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Offered in a large mass meeting of the people of Botetourt County, December
10th, 1860, by the Honorable John J. Allen, President of the Supreme
Court of Virginia, and adopted with but two dissenting voices.

The people of Botetourt County, in general meeting assembled, believe
it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth, in the present
alarming condition of our country, to give some expression of their opinion
upon the threatening aspect of public affairs. They deem it unnecessary
and out of place to avow sentiments of loyalty to the Constitution and
devotion to the union of these States. A brief reference to the part the
State has acted in the past will furnish the best evidence of the feelings of
her sons in regard to the union of the States and the Constitution, which
is the sole bond which binds them together.

In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the
efforts of the latter to tax the colonies without their consent, it was Virginia
who, by the Resolutions against the Stamp Act, gave the example
of the first authoritative resistance by a legislative body to the British Government,
and so imparted the first impulse to the Revolution.

Virginia declared her independence before any of the colonies, and
gave the first written Constitution to mankind.

By her instructions her representatives in the General Congress introduced
a Resolution to declare the colonies independent States, and the
Declaration itself was written by one of her sons.

She furnished to the Confederate States the father of his country,

under whose guidance independence was achieved, and the rights and
liberties of each State, it was hoped, perpetually established.

She stood undismayed through the long night of the Revolution,
breasting the storm of war and pouring out the blood of her sons like water
on almost every battle-field, from the ramparts of Quebec to the sands of
Georgia.

By her own unaided efforts the northwestern territory was conquered,
whereby the Mississippi, instead of the Ohio River, was recognized as the
boundary of the United States by the treaty of peace.

To secure harmony, and as an evidence of her estimate of the value of
the union of the States, she ceded to all, for their common benefit, this
magnificent region—an empire in itself.

When the Articles of Confederation were shown to be inadequate to
secure peace and tranquility at home and respect abroad, Virginia first
moved to bring about a more perfect union. At her instance the first
assemblage of commissioners took place at Annapolis, which ultimately
led to the meeting of the Convention which formed the present Constitution.
This instrument itself was in a great measure the production of
one of her sons, who has been justly styled "The father of the Constitution."
The government created by it was put into operation with her
Washington, the father of his country, at its head; her Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Independence, in his cabinet; her Madison,
the great advocate of the Constitution, in the legislative hall.

Under the leading of Virginia statesmen the Revolution of 1798 was
brought about, Louisiana was acquired, and the second war of independence
was waged.

Throughout the whole progress of the Republic she has never infringed
on the rights of any state, nor asked or received an exclusive benefit. On
the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all the
States—the smallest as well as the greatest.

But, claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the
common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and kindness
for her citizens from the citizens of other States, and equality of
rights for her citizens with all others; that those for whom she had done so
much would abstain from actual aggressions upon her soil, or if they could
not be prevented, would show themselves ready and prompt in punishing
the aggressors; and that the common government, to the promotion of
which she contributed so largely for the purpose of "establishing justice
and insuring domestic tranquility," would not, whilst the forms of the
Constitution were observed, be so perverted in spirit as to inflict wrong
and injustice, and produce universal insecurity.

These reasonable expectations have been grievously disappointed.
Owing to a spirit of pharasaical fanaticism prevailing in the North, in
reference to the institution of slavery, incited by foreign emissaries and
fostered by corrupt political demagogues, in search of power and place, a

feeling has been aroused between the people of the two sections of what
was once a common country, which of itself would almost preclude the
administration of a united government in harmony.

For the kindly feelings of a kindred people we find substituted distrust,
suspicion, and mutual aversion.

For a common pride in the name of American, we find one section
even in foreign lands pursuing the other with revilings and reproach.

For the religion of a Divine Redeemer of all, we find a religion of hate
against a part; and in all the private relations of life, instead of fraternal
regard, a "consuming hate," which has but seldom characterized warring
nations. This feeling has prompted a hostile incursion upon our own soil,
and an apotheosis of the murderers, who were justly condemned and
executed.

