The Virginia Convention, then in session, which had, only eleven days before, on April 4, voted down an ordinance of secession by a vote of 89 against 45, now turned around and passed the ordinance by almost as large a vote.
When this ordinance came before the people for ratification, though they had at the election for delegates to the
Convention, voted for the
Union by an immense majority, they now ratified it by a vote of almost exactly four to one.
North Carolina,
Tennessee and
Arkansas all followed suit, and went out of the
Union as quickly as they could;
North Carolina by a unanimous vote of her convention;
Arkansas with only one dissenting vote, and
Tennessee by a vote of her people of considerably more than two to one.
Thus, by the bad faith and duplicity of
Mr. Lincoln's administration the country was plunged into the bloodiest war which the world has ever seen before or since, the cost of which during
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its actual continuance was enormous, aggregating considerably more than $10,000,000,000, or enough money to have paid for the 4,000,000 slaves at their full value three times over.
