Mr. Janney and the Berkeley meeting.
--A meeting of citizens of disloyal proclivities was lately held in Berkeley county, at which, among other traitorous proceedings, a resolution was adopted nominating Mr. John Janney as a candidate for Congress. The committee appointed to notify that gentleman received the following stinging rebuke for themselves and their coadjutors: Leesburg, May 15, 1861.
Gentlemen:
I have this moment received your letter of the 14th inst., informing me that at a public meeting of the citizens of Berkeley county, held in Martinsburg on the 13th inst., my name was announced as a candidate for Congress, and your express the hope that I will respond favorably to the nomination, and make my acceptance of it as public as possible, previous to the election, to be held on the 23d inst.
If the political condition of our country were now as it was two years ago, reasons of a private and personal character would oblige me to decline your nomination; but halving all considerations of this kind, there are now existing the gravest causes of a public character, which, in my judgment, make it my imperative duty to decline its acceptance without a moment's hesitation.
On the 23d instant, the people of Virginia are to cast their votes for the ratification or rejection of the Ordinance of Secession, adopted by the Convention on the 17th of April, and by the result, it is now, and has long been, my fixed purpose to abide.
My own opinions of past events have been as decided and as firm as those of most men, and they have on all proper occasions been freely expressed, but I have now to deal with the practical issues which he before us. The destiny of Virginia is my destiny, and with her I shall sink or swim. Gentlemen:
John Janney. Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen,
Messrs. Cramer, Herring, Dorsey, Miller, Curtis, Conrad and others.
Messrs. Cramer, Herring, Dorsey, Miller, Curtis, Conrad and others.
