1861 April 24 Richmond, Va.

[Written across the top of the cover page of a copy owned by Philip St. George Cocke:
See that all the troops vote
J.R. Tucker]

BY THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA

A PROCLAMATION

The convention of the commonwealth of Virginia having
adopted, on the 17th day of April 1861, an ordinance "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,"
and by the schedule thereto annexed, required polls to be
opened for the ratification or rejection of the same by the
people of this state, on the fourth Thursday in May next:

Now, therefore, I, JOHN LETCHER, governor of the com-
monwealth of Virginia, do hereby proclaim, that the annexed
is an authentic copy of the said ordinance and schedule, and
that all officers designated therein are required to conform to
its provisions in every respect.

Given under my hand as governor, and under the seal
of the commonwealth at Richmond, this 24th day
of April 1861, and in the 85th year of the com-
monwealth.

JOHN LETCHER

AN ORDINANCE

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.
____________________________________________________

The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the consti-
tution 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 con-
stitution, were derived from the people of the United States,
and might be resumed whensoever the same should be per-
verted to their injury and oppression; and the federal govern-
ment 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are hereby repealed and abrogated; that the union between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 constitu-
tion aforesaid, is hereby dissolved, and that the state of Vir-
ginia is in the full possession and excercise of all the rights of
sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and inde-
pendent state. And they do further declare that said consti-
tution 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 Thurs-
day in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be
enacted.

Done in convention in the city of Richmond, on the seven-
teenth day of April in the year of our Lord one thou-
sand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the eighty-fifth
year of the commonwealth of Virginia.

A true copy.
Jno. L. Eubank,
Secretary of Con'n.

E440.5 .V5 1861; duplicate in MSS 640