VMI's History - Just the Facts: John Letcher

During a recent encounter between an alumnus and a fifth-year cadet on post, the alumnus remarked about many of the unknown accomplishments of former Virginia Governor John Letcher. The cadet responded with the question, "Letcher who?" When informed it was the same person from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) history Letcher Avenue, the main drive on VMI is named after, the cadet responded in surprise, "Letcher Avenue is named after an actual person? I never knew that." As VMI continues to distance itself from its history and origins, exchanges like this are increasingly common, with many cadets even unable to name any of VMI's first superintendents. This reprint is the first in a series examining historic figures, memorials, and commemorations at VMI that now stand at risk of removal, reinterpretation, "contextualization," or erasure by the Institute and the legislative process in Richmond. The purpose is not to demand uncritical praise, but to place original historical materials before readers so that cadets, alumni, and the public may consider the record for themselves and draw their own conclusions from the facts. Originally published in the Lexington Gazette on January 31, 1884, this obituary, a firsthand account from someone with direct knowledge, describes John Letcher not as a racial ideologue, but as a Lexington native, Democratic statesman, anti-corruption congressman known nationally as "Honest John Letcher," Virginia's wartime governor, and later president of the VMI Board of Visitors. It praises his integrity, moral courage, devotion to public duty, and attachment to the Union before 1861. That record matters in light of recent claims by Virginia Delegate Dan Helmer that VMI has honored "traitors and the Lost Cause," is "incapable of separating itself from a Lost Cause ideology that promotes White supremacy," and has supported a narrative in HB1377 VMI Task Force that the "Lost Cause was developed to glorify the Confederacy, and nowhere was that mythology more celebrated in the past than at VMI." Whatever broader arguments surround VMI's history, Letcher, a target for the previous 2021 Gov. Northam investigation against VMI and Helmer's Task Force Bill to remove his name from VMI properties, does not fit neatly into those labels. The obituary itself presents Letcher as a man who opposed secession, sought preservation of the Union, and turned only after President Lincoln's April 15, 1861, proclamation calling on the states to furnish 75,000 militia "in order to suppress" the seceded states. Separate from the larger question of slavery's role in the coming of the Civil War or the positions of the States, Lincoln intended to use the militia of other states to "suppress". The historical record is clear that Letcher's stated objection was to a federal order requiring Virginia to take up arms against other states. Editor's note: The obituary entitled JOHN LETCHER, A County's Tribute to the Memory of a Distinguished Son is reprinted verbatim from the Lexington Gazette, Volume 15, Number 7, 31 January 1884. At 12 M. on Monday last, a large concourse of the citizens of Rockbridge assembled at the Court House to take action in reference to the death of Ex-Gov. JOHN LETCHER. Col. Shields upon resuming the chair said: It has been made my duty to call this assemblage of the people of Rockbridge to deliberation. In doing so, I have thought it would be proper to advert to the circumstances under which it has been convened. This day a week past was one of profound interest. It witnessed the obsequies of Ex Gov. John Letcher. At the appointed hour, from the mansion home to Grace Memorial Church, the funeral cortege moved its silent, solemn way. The military escort, the Corps of Cadets, under its distinguished commandant, preceded —a weeping family and mourning, friends followed. The imposing church services, conducted in fervid tones by the Rector, increased the solemnity of the scene. Departing from the church for the cemetery, the moving column was enlarged. The Mayor, the Council and Town Officers—The Officers of the County Government—The Faculties of the Virginia Military Institute and W & L. University and a large company of Students of the latter, with an immense concourse of people were added. In that procession also were citizens of distant communities, who came offering their heartfelt sympathies, and bestowing their profound respect. Virginia, too, was a mourner, for great was her loss. She commissioned her deputies to repair hither with her offerings and her tributes—to twine them in wreaths of fadeless green and lay them on the grave of her devoted son—a son who had borne her sceptre over perils deep—through conflicts, and high above discordant elements. Thus was laid to rest a great man— so much esteemed—so beloved! His high character and noble deeds will live in memory and receive homage and honor wherever the English language is spoken. All business was suspended through-out the day, and serious thoughtfulness possessed the entire community. In response to the call of the Mayor and Council of Lexington, the people assembled in the afternoon. The day was inclement and far spent. It was known how anxiously would all the people of this great county desire to participate in honoring the memory and name of her first