immediately after the fall of Sumter many members of that majority went
over to the original disunion minority, and with them adopted an
ordinance for withdrawing the State from the Union. Whether this change
was wrought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter or their
great resentment at the Government's resistance to that assault is not
definitely known. Although they submitted the ordinance for ratification
to a vote of the people, to be taken on a day then somewhat more than
a month distant, the convention and the legislature (which was also in
session at the same time and place), with leading men of the State not
members of either, immediately commenced acting as if the State were
already out of the Union. They pushed military preparations vigorously
forward all over the State. They seized the United States armory
at Harpers Ferry and the navy-yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. They
received--perhaps invited--into their State large bodies of troops,
with their warlike appointments, from the so-called seceded States.
They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance and
cooperation with the so-called "Confederate States," and sent members
to their congress at Montgomery; and, finally, they permitted the
insurrectionary government to be transferred to their capital at Richmond.

The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to make
its nest within her borders, and this Government has no choice left but
to deal with it _where_ it finds it; and it has the less regret, as the
loyal citizens have in due form claimed its protection. Those loyal
citizens this Government is bound to recognize and protect, as being
Virginia.

In the border States, so called--in fact, the Middle States--there are
those who favor a policy which they call "armed neutrality;" that is,
an arming of those States to prevent the Union forces passing one way