To the people of the county of Henrico.--fellow-citizens:
Many gentlemen, some from each political party, have called on me in person, and some have addressed me through the newspapers, requesting me to become a candidate for the Convention. A seat in the Convention is not to be declined, because it will be one involving great responsibility; and, in times like the present, no Virginian is at liberty to decline any responsibility which the people may choose to impose upon him. For the same reasons, it is to be assumed, with great diffidence, I had, therefore, made up my mind to make no public response to these applications, although deeply grateful for the kindness and confidence which they evince, and to leave the matter wholly to the people to dispose of as they pleased. But in the last four days I have been urged to make such a response, upon the ground that it is required by a just respect to those who have evinced this confidence, and therefore I beg leave to say, that if it shall be your pleasure to elect me to the Convention, I will serve you with pleasure, as far as I am capable.--In times past, when I have sought your suffrages, you have bestowed them upon me with a generosity which I can never forget, and you can never call in vain upon me for any service which I can perform for you. When I cease to be grateful, I shall be no longer respectable.South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and, I doubt not, Louisiana, have seceded from the Union as it was, because of the ills inflicted, and the greater ills threatened, by the Black Republicans of the North; and the great question to be submitted to the Convention will be, "Shall Virginia adhere to the slaveholding States of the South, or remain in a Union, which, although broken for all good ends, yet binds her to the Black Republicans of the North?" Upon this question, my opinions were so fully and freely expressed in the late Presidential canvass, that it can hardly be necessary to repeat them now.--But still it may be proper to do so, as I am now before you as a candidate, and there may be some to whom my opinions may not be known. My opinion, then, is, that Virginia should adhere to the slave States of the South, and that her decision should be immediate. As I have said, six States have already seceded from all connexion with the Black Republicans; and I have no doubt that N. Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland will do likewise; in short, that all the other slave States, except Delaware, will do so. Certainly North Carolina, Texas and Arkansas will. If all, or only the three last do, what will be the condition of Virginia?--She must remain, in one case, the only slave State, and the largest; in the other, one of four slave States, at the feet of the Black Republicans, or she must unite herself with the nine slave States. I can hardly think that any Virginian would be mad enough to keep her, if he could, in such a hopeless alliance with the Black Republicans; for, if she could not protect herself from them (as experience has shown she could not) when all the Southern States were co-operating with her, she certainly can not do so after she shall have lost the aid of nine of them. Of necessity, therefore, as well as from affection. I hope — from pride and honor, she must go with the great body of the slave States. The only question, then, is, when shall she go? I say before the 4th of March, for the following reasons, viz:
I. Because, if Virginia remains under the present Government until after Lincoln and Seward come into power, she will be involved in civil war, whether she submits to them or not. If she then refuses to submit, the war will be against her, as well as the other seceding States; and if she submits, it will be against the seceding States, and she will be compelled to take part in it, with the North, or with the South. I can not conceive that she can ever be so mad and infamous as to fight with the North against the South, or refuse to fight with the South against the North. The Virginian who would do so is indeed a "traitor knave," fit only to "fill a coward's grave;" and so Virginia has in fact declared, through her representatives in the present General Assembly, now sitting in Richmond, by their anti-coercion resolution. It is the dictate, then, of prudence, policy, and wisdom, to take without delay the position with the South which she intends to take ultimately; and thus, in my opinion, she will prevent civil war, for all the border slave States will go with her, and the Black Republicans will never attack a united South.
II. Because I believe all the negotiations will do no good, until the Southern States have taken their position outside of the Union, and organized their government, when, under the law of nations, the flag of the Southern Union will protect the people of that Union from the Smalleys of the North and the wretched hemp-rite traitors of the South. If, then, the just men of the North shall have the power, as some strangely think they have, and the will, to re-unite with the South, upon proper terms, they will so propose, and the South will be free to accept, if it chooses to do so. All negotiations in the meanwhile will only have the effect to injure the South by delay; and they are designed by the submissionists of the South, and will be intended, if entered into, by the North, to waste the time until Lincoln and Seward and their party get into power; and then they will cry "Treason! and let slip the dogs of war" upon you.--The men who advise you to wait until that period arrives, will then advise you to submit to the Black Republican rule. He who will not "face the music" now, will certainly not do it then.--Let the motive for delay be what it may, however, the effect will be the same. As to the idea of a Central Republic, it is even more odious than the idea of remaining as we now are. It is absurd.--It involves, first, disunion from the great North, and then re-union with the little North, and still the degrading subjection of Virginia to the Black Republicans, with the South arrayed, and properly arrayed, against her. What will be her condition with the Black Republicans pressing on her northern, and a hostile South on her southern border? Let the slaveholders of Virginia look well to the answer to this question before they allow two-penny politicians — who are thinking of themselves and not the country, or those who are unable to look the trouble in the face — to mislead them by this dodge. My counsel to you, fellow-citizens, is to look the danger full in the face; waste no time in delusive negotiations, with the guns of the enemy bearing upon you, all your forts in his possession, and the halter around your necks. Take, first, an independent attitude, place yourselves upon an equal footing with him, and then negotiate, if you please. Then, and not till then, can you negotiate with honor, or any hope of success. Then, honorable re-construction may come. In conclusion, allow me to say that individual hopes and wishes are of small concern at such a moment as the present. Principle is the great thing to be looked to in choosing a representative, and those who concur with me in opinion will not, I hope, permit my name to be a stumbling block in their path, but wholly disregard it, if it be necessary to do so, in the vindication of our principles and our country.
