old State from the family in which she has long lived and been happy.  The perishable things of earth distress me not, only in so far as they affect the imperishable.  Secession means war; and war means tears and ashes and blood.  It means bonds and imprisonments, and perhaps even death to many in our beloved Brotherhood, who, I have the confidence to believe, will die, rather than disobey God by taking up arms.

The Lord, by the mouth of Moses, says:  “Be sure your sin will find you out.”  It may be that the sin of holding three millions of human beings under the galling yoke of involuntary servitude has, like the bondage of Israel in Egypt, sent a cry to heaven for vengeance; a cry that has now reached the ear of God.  I bow my head in prayer.  All is dark save when I turn my eyes to him.  He assures me in his Word that “all things work together for good to them that love him.”  This is my ground of hope for my beloved brethren and their wives and their children.  He alone can provide for their safety and support.  I believe he will do it.

WEDNESDAY, January 30.  Write a letter to John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, in which I set before him in a brief way the doctrines which we as a body or church, known as Brethren, German Baptists or Dunkards, have always held upon the subject of obedience to the “rightful authority and power of government.”  We teach and are taught obedience to the “powers that be;” believing as we do that “the powers that be are ordained of God,” and under his divine sanction so far as such powers keep within God’s bounds.  By God’s bounds we understand such laws and their administrations and enforcements as do not conflict with, oppose, or violate any precept or command contained in the Divine Word which he has given for the moral and spiritual government of his people.  By government, to which we as a body acknowledge and teach our obligations of duty and obedience, we understand rightful human authority.  And by this, again, we understand, as the Apostle Paul puts it, “the power that protects and blesses the good, and punishes the evildoer.”  The general Government of the United States of America, constituted upon an inseparable union of the several States, has proved itself to be of incalculable worth to its citizens and the world, and therefore we, as a church and people, are heart and soul opposed to any move which looks toward its dismemberment.

This is in substance what I wrote to John Letcher, Governor of Virginia.

I likewise attend Abraham Shue’s sale:  The candidates for seats in the Convention to meet in Richmond were on the ground, actively speaking both publicly and privately.  Mr. George Chrisman, one of them, a man of preeminent wisdom in things relating to government, publicly avowed himself opposed to secession on the basis of both principle and policy.  “On the ground of principle,” said he, “secession violates the pledge of sacred honor made by the several States when they set their hands and seals to the Constitution of the United States.  On the ground of policy,” continued he, “the secession of Virginia will culminate in the breaking up of her long-cherished institutions, civil, social, and, to some extent, religious.”