To the voters of the Fifth Congressional District, composed of the counties of Prince Edward, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Lunenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, and Appomattox.
--A question has been made whether a commission in the army is of necessity a disqualification of the holder for a sent in the Confederate Congress. Whether such commission operates as a disqualification or not, depends, I humbly conceive, upon the fact whether the commission be held under the Confederate or a State Government An officer holding a commission from the Commonwealth of Virginia can assuredly, in no sense be said to be an officer under the Confederate States. So far as I am personally concerned, holding as I do a commission issued by State authority, I might well rest myself upon this view of the question. Not, however, desiring to occupy a doubtful position upon this or any other subject, I will state that position unmistakably. It is known that I was a member of the Virginia Convention Knowing that secession was war, on the day after the passage of the Ordinance of Secession by that body, preferring the military service to civil position. I left it for the purpose of organizing a company for the field, with the determination of remaining in the service during the war, and soon afterwards resigned my seat as a member of the body. Now, however, for a reason known and appreciated by those who know me personally, I am frank to say, that I should prefer a civil position to the military service, and that if elected to a seat in Congress, I shall, before its sitting, resign my commission in the army. In reply to the many objections that are urged, especially, as I am informed, in your district, to the election of men from the military service, to seats in Congress, I make bold to say, that men, however humble their abilities, who know from personal observations the suffering and necessities of the gallant men who are now periling their all in defence of the country, may in the next Congress accomplish much for their relief. Thomas F. Goode,Camp 2d Regiment Virginia Cavalry, October 21st, 1861.
