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Signing the Virginia ordinance of secession.--The hour for signing the ordinance of secession having arrived, the Secretary produced that glorious instrument, elegantly executed, and, spreading it out on the clerk's table, Mr. Janney, the President, descended from his chair, and, with a dignity and firmness worthy of the noblest Roman, affixed his name, and returned to his seat.
It was observed that Mr. Janney tried and rejected several pens before he was suited, evincing that he felt he was about to transmit his name to the latest posterity, and of course was desirous of impressing it on the parchment in the best style he could.
All the members present came up as they were called by the Secretary, and affixed their names.
Another report of the proceeding says :--In the course of calling the roll, several members who had voted against the ordinance of secession asked leave to say a few words in explanation of the reasons why they were now going to sign that instrument.
The argument used by Mr. Armstrong was in effect the same that those who followed used; that is, that though he voted against the ordinance in Convention, he had voted for it at the polls, and would now sign it, because circumstances had transpired, in the action of the Federal Government, and in the over-whelming voice of the people of the State, which made it the duty of every patriot to stand by the State.
Mr. Early and Mr. Woods, of Barbour, followed in the same strain in explanation of their course.
Timothy Rives prefaced the act of signing the ordinance, by saying, that he had regarded secession as a revolutionary right, and he desired to put the word revolution against his signature.
Many
[82]
members were absent when the roll was called.
Several came in after their names had been called, and signed; others were on military duty, and were absent from necessary causes.
After the ordinance was signed, the Convention went into secret session.--Richmond Dispatch.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
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