citizen, who had been called from his place among men, if the opportunity should be presented—hence this adjourned meeting. Pending the completion of arrangements for it, Mr. John A. Blume and Col. Pendleton delivered brief and glowing tributes to the eminent deceased. Col. Pendleton, Gen. Lee, Gen. Smith, Mr. A. T. Barclay and Col. Preston were chosen a committee to prepare a sketch of the life and public services of Ex Gov. Letcher, and present the same to this meeting. Col. Edmund Pendleton, Chairman of the Memorial Committee, read the following paper: The county of Rockbridge has not been unprolific in sons who have earned distinction in the various walks of life, but it would be difficult to came one amongst them who has conferred greater luster upon his native soil than JOHN LETCHER, whose useful and honored life came to its peaceful close in the ripeness of years on the 26th of January, 1884; and it seems therefore, befitting that his surviving fellow citizens, most of whom were living witnesses of his private and his public life, and all of whom deplore his death, should make some authentic record of him, as well to do deserved honor to his memory as to hold up for imitation to those who are to come after a striking example of unselfish and devoted patriotism, and of incorruptible honesty in high public station. John Letcher was born on the 29th of March, 1813, in the town of Lexington, Rockbridge County, where he spent the whole of his life except when absent in the discharge of public duties. To the bracing atmosphere of his mountain home and the wholesome labor of his early years, he doubtless owed his manly, form, his physical vigor, his capacity for mental exertion, the power of endurance and the self-reliance which marked him in his prime. Like most of the men who have won their way distinction in this country he commenced life with none of the adventitious aids of family or fortune. Inheriting with the rich stream of Scotch- rish blood which flowed in his veins vigorous and well balanced mind, brave honest heart and a strong arm, he blazed his own way to an honored place amongst the statesmen of his age. Like most Virginians of that day he acquired the rudiments of his education at what was then known as the "Old Field School," and later he had the benefit of classical instruction at Washington College (now Washington & Lee University) and Randolph Macon College. In his twenty. In his twenty-third year he commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. Wm. Taylor, then and for some years after a leading member of the Lexington bar, and on the 6th of May, 1839, was admitted to the practice of the law in the County Court of Rockbridge. Mr. Taylor and his distinguished brother-in-law, Gov. McDowell, at that time prominent leaders of the Democratic Party, reorganizing his moral worth, cordially extended him in his straggling years their encouragement, their sympathy and the personal friendship, for which he ever held them in grateful remembrance. Coming into the practice of his professional life at a period of high political excitement consequent upon the stormy eventful administration of President Jackson, and in accordance with a custom which has generally obtained in the Southern States, he soon began to divide his time between the hustings and the forum and espousing with all the ardor of his nature the cause of his party, he became conspicuous among the young men who commenced their political careers in the memorable "log cabin and hard cider" campaign of 1840, winning for himself the applause and commendation of his political friends. In the year 1838 he had entered the field of politics by becoming a candidate for the Legislature on the same ticket with Gov. McDowell, and by assuming the duties of editor of the "Valley Star," a weekly newspaper established by himself in the interest of the Democratic Party. In 1840 he was also again brought forward by his part y as a candidate for the Legislature on the same ticket with the late eminent and learned Judge Brockenbrough. The presidential election of that year having resulted in the overwhelming defeat of his party, Mr. Letcher retired from the editorial chair as well as from active participation in the contests of the political arena to devote himself to his profession, in which he soon achieved success, his industry and well-known probity and trustworthiness at once attracted clients who never forsook him during his professional life. In the presidential election of 1844, when the interesting and exciting question of the annexation of Texas was thrown into the contest to inflame the already sufficiently fervid warmth of party conflict he was again attracted from the quietude of his law office, and resuming the editorial control of the "Valley Star," and re-mounting the hustings, by his vigorous pen and persuasive voice largely contributed do the election of James K. Polk over the great Commoner of Kentucky. Going back again to the practice of his profession, he sought no public office save that of presidential elector—to which he was elected in 1848—until the year 1849, when a convention was called to remodel the Constitution of the State. The people of Rockbridge, though opposed to his views of party politics, manifested their confidence in his wisdom, sagacity and prudence by electing him to a seat in that Convention, the