Honorable Robert McDonnell
Governor's Mansion
Commonwealth of Virginia
Dear Governor Robert McDonnell,
It is with great interest that I have been following your statement about declaring the month of April "Confederate History Month" in order that Virginians may honor the "four year war between the states for independence".
In a word sir you have not simply announced your own ignorance of the subject but you have put it as a beacon on a tall mountain so that all can see it clearly. Your action is so full of excrement that one can only surmise that it has exploded inside your entire being and is now seeping out of every pore in your body.
Now I am not an expert on Virginia history but I have read dozens of books on the Civil War and I think that even you must be aware of the fact that Virginia was not a very happy participant in the war.
Are you aware that Virginia along with an equally reluctant North Carolina attended a peace conference in January desperately trying to find a way to avoid the war?
Certainly you are aware of the fact that Virginia did not immediately convene a secession convention and that their was substantial Virginia opposition to secession. Finally after 7 other states had declared their independence from the United States on February 4th Virginia convened a convention.
Repeatedly the Virginia secessionist convention voted AGAINST joining the Confederacy. First on April 3rd the margin was 2-1 against secession. Then on April 4th a formal vote was 80-45 against secession.
Week after week the other confederate states rushed in and found Virginia dragging their feet. Only after Lincoln announced that he was going to raise an army to respond to the capture of Fort Sumter did Virginia reluctantly join the treasonous rebellion.
Throughout the area covered by the so called Confederacy there were substantial pockets of Union support but none were more pronounced than Virginia. In fact Virginia's elected leaders were largely against leaving the Union
http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Virginia_Secession_ConventionIts first session in Richmond, Virginia on February 13 had former U. S. President John Tyler presiding. John Janney of Loudoun County, a strong Unionist and former Whig, was elected president of the convention. Surprisingly, most of the Convention's 152 representatives had supported the Constitutional Union party and its candidate, John Bell. 35 supported Stephen A. Douglas and 32 supported John Breckinridge. One of the convention-goers would later claim that the delegates were 25% pro-Union, 25% for immediate secession and the rest in favor of avoiding "dis-union."
In fact Virginia's disastrous involvement in the confederacy was the result of popular 'war fever' gripping the masses, believing that the war would be both fun and short. They like the equally reluctant but ultimately complicit Virginian Robert E. Lee would suffer greatly. Lee would lose his vast farm and homestead (which eventually became Arlington National Cemetery).
Of all the rebellious states that might not want to remember how disastrous the war was it should be noted that Virginia should be at the top of the list. After all Virginia is the only state that actually lost land when the western part of the state seceded from the secession and formed West Virginia.
I am also wondering if your month of celebration will also document how the government that was located in Richmond was the most dictatorial to have existed in North America. Beyond the obvious lack of civil rights for the slaves that it wished to maintain it also lacked civil liberties for those that had enjoyed the title of American citizen. Will you explain how the Confederacy initiated such innovations as a domestic passport that the whites had to carry between the states?
Will you tell your citizens about the 4,000 political prisoners kept by the Confederacy?
And finally will you explain to the citizens of Virginian that the reason that South Carolina started the rebellion was not to maintain the institution of slavery but that the government of South Carolina had come under the influence of businessmen who wanted to make a fortune by restarting the slave trade (which would have further impoverished the poor white who had to compete with slaves for work).
All in all I don't object to you studying Virginia's involvement in the Confederacy as an objective study would illustrate how evil commercial interests will light a fire to ill advised war fever that results in tremendous loss of life and property. Such a study would have been useful prior to going to Iraq on sim arly underhanded excuses.
What I object to, Sir, is your romanticizing of Virginia's involvement in the Confederacy, your ignorance or covering up the reasons and reluctance of Virginia to join the treason and the terrible cost that Virginians paid in terms of lives lost, property destroyed, lingering effects of military reconstruction and the permanent loss of its western third.
In a word your proclamation is a thinly veiled outreach to modern day Virginians who are nostalgic of the apartheid they enjoyed in Virginia a few decades ago.
Sir you are full of shit.
Regards,
grantcart
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