Transcript:
Page 1, Upper Half
The Border Slave States
Reported Defeat of the Secession Ordinance in Virginia.
Washington, April 17, 1861.
Secretary Seward has received private information within an hour, direct from Richmond, that the Virginia State Convention, in secret session, last night, decided against the act of secession by a majority of seven. Since learning this I have seen another messenger, direct from Virginia, who confirms the report received by Mr. Seward.
A messenger has just come in from Alexandria, who asserts that it would be impossible for an act of secession to pass the Richmond Convention without his knowledge, and he this moment assures me that when he left Alexandria, at eleven o’clock this forenoon, no such action had been taken, and he does not believe it will happen. He is a well posted and intelligent gentleman, and can be relied upon. If the secession act should pass, it will have to be submitted to the people.
Citation. New York Herald. 18 April 1861. Gift of Steven and Susan Raab. AN .N56792
Five companies of Pennsylvania troops reach Washington DC in response to President Lincoln’s proclamation. Others are on their way.
The Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry is abandoned and burned, but the Confederates sieze 5,000 good rifles, many parts and the machinery which will be used to manufacture rifles for the Confederacy.
Maj. Anderson and the Fort Sumter garrison reach New York and are treated as heroes.
President Lincoln believes that the Union is an undivided whole, indissoluble and that secession is illegal. A state cannot leave the union. The North has every right and duty to use force to compel reunification.
President Davis believes exactly the opposite. The Union is a voluntary compact between sovereign states. That union is entirely voluntary and states may freely exit that union. Any attempt to enforce that union by force of arms is illegal and in violation of the US Constitution. The United States and the Confederacy are separate nations. The North, not the South, was the aggressor because the North attempted to retain Fts. Sumter and Pickins.
These are two mutually exclusive views.