Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 2.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[222] one single interest of Virginia that will not be wrecked by disunion. And, entertaining these energies, views, I do shrink with horror from the very idea of the secession of the State. I can never assent to the fatal measure. No I am for the Union yet. Call me submissionist or traitor, or what else you will, I am for the Union--as I said upon another occasion, “while Hope's light flickers in the socket.” In Daniel Webster's immortal words, “Give me Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”

And if I may presume to tender an humble exhortation to my colleagues in this hall, I would say to them, as I said to a number of my respected constituents, who recently called on me for my views of the crisis that besets us--“As Washington advised all his countrymen, cling fondly to the Union. Take every chance to save it. Conference with the Border States, convention of the Slave States, general convention of all the States--try these and all other conceivable means of saving the Union from wreck. And when all conceivable expedients shall have seemingly failed, if there be but one faint ray of hope, let that light you to yet one more effort to save it.”