February 7, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
WASHINGTON, February 4, 1861.
An eventful day this. Virginia chooses her destiny–if, indeed, destiny can be chosen–and a clap trap Congress meets here to help her in choosing the wrong side of the question. Some of her Commissioners, with whom I have conversed, think a majority of secessionists will be elected to the Convention. I have no idea this will be the case. If Virginia is saved from the disgrace of being the rump of the Abolition Confederacy, it will not be the fault of her leading politicians. The glory will be due to the obstinacy of the Republicans.
As Virginia goes, so will go all the border States, Maryland included; for the spirit of the ‘Maryland Line’ is fairly roused. The issue rests in good part with the Peace Congress, which, I am happy to say, promises to do nothing and that speedily. ‘But all signs fail in dry weather–sometimes even in wet weather. The Congress may squeeze out a little strip of plank, just large enough for Virginia to cling to until after the 4th of March. Still, a few favorable indications are not wanting in the Old Dominion. Prominent Old Line Whigs have come out for secession, or rather quasi secession; and the Submission Legislature, bad as it is, has had too much independence to encourage LETCHER in the course he is pursing. I am told that not a member has visited him socially since the session began. If Virginia goes out, one of the North Carolina delegation swears that his State may be kept in till twelve o’clock p. m. on the 4th of March – but not a second longer, lest it be said the Old North State was even for an instant the subject of LINCOLN.