit the Legislatures of such Northern States as had passed laws repugnant to the Federal Constitution, and respectfully urge their immediate repeal; and that in like manner commissioners be sent to the Legislatures of the slaveholding states to ascertain the extent and character of their demands and the action deemed necessary for the protection of their rights and interests. The General Assembly thereupon adopted a series of resolutions inviting all such states of the Union "as are willing to unite with Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversies ... to appoint commissioners to meet on the fourth day of February next, in the City of Washington, similar commissioners appointed by Virginia." The resolutions also provided for the immediate appointment of Ex-President John Tyler as a Commissioner to the President of the United States, and Judge John Robertson as a Commissioner to the State of South Carolina and to any other state that had seceded or might secede, to urge upon them to abstain from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between such states and the government of the United States, pending the proceedings contemplated by the General Assembly of Virginia. Ex-President John Tyler, William C. Rives, Judge John W. Brokenbrough, George W. Summers and James A. Seddon were appointed Commissioners from Virginia to the Washington Conference—which became known in history as the Peace Conference. The sentiments which prompted this movement are doubtless truly expressed in the preamble to the resolutions which declares: "Whereas, it is the deliberate opinion of the General Assembly of Virginia that unless the unhappy controversy which now divides the states of this Confederacy shall be satisfactorily adjusted, a permanent dissolution of the Union is inevitable, and the General Assembly is desirous of employing every reasonable means to avert so dire a calamity," etc. Both Houses of the General Assembly, however, adopted by practically unanimous votes resolutions declaring that THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT WASHINGTON To the call of Virginia, twenty states responded; and their representatives met on the 4th day of February, 1861, in the City of Washington. It was a notable gathering. Among the prominent members were William P. Fessenden and Lot M. Morrill, of Maine; George S. Boutwell and Charles Allen, of Massachusetts; David Dudley Field, Erastus Corning, William E. Dodge and General John E. Wool, of New York; Robert F. Stockton and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; David Wilmot and A. W. Loomis of Pennsylvania; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland; Thomas Ruffin and J. M. Morehead, of North Carolina; James Guthrie and Charles A. Wicliffe, of Kentucky; Salmon P. Chase, William S. Groesbeck and Thomas Ewing, of Ohio; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, and James Harlan, of Iowa. Mr. Rhodes says: "The historical significance of the Peace Convention consists in the evidence it affords of the attachment of the Border Slave States to the Union." Some evidence of the spirit which animated the people of Virginia may be gathered from the speeches of her delegates. John Tyler, on assuming the Presidency of the body, spoke in part as follows: "The voice of Virginia has invited her co-states to meet her in council. In the initiation of this Government that same voice was heard and complied with, and the resulting seventy-odd years have fully attested the wisdom of the decision then adopted. Is the urgency of her call less great than it was then? Our God-like fathers created! We have to preserve. They have built up through their wisdom and patriotism monuments which have eternized their names. You have before you, gentlemen, a task equally grand, equally sublime, quite as full of glory and immortality; you have to snatch from ruin a grand and glorious Confederation, to preserve the Government and to renew and invigorate the constitution. If you reach the height of this great occasion your children's children will rise up and call you blessed." In the course of one of his speeches, Ex-Senator Rives said: "Mr. President, the position of Virginia must be understood and appreciated. She is just now the neutral ground between two embattled legions—between two angry, excited and hostile portions of the Union. Something must be done to save the country, to allay these apprehensions, to restore a broken confidence. Virginia steps in to arrest the progress of the country on its way to ruin.... Sir, I have had some experience in revolutions in another hemisphere, in revolutions produced by the same causes that are now operating among us.... I have seen the pavements of Paris covered and the gutters running with fraternal blood. God forbid I should see George W. Summers, another of the Virginia delegates, opened his speech to the conference in these words: "Mr. President! my heart is full! I cannot approach the great issues with which we are dealing, with becoming coolness and deliberation! Sir! I love this Union. The man does not live who entertains a higher respect for this government than I do. I know its history—I know how it was established. There is not an incident in its history that is not precious to me. I do not wish to survive its dissolution." OPPOSITION TO PEACE CONFERENCE In contrast to these pathetic appeals of Virginia's representatives were expressions coming from many of her sister states North and South. None of the seven Cotton States sent delegates to the convention. South Carolina declared that "the separation of that state was final and that she had no further interest in the constitution of the United States." The well-known letter of Senator Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, written from Washington during the session of the convention to the Governor of his state, is representative of the spirit which dominated one element of the Northern people. Washington, February 11, 1861. My dear Governor: Governor Bingham and myself telegraphed you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to send delegates to the Peace, or Compromise Congress. They admit that we were right and that they were wrong; Truly your friend, Z. Chandler. His Excellency, Austin Blair. P. S. Some of the manufacturing states think that a fight would be awful. Without a little blood-letting this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush." The fact that the deliberations of the Peace Conference proved unavailing to arrest the movement towards disunion and civil war is no indication that the motives which impelled the people of Virginia to call their countrymen to council were not those of the highest patriotism.
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