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This declaration was, very naturally, at once flashed over tho whole country; and it was well known that a portion of the Confederate forces were dispatched northward from
Charleston directly after the fall of
Sumter.
1 Yet, in the face of these notorious facts,
Gov. Letcher responded to the
President's call on
Virginia for Militia to defend the capital in the following terms:
I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view.
Your object is to subjugate the Southern States; and a requisition made upon me for such an object — an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the Act of 1795--will not be complied with.
You have chosen to inaugurate civil war; and, having done so, we will meet you in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited toward the South.
To the same effect,
Gov. Ellis, of
North Carolina--who had long been thoroughly in the interest and counsels of the plotters of Disunion — responded to the call as follows:
Your dispatch is received, and, if genuine — which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt — I have to say in reply, that I regard the levy of troops made by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the States of the
South, as in violation of the
Constitution, and a usurpation of power.
I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people.
You can get no troops from
North Carolina.
I will reply more in detail when your call is received by mail.
John W. Ellis,
Gov. Isham G. Harris, of
Tennessee--likewise a thorough sympathizer with
South Carolina--responded as follows:
Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defense of our rights and those of our brethren.