first deliberative body in which he ever sat. His course as a member of that important body met the full approbation of his constituency and so increased his claims on the pubic favor that in the year 1851 he was elected in the district in which he lived without opposition a member of the House of Representatives of the United State in which by repeated elections be held a seat for eight consecutive years. As a member of Congress he attracted the attention and respect of the whole country by his unwearying watchfulness over legislation, his wisdom in council, his sound practical sense, and above all by his incorruptible integrity and unflinching courage. No corrupt proposal, no insidious job escaped his scrutiny or failed to incur his open denunciation; so that by common consent throughout the limits of the Republic he bore the honorable and significant soubriquet of "Honest John Letcher, the Watch dog of the Treasury," than which no title was ever more honestly won, or more worthily worn. In the Congress of 1856 be took an active part in framing the tariff, which was adopted in that year, greatly to the benefit of the commercial and industrial interests of the country. The part he took in expelling from their dishonored seats 0. B. Matteson of New York and other Northern members of Congress for bribery and corruption, has not faded from the public memory. But it is as the Chief Magistrate of his native State, and as the Commander-in-Chief of his military forces during the most portentous and difficult period by far through which she has ever passed that John Letcher chiefly challenged the love and respect of her people, and the admiration of all who revere patriotism or value civil liberty. Woe be to this Commonwealth when the name of her War Governor shall cease to be cherished amongst the ornament of her annals! To this exalted station with its then arduous duties and over whelming responsibilities he was called by the voice of the people on the 1st of January, 1860. When with firm hand he took the helm, his sagacious mind did not fail to perceive the stormy sea which lay before him, and though his brave heart was disturbed by no unmanly fear, his large experience in public affairs saved him from the recklessness with which less prudent minds were eager to rush into unknown dangers with a scornful disregard of consequences. None better than he appreciated the sentiment of the Roman satirist in his invocation to Fortune, "Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia." ["If there is wisdom, Fortune, you have no power: it is we who make you a goddess and place you in the sky."] Venerating the tradition of the Fathers of the Constitution, and deeply impressed with the sanctity of the Union until he found it was to be perverted to the destruction of the rights and liberties of the States, he firmly opposed the proposition for secession, urged with such vehement by the extreme Southern States. His utterances during the gubernatorial canvass, which resulted in his election were marked by the caution which befits one about to take into his keeping the destinies of a State. He clung to the idea of the preservation of the Union and a peaceful solution of pending difficulties, until all his hopes were blasted by the proclamation of President Lincoln of April 15th, 1861, calling on the Governors of States for 75,000 troops to suppress certain "combinations." Then without the slightest hesitancy, with the Wisdom of Nestor and the Courage of Achilles, he replied in words which ought to be ever memorable to Virginians: "I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object—an object in my judgment, not within the province of the Constitution or the Act of 1795-will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited towards the South." How simple, how straight-forward how firmly spoken, how characteristic of John Letcher! Whether he was in earnest, let four years of bloody war whose thunders shook the earth, answer. Untrained as he was in military affairs his native intuition directed him at once to the choice of the ablest and the fittest men as his counsellors in the new and arduous duties which actual war had thus so suddenly cast upon him. It was his sagacity that placed Robert E. Lee in chief command of all the military forces of Virginia, and calling Stonewall Jackson from his modest retirement, flung him into the conflict as a very thunderbolt of war. It was mainly his wisdom, energy and foresight that saved to the South the valuable machinery and arms at Harper's Ferry and the Navy Yard at Gosport with its 1195 guns of heavy calibre, and large amount of ordnance stores. It was largely due to him that the Confederate forces which gained the victory of first Manassas were armed and equipped for that battle. Gen. Jackson writing from Richmond on the 23rd of April, 1861, said: "The Governor and others holding responsible offices have not enough time for their official duties, they are so enormous." The noble Lee, who never spoke in other than measured words, said to a friend after the close of the war, "Of all the civilians with whom I was thrown in contact, I found no one more satisfactory and helpful than Gov. Letcher." But to attempt even the most summary statement of his official action as Governor during those perilous and eventful years, would be almost to write a history of the war in Virginia. Let it suffice to say of him as was said of another honored Virginian long since gone to his rest and his reward: "That his faculties for usefulness seemed always to rise to the level of the demand upon them; that he was most able to discharge his duty under the most difficult circumstances, and that he served his native State with a love and fidelity which are beyond all praise." At the close of his official term at Governor he.