It has shown itself in the legislative halls by the passage of laws to
obstruct a law of Congress passed in pursuance of a plain provision of the
Constitution.

It has been manifested by the industrious circulation of incendiary
publications, sanctioned by leading men, occupying the highest stations in
the gift of the people, to produce discord and division in our midst, and
incite to midnight murder and every imaginable atrocity against an unoffending
community.

It has displayed itself in a persistent denial of the equal rights of the
citizens of each State to settle with their property in the common territory
acquired by the blood and treasure of all.

It is shown in their openly avowed determination to circumscribe the
institution of slavery within the territory of the States now recognizing it,
the inevitable effect of which would be to fill the present slave-holding
States with an ever increasing negro population, resulting in the banishment
of our own non-slave-holding population in the first instance, and
the eventual surrender of our country to a barbarous race, or, what seems
to be desired, an amalgamation with the African.

And it has at last culminated in the election, by a sectional majority
of the free States alone, to the first office in the Republic, of the author of
the sentiment that there is an "irrepressible conflict" between free and
slave labor, and that there must be universal freedom or universal slavery;
a sentiment which inculcates, as a necessity of our situation, warfare
between the two sections of our country without cessation or intermission
until the weaker is reduced to subjection.

In view of this state of things, we are not inclined to rebuke or censure
the people of any of our sister States in the South, suffering from injury,
goaded by insults, and threatened with such outrages and wrongs, for their
bold determination to relieve themselves from such injustice and oppression,
by resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the
compact which they had formed, and to provide new guards for their
future security.

Nor have we any doubt of the right of any State, there being no common
umpire between co-equal sovereign States, to judge for itself, on its
own responsibility, as to the mode and measure of redress.

The States, each for itself, exercised this sovereign power when they
dissolved their connection with the British Empire.

They exercised the same power when nine of the States seceded from
the Confederation and adopted the present Constitution, though two States
at first rejected it.

The Articles of Confederation stipulated that those Articles should be
inviolably observed by every State, and that the Union should be perpetual,
and that no alteration should be made unless agreed to by Congress and
confirmed by every State.

Notwithstanding this solemn compact, a portion of the States did,
without the consent of the others, form a new compact; and there is
nothing to show, or by which it can be shown, that this right has been, or
can be, diminished so long as the States continue sovereign.

The Confederation was assented to by the Legislature for each State;
the Constitution, by the people of each State for such State alone. One is
as binding as the other, and no more so.

The Constitution, it is true, established a government, and it operates
directly on the individual; the Confederation was a league operating primarily
on the States. But each was adopted by the State for itself; in the
one case by the Legislature acting for the State; in the other, "by the
people, not as individuals composing one nation, but as composing the
distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong." The
foundation, therefore, on which it was established was federal, and the
State, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by which she ratified
for herself, may, for herself, abrogate and annul.

The operation of its powers, whilst the State remains in the Confederacy,
is national; and consequently, a State remaining in the Confederacy
and enjoying its benefits cannot, by any mode of procedure, withdraw its
citizens from the obligation to obey the Constitution and the laws passed
in pursuance thereof.

But, when a State does secede, the Constitution and laws of the United
States cease to operate therein. No power is conferred on Congress to
enforce them. Such authority was denied to the Congress in the Convention
which framed the Constitution, because it would be an act of war of
nation against nation—not the exercise of the legitimate power of a government
to enforce its laws on those subject to its jurisdiction.

The assumption of such a power would be the assertion of a prerogative
claimed by the British Government to legislate for the colonies in all cases
whatever; it would constitute of itself a dangerous attack on the rights of
the States, and should be promptly repelled.

These principles, resulting from the nature of our system of Confederate
States, cannot admit of question in Virginia.

Our people in convention, by their act of ratification, declared and
made known that the powers granted under the Constitution being derived
from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them whenever
they shall be perverted to their injury and oppression.

