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To the Citizens of Frederick County

"To the Citizens of Frederick County," 1861, Broadside, 1861 .M36 BOX, Special Collections, Library of Virginia.

Two opponents of secession, James Marshall and Robert Young Conrad, defeated to supporters of secession, Frederick William Mackay Holliday and William L. Clark, on February 4, 1861, to represent Frederick County in the Virginia Convention. The following day Marshall and Conrad published a letter of thanks to the voters. They blamed political party considerations for forcing the country into the secession crisis. Without the harmful influences of the parties, they wrote, "the voice of Frederick, on this occasion, would have been almost unanimous for preserving to the last the loyalty of Virginia to our national institutions. She did most to erect this great nation, and conduct it to its present high position. She yet has influence to correct disorders, before they become incurable diseases; and she will, we trust, be the last to abandon her own work, in despair."