- [9] Island -- patriotic resolutions in the New York Legislature, 204. -- the Secession of the City of New York proposed by its Mayor, 205. -- alarm in commercial circles -- meetings in New York, 206. -- Democratic Convention at Albany--“American Society for promoting National Union,” 207. -- action in New Jersey, 208. -- great meeting in Philadelphia, 209. -- action of the Pennsylvania Legislature, 210. -- patriotic attitude of Ohio and Indiana, 211. -- patriotic proceedings in Michigan and Illinois, 212. -- Wisconsin and Iowa pledge their aid to the Government, 213. -- Minnesota true to the Union, 214. -- encouragement for the conspirators, 215.
Whilst the politicians of the Gulf States were perfecting their scheme for forming a confederacy, there was universal agitation on the subject all over the Union, and especially in the Border Slave-labor States, where there were bonds of interest, and association, and consanguinity with both sections. Emissaries of the conspirators, resident and itinerant, were in those States, working assiduously for the corruption of public sentiment concerning nationality, and for the seduction of leading and influential men into ways of treasonable transgression. They were specially active in Maryland and Virginia, because the co-operation of the people of those States would be vitally important, in efforts to seize and hold Washington City in the interest of the conspirators. That city lay in the District of Columbia, contiguous to and between Maryland and Virginia, and was completely surrounded and filled with a Slave-holding population.
In Virginia, where disunion sentiments had been uttered and fostered, and from which they had been widely disseminated ever since the birth of the nation, the conspirators and politicians were anxious, at first, not so much for secession by States, or the formation of a new confederacy, as for a combined effort to seize the Capital and national archives, and establish an aristocratic government, with Slavery for its corner-stone, on the ruins of the Republic. In the day-dreams of the politicians, Washington City appeared as a deserted capital (for the seat of government was to be nearer the Gulf), and its magnificent buildings were to be “consecrated to the genius of Southern Institutions.” At the same time, the great majority of the people in those States were loyal to the Constitution, and willing to be obedient to the laws; and those of the western section of Virginia — the mountain region — as we shall observe hereafter, remained so, and
 |
| John Letcher. |
John Letcher, formerly a member of Congress, and a willing instrument of the conspirators, was then Governor of Virginia. He and his associates
