A DECLARATION
Of the people of Virginia represented in Convention at the City of Wheeling,
Thursday, June 13th, 1861.
The true purpose of all government is to promote the welfare and provide
for the protection and security of the governed, and when any form
or organization of government proves inadequate for, or subversive of this
purpose, it is the right, it is the duty of the latter to alter or abolish it.
The Bill of Rights of Virginia, framed in 1776, reaffirmed in 1830, and
again in 1851, expressly reserves this right to a majority of her people.
The act of the General Assembly, calling the Convention which assembled
at Richmond in February last, without the previously expressed consent
of such majority, was therefore a usurpation; and the Convention thus
called has not only abused the powers nominally entrusted to it, but, with
the connivance and active aid of the executive, has usurped and exercised
other powers, to the manifest injury of the people, which, if permitted,
will inevitably subject them to a military despotism.
The Convention, by its pretended ordinances, has required the people
of Virginia to separate from and wage war against the government of the
United States, and against the citizens of neighboring States, with whom
they have heretofore maintained friendly social and business relations:
It has attempted to subvert the union founded by Washington and his
co-patriots in the purer days of the Republic, which has conferred unexampled
prosperity upon every class of citizens, and upon every section o
the country:
It has attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people to an illega
confederacy of rebellious States, and required their submission to its pretended
edicts and decrees:
It has attempted to place the whole military force and military operations
of the Commonwealth under the control and direction of such Confederacy,
for offensive as well as defensive purposes:
It has, in conjunction with the State Executive, instituted wherever
their usurped power extends, a reign of terror, intended to suppress the
free expression of the will of the people, making elections a mockery and
a fraud:
The same combination, even before the passage of the pretended
Ordinance of Secession, instituted war by the seizure and appropriation of
the property of the Federal Government, and by organizing and mobilizing
armies, with the avowed purpose of capturing or destroying the Capital of
the Union:
They have attempted to bring the allegiance of the people of the
United States into direct conflict with their subordinate allegiance to the
State, thereby making obedience to their pretended Ordinances, treason
against the former.
We, therefore, the delegates here assembled in Convention to devise
such measures and take such action as the safety and welfare of the loyal
citizens of Virginia may demand, having maturely considered the premises,
and viewing with great concern the deplorable condition to which this
once happy Commonwealth must be reduced unless some regular, adequate
remedy is speedily adopted, and appealing to the Supreme Ruler of the
Universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do hereby, in the name and
on the behalf of the good people of Virginia, solemnly declare, that the
preservation of their dearest rights and liberties, and their security in person
and property, imperatively demand the re-organization of the government
of the Commonwealth, and that all acts of said Convention and
Executive, tending to separate this Commonwealth from the United States,
or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority and void;
and that the offices of all who adhere to the said Convention and Executive,
whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are vacated.
