The Panic of 1857, Nationalism, and Secession (A)

Abstract

This case considers the association between a financial crisis and regime change. The setting for this case is 1861, when Virginians debate the question of secession from the United States, and when northwestern Virginians contemplated secession from Virginia. The proximate financial crisis was the Panic of 1857.

Excerpt

UVA-F-1802

Rev. Nov. 6, 2019

The Panic of 1857, Nationalism, and Secession (A)

On April 17, 1861, a convention chartered by the Virginia state legislature voted to approve an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 88 to 55. The ordinance would be submitted to a referendum of voters for ratification on May 23. It was adopted following stormy debates. In the five months before, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union. For a chronology of events, see Exhibit1. Exhibit2 gives a map of seceding states.

On April 22, 1861, two delegates to the convention, John S. Carlile and Waitman T.Willey (see Exhibits3 and4), distributed a call for a convention of citizens in northwestern Virginia (see Exhibit5). Carlile had argued that the decision to secede was illegal. Willey asserted that the Virginia Convention had not represented the full diversity of views in the Commonwealth, particularly of yeoman farmers in northwestern Virginia. How would Carlile and Willey carry their appeals to the citizens of their region?

The events leading up to the wave of secession decisions were complicated and spread over decades. Yet the impulse toward secession accelerated in 1857, when a Supreme Court decision and civil unrest polarized the nation both related to slavery. And the year also marked the panic of 1857 and economic turmoil that some observers also said influenced the path to secession.

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