In June 1861, just weeks after Virginia’s secession from the Union, Governor John Letcher issued a fiery proclamation to the people of Northwestern Virginia—a region increasingly resistant to Confederate alignment. His message was clear: the time for debate was over, and unity under the Confederate cause was now a matter of duty and survival.
In the following proclamation, issued June 14, 1861, following the defeat of Confederate forces in Northwestern Virginia at Philippi, Letcher defended Virginia’s secession as both legal and democratic, citing a strong majority vote as justification for breaking ties with the United States and joining the Confederate States of America. He framed the decision as a continuation of the revolutionary spirit, asserting that Virginians had the right to form a new government in pursuit of their safety and happiness.
Recognizing that many in the northwestern counties opposed secession, Letcher appealed to shared heritage—calling on bonds of blood, history, and past cooperation between regions of the state. He warned that those who refused to support the new government were betraying their homeland, declaring, “The heart that will not beat in unison with Virginia now is a traitor’s heart.”
The proclamation also acknowledged longstanding grievances among Northwestern Virginians, particularly over unequal taxation. Letcher insisted that the issue had been resolved, highlighting recent legislative changes that eliminated tax exemptions favoring the eastern counties.
More than a call for allegiance, the proclamation was a direct summons to arms. Letcher announced that Confederate troops were being deployed to protect the region, but he emphasized the need for local men to take up their weapons and join the fight. “Come with your own good weapons and meet them as brothers!” he urged.
Governor Letcher’s proclamation was both a rallying cry and a warning. As tensions deepened and civil war escalated, it reflected the Confederate leadership’s desperation to hold Virginia together—and the growing fractures that would soon lead to the creation of a new state: West Virginia.
To the People of Northwestern Virginia.
The sovereign people of Virginia, unbiased, and by their own free choice, have, by a majority of nearly one hundred thousand qualified voters, severed the ties that heretofore bound them to the government of the United States, and united this Commonwealth with the Confederate States. That our people have the right “to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,” was proclaimed by our fathers, and it is a right which no freeman should ever relinquish. The State of Virginia has now, for the second time in her history, asserted this right, and it is the duty of every Virginian to acknowledge her act when ratified by such a majority, and to give his willing cooperation to make good the declaration. All her people have voted. Each has taken his chance to have his personal views represented. You, as well as the rest of the State, have cast your vote fairly, and the majority is against you. It is the duty of good citizens to yield to the will of the State. The bill of rights has proclaimed “that the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.”
The majority, thus declared, therefore, have a right to govern. But notwithstanding this right, thus exercised, has been regarded by the people of all sections of the United States as undoubted and sacred, yet the government at Washington now utterly denies it, and by the exercise of despotic power is endeavoring to coerce our people to abject submission to their authority. Virginia has asserted her independence. She will maintain it at every hazard. She is sustained by the power of ten of her sister Southern States, ready and willing to uphold her cause. Can any true Virginian refuse to render assistance. Men of the Northwest, I appeal to you, by all the considerations which have drawn us together as one people heretofore, to rally to the standard of the Old Dominion. By all the sacred ties of consanguinity, by the intermixtures of the blood of East and West, by common paternity, by friendships hallowed by a thousand cherished recollections and memories of the past, by the relics of the great men of other days, come to Virginia’s banner, and drive the invaders from your soil. There may be traitors in the midst of you, who, for selfish ends, have turned against their mother, and would permit her to be ignominiously oppressed and degraded. But I cannot, will not, believe that a majority of you are not true sons, who will not give your blood and your treasures for Virginia’s defense.
I have sent for your protection such troops as the emergency enabled me to collect, in charge of a competent commander. I have ordered a large force to go to your aid, but I rely with the utmost confidence upon your own strong arms to rescue your firesides and altars from the pollution of a reckless and ruthless enemy. The State is invaded at several points, but ample forces have been collected to defend her.
There has been a complaint among you that the eastern portion of the State has enjoyed an exemption from taxation to your prejudice. The State, by a majority of 50,000, has put the two sections on an equality in this respect. By a display of magnanimity in the vote just given, the east has, by a large majority, consented to relinquish this exemption, and is ready to share with you all the burdens of government, and to meet all Virginia’s liabilities. They come now to aid you as you came in former days to aid them. The men of the Southern Confederate States glory in coming to your rescue. Let one heart, one mind, one energy, one power, nerve every patriot to arm in a common cause. The heart that will not beat in unison with Virginia now is a traitor’s heart; the arm that will not strike home in her cause now is palsied by coward fear.
The troops are posted at Huttonsville. Come with your own good weapons and meet them as brothers!
Given under my hand, and under the seal of the Commonwealth, this 14th day of June, 1861, and in the 85th year of the Commonwealth.
JOHN LETCHER.
Spirit of '61 
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