Virginia State Senator John Herbert Claiborne faced a defining challenge in January 1861 as his constituents in the state’s Sixth District wrestled with the question of secession. Many of those he represented opposed leaving the Union, yet they were deeply uncertain about the nation’s future following the dramatic events of the previous two months. Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in November 1860 had prompted South Carolina to secede in December. By early January, four more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia—had followed suit.
Claiborne, however, held no doubts about the direction the country should take. A passionate Virginian and staunch advocate of slavery, Claiborne favored states’ rights over federal authority. His worldview was hierarchical, viewing slavery as an economic necessity and a biblical mandate. A well-educated physician, he personally enslaved 18 people and held real and personal property valued at $43,000 in 1860—the equivalent of roughly $1.
7 million today—benefiting directly from his Virginia upbringing. On January 20, 1861, just two weeks after the fifth state had seceded, Claiborne took his case for secession directly to the public through the press. In an open letter to his constituents, he described his intention to help heal the growing national divide. Writing to his “fellow citizens,” Claiborne expressed a sincere desire to contribute toward bridging the rift that unfortunately separated many of the nation’s best citizens.
He wanted to pour soothing oil, as he put it, on the agitated waters of the current political conflict. He lamented that divisions among a people united by interest, bound by honor, and sharing a common destiny were regrettable and often disastrous—especially in a time of public danger when unity of thought and harmony of action were vital for preserving what people held sacred. Claiborne warned that the nation faced an enemy that was relentless, unreconciled, and exultant in its first victory. Instead of uniting their broken forces and standing firm on their shared homeland, he argued, people stood scattered, doubting one another, debating abstractions, and divided over whether this mode of resistance held virtue or necessity.
He called for calm and mutual understanding, urging his readers to cast aside bitterness and party prejudice. He invoked the shared blood and brotherhood of the commonwealth, appealing to the noble task of preserving Virginia with all the grandeur of its past and the glory of its history. The enemy he identified was a political party that had grown slowly but steadily over 40 years, had won the ballot box, and was about to assume power. Claiborne argued that this party would govern according to the principles it had long declared—policies he considered subversive to Southern interests and destructive to property.
His open letter represented a direct appeal to the people at a moment of profound national crisis, as Virginia still hung in the balance between union and secession.
