[
82]
Or all the
Border Slave States,
Virginia held the most equivocal and deceptive attitude.
Beyond all doubt a majority of her people desired to adhere to the
Union, and at an election for members of a State convention held in February the majority of professedly Union men chosen was as three to one.
But when this convention met, it appeared that many of these so-called
Unionists had trifled with their constituents, and finally betrayed their trust; they were
Unionists only upon conditions to which the
Union would never consent.
Governor Letcher, of
Virginia, also labored in secret activity to promote secession.
There was a pestiferous clique of radical disunionists about
Richmond, and, under an outward show of qualified loyalty, the conspiracy was almost as busy and as potent in the “Old Dominion” as in the
Cotton States themselves.
When
Sumter fell, all this hidden intrigue blazed out into open insurrection.
The convention, notwithstanding many previous contrary votes, held a secret session on April 17th, and passed an ordinance of secession, eighty-eight to fifty-five.
The gradual but systematic arming of the
State militia had been going on for a year past.
Governor Letcher insultingly refused the
President's call for troops on the 16th, and immediately set military expeditions in movement to seize the
United States 