From what people were these powers derived? Confessedly from the
people of each State, acting for themselves. By whom were they to be
resumed or taken back? By the people of the State who were then granting
them away. Who were to determine whether the powers granted had
been perverted to their injury or oppression? Not the whole people of
the United States, for there could be no oppression of the whole with their
own consent; and it could not have entered into the conception of the
convention that the powers granted could not be resumed until the oppressor
himself united in such resumption.

They asserted the right to resume in order to guard the people of Virginia,
for whom alone the convention could act, against the oppression of
an irresponsible and sectional majority, the worst form of oppression with
which an angry Providence has ever afflicted humanity.

Whilst, therefore, we regret that any State should, in a matter of common
grievance, have determined to act for herself without consulting with
her sister States equally aggrieved, we are nevertheless constrained to say
that the occasion justifies and loudly calls for action of some kind.

The election of a President, by a sectional majority, as the representative
of the principles referred to, clothed with the patronage and power
incident to the office, including the authority to appoint all the postmasters
and other officers charged with the execution of the laws of the United
States, is itself a standing menace to the South—a direct assault upon her
institutions—an incentive to robbery and insurrection, requiring from our
own immediate local government, in its sovereign character, prompt
action to obtain additional guarantees for equality and security in the
Union, or to take measures for protection and security without it.

In view, therefore, of the present condition of our country, and the
causes of it, we declare almost in the words of our fathers, contained in an
address of the freeholders of Botetourt, in February, 1775, to the delegates
from Virginia to the Continental Congress, "That we desire no change in
our government whilst left to the free enjoyment of our equal privileges
secured by the Constitution; but, that should a wicked and tyrannical sectional
majority, under the sanction of the forms of the Constitution, persist
in acts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answerable
for the consequences.

"That liberty is so strongly impressed upon our hearts that we cannot
think of parting with it but with our lives; that our duty to God, our
country, ourselves and our posterity forbids it; we stand, therefore, prepared
for every contingency."

Resolved, therefore, That in view of the facts set out in the foregoing
preamble, it is the opinion of this meeting that a convention of the people

should be called forthwith; that the State, in its sovereign character,
should consult with the other Southern States, and agree upon such guarantees
as in their opinion will secure their equality, tranquility and rights
within the Union, and in the event of a failure to obtain such guarantees,
to adopt in concert with the other Southern States, or alone, such measures
as may seem most expedient to protect the rights and insure the
safety of the people of Virginia.

And in the event of a change in our relations to the other States being
rendered necessary, that the convention so elected should recommend to
the people, for their adoption, such alterations in our State constitution as
may adapt it to the altered condition of the State and country.

To repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of
America, by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and
powers granted under said Constitution. Adopted by the Convention
of Virginia on April 17th, 1861. Richmond, Virginia.

The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Constitution of the
United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth
day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the said Constitution
were derived from the people of the United States, and might be
resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and
oppression; and the Federal Government having perverted said powers, not
only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the
Southern slaveholding States:

Now, therefore, we the people of Virginia do declare and ordain, that
the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the
twenty-fifth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of
America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying
or adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed
and abrogated; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other
States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the
State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of
sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

And they do further declare, that said Constitution of the United States
of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.

This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified
by a majority of the votes of the people of this State, cast at a poll to
be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a
schedule hereafter to be enacted.

Done in convention, in the city of Richmond, on the seventeenth day
of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one,
and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

"Through a life-time covering the most eventful period in the history
of Virginia, the great powers of his mind and the warm affections of his
heart were devoted with constant faithfulness and energy to the service of
his State and Country. As a representative of Virginia in the Congress of
the United States, as her Governor in the most trying epoch of her history,
he won the love and admiration of her people, and a place in that history,
where his name will live as long as unswerving honesty in the administration
of public trust and great ability, wisdom and patriotism in the
discharge of official duty, shall be honored among men."