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256.-Declaration of the people of Va., represented in Convention in Wheeling, June 17, 1861.
The true purpose of all government is to promote the welfare and provide for the protection and security of the governed, and when any form of organization of government proves inadequate for, or subversive of this purpose, it is the right, it is the duty of the latter to alter or abolish it. The
Bill of Rights of
Virginia, framed in 1776, reaffirmed in 1830, and again in 1851, expressly reserves this right to the majority of her people, and the existing Constitution does not confer upon the General Assembly the power to call a Convention to alter its provisions, or to change the relations of the
Commonwealth, without the previously expressed consent of such a majority.
The act of the General Assembly, calling the
Convention which assembled at
Richmond in February last, was therefore a usurpation; and the
Convention thus called has not only abused the powers nominally intrusted to it, but, with the connivance and active aid of the
Executive, has usurped and exercised other powers, to the manifest injury of the people, which, if permitted, will inevitably subject them to a military despotism.
The Convention, by its pretended ordinances, has required the people of
Virginia to separate from and wage war against the
Government of the
United States, and against the citizens of neighboring States, with whom they have heretofore maintained friendly, social, and business relations:
It has attempted to subvert the
Union founded by
Washington and his co-patriots in the purer days of the
Republic, which has conferred unexampled prosperity upon every class of citizens and upon every section of the country :
It has attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people to an illegal confederacy of rebellious States, and required their submission to its pretended edicts and decrees:
It has attempted to place the whole military force and military operations of the
Commonwealth under the control and direction of such Confederacy, for offensive as well as defensive purposes:
It has, in conjunction with the
State Executive, instituted wherever their usurped power extends, a reign of terror, intended to suppress the free expression of the will of the people, making elections a mockery and a fraud:
The same combination, even before the passage of the pretended Ordinance of Secession, instituted war by the seizure and appropriation of the property of the
Federal Government, and by organizing and mobilizing armies, with the avowed purpose of capturing or destroying the
Capital of the
Union:
They have attempted to bring the allegiance of the people of the
United States into direct conflict with their subordinate allegiance to the
State, thereby making obedience to their pretended Ordinance treason against the former.
We, therefore, the delegates here assembled in Convention to devise such measures and take such action as the safety and welfare of the loyal citizens of
Virginia may demand, having mutually considered the premises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable condition to which.
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this once happy Commonwealth must be reduced, unless some regular adequate remedy is speedily adopted, and appealing to the
Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do hereby in the name and on the behalf of the good people of
Virginia, solemnly declare, that the preservation of their dearest rights and liberties, and their security in person and property, imperatively demand the reorganization of the
Government of the
Commonwealth, and that all acts of said Convention and Executive, tending to separate this Commonwealth from the
United States, or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority and void; and the offices of all who adhere to the said Convention and Executive, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are vacated.
