The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-11-21
A Talk with John fanny, President
Of the Virginia ConventiOn..The
Attitude of an Old Virginian.

VISIT TO Observation-Disclosures INTER-
VIEW WITH JOHN JANNEY, PRESIDENT OF
THE VIRGINIA SECESSION CONVENTION.
LEEsBURG, VA, Nov. 1, 1862
Nothing and nobody in all
Leesburg interested me but one white
haired old Virginia gentleman, Of whom
history will have word to say. mean
John Janney, the President of the Virginia
Convention at Richmond that voted the
State out of the Union, and whose home is
in this town. In the Convention he
constantly and persistently voted against
every measure looking in any way
whatever toward secession, though, as
its President, he had to affix his name to a
document which he considered the death
warrant and suicide of that State. Know
ing that when he afterwards returned
home, and the time for the popular vote
came, he voted for secession, was curl
Gus to know what influence had worked
this interior change in high and pure
sOuled nature
Calling at his residence, was receiv-
ed with cordially by the tall, spare figure
with a noble white chereleua', whose every
lineament and the high, courtly, old-time
manners, plainly showed the fine old Vir-
ginia gentleman. Mr.. Janney is now about
sixty-five, and has been of late months in
feeble health. 1t was not difficult, present
ly to carry the conversation from present
affairs and give it a historical turn. 1t did
not need his avowal to inform me that he
had been all along an Old Line Henry
Clay Wing, and that he had long kept him
self aloof from practical politics it was
easy to see that, such as they have been
North and South, they must have offended
his honest temper. 1t was little remark
able, therefore, that he should have been
chosen the presiding officer of the Conven-
ton on the question of secession, and the
choice Of so conservative, Union-l loving
man, showed there was some moderation
and virtue in the body. The Convention
met, you will remember in the middle of
Feb. 81 and he laid great stress on the
thoroughly Union sentiment that pervaded
it during its earlier sessions. If a vote on
the question had been taken any time
during the month preceding the attack on
Fort Sumter, three-fourths, at least, of all
the voices would have been against the
ordinance. When that event took place,
the secession mercury on the instant leaped
up in the barometer "Was the attack
purposely timed to effect the deliberations
of the body-was the fuse cut at the right
length to carry the shell where wanted ~
"There is too much reason to fear it was"
The Union party in the Convention, how
ever, still struggled on. They sent dele
gates to Washington-begging, imploring
some assuring word, some basis of hope,
some promise which they could present to
their people. 'And Mr.. S., l am bound
to tell you we got discouragementr rather
than encouragement. Unable thus to get
any rallying point, the Union party was
overslaughed by the disunionists, and the
secession was voted by large majority,
Mr.. fanny, with some others, holding out
to the last. The Convention dissolved, the
members went home, the popular vote,
without whose ratification the action of the
body was "voice, and nothing MORE"
was about to come on; but before the day
arrived Mr.. Lincoln bound Virginia with
the blockade, and invaded her soil by
marching troops into Alexandria. When
the time for the popular vote came, John
Janney gave his voice for secession. The
invasion, State Rights and the old State
traditions had done their work. "Sir, I
am, in a word, a Virginian-a citizen of
Commonwealth that had existed as q
sovereign organized government two hun
dred years before the United States had q
name" Such, in sentence, is the history
of the lapse of thousands of the best and
purest men of Virginia-men who are now
the mainstay of the rebellion in the council
and in the field. And certainly there
could have been no condition of mind more
favorable to the purposes of the plotters
of disunion than they found in the prin-
ciples, prejudices and traditions of Vir-
ginians.
thought, however, that could detect
a dawning consciousness in the mind of
Mr.. Janney OF how he is, and conservative
minded men like him, had been used by
the South Carolina fire-eaters. / felt de-
points, but the rebellion has obviously in
his mind not clean birth record. The
secession of South Carolina and the Gulf
States he regards as gigantic crime
unprovOked, uncalled for, unauthorized,
illegal and diabolical. Next to this he &C
counts the acceptance by the Washington
Government of the attack on Fort Sumter
as challenge to war, followed by the
calling out of rs, 900 men, as grand po-
litical blunder. He excOriates Mr.. Bu-
chanan-whom he looks upon as the weak
est and meanest of all the tools ever used
by tyrannical faction-for not reintorc-
ing Fort Sumter at time when it could
have been done without giving offence;
but he also blames Mr.. Lincoln for treat
ing as case for war an affair that states
manship would have made a diplomatic
action of The lack of that craftsmanship
now is, he thinks, the great trouble; for
he considers there is none of it on either
side. ''Read the Constitution, and you
will see that the Office of the President is
carved out for the limbs of a giant and
who have You there, and who have we?"
''Sir, there were in my day, giants in the
land, and we have now only pigmies."
As for the prospects of the Southern
/ Contederacy he had nothing but dark pro-
! phecies. That secession will stop with the
present split he has not the faintest idea.
i 1'hora oro ooforopic+io alo,oantS o1roo ", n +