-retired to private life, devoting himself to the quiet duties of his profession and as President of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute to restoring that valued school of science to its former prosperity. He never after sought or held public office, except when at the earnest solicitation of his fellow citizens of the county of Rockbridge he represented them for a single term in the State Legislature. It was whilst a member of that body in1876 he was stricken with paralysis, and continued until his death an invalid. He was at the time of his death, with one exception, the oldest native born citizen of Lexington. He was by the several associations of birth, position and pursuit, connected with every class and almost every member of the community and was well known by all. It was indeed easy to know him well. No one was ever more approachable, more simple, frank and kindly mannered. He was a thorough Rockbridge man, embodying in his person those trails considered characteristic of the people of this section. He was decided in his convictions, clear in perception, prompt and firm in action, candid, brave, and absolutely trust-worthy. No one was ignorant as to where he stood, and no one had reason to suppose that he would change his position without good and sufficient cause openly avowed. It is a notable fact that in all the vicissitudes of politics during his life the confidence of his fellow citizens was never withdrawn or even shaken. While bold in speech and action there was no malevolence in his nature. How open handed he was in private life all will be witness who ever approached him indeed. Of his modesty and the sternness of his public virtue, a striking proof is exhibited in a letter which he addressed from his sickbed to the Senate of Virginia in relation to a joint resolution passed by that body providing for the payment of all expenses incident to his illness when suddenly stricken down in Richmond in 1876. It was in these words: To the Senate of Virginia: Deeply impressed by the action of the Senate on yesterday, providing for the extraordinary expenses incident to my illness and present prostration, and recognizing the kindly sentiments which prompted the introduction and passage of the resolution, I beg leave respectfully to decline the proffered serviceThe precedent is an unsafe one at all times, and especially so now in the distressed condition of our people, whose lot I claim to be my lot. Be pleased, Mr. President, to make my acknowledgement to the Senate." Such was the public and private life of John Letcher, a man whom the people of Rockbridge were proud to own as their fellow-citizen, and whose memory they will never case to cherish with affection and respect. Hon. J. R. Tucker, invited by the committee to address the people upon the occasion, in seconding the adoption of the memorial, said that he was present in obedience to the request of the committee and felt that his constituents of Rockbridge County would heartily approve of his leaving his post of duty at Washington to mingle with his fellow citizens of Rockbridge in paying this tribute to the memory of her illustrious son. Mr. Tucker gave a splendid review of Gov. Letcher's life and character, but spoke entirely without manuscript. His fervid eloquence was the prompting of a heart thoroughly in sympathy with the occasion, and marked by that beauty and force of expression for which our distinguished Representative is noted. It was the tribute of the foremost living citizen of Rockbridge, to the memory of her most distinguished and lamented dead. At the conclusion of Mr. Tucker's speech, Col. William T. Poague offered the following resolutions which were adopted: Resolved, That this meeting, in the name of our county, heartily, and with mixed emotions of pride in the review of the illustrious career of Gov. Letcher and sorrow for our loss, heartily adopt the sentiments of the memorial just read, and unite in the eloquent tribute to his character to which we have listened from our distinguished Representative in Congress, and that in order to preserve as well for history as out of respect to the dead and of sympathy with his family, as also for the honor of our town and county, be it further Resolved, That the Common Council of Lexington and the Supervisors of the County be requested to have this memorial, together with all the proceedings connected with his obsequies published in some permanent form for preservation. On motion the meeting was adjourned. Reflection John Letcher's obituary complicates modern efforts by HB1377 and its Chief Patron's statements to reduce John Letcher to a stock "Lost Cause" emblem or proof of "White supremacy" as justification to eliminate all references to him, such as "Letcher Avenue", from VMI. The Lost Cause was a postwar mythology that, in part, recast the conflict as one that did not include the issue of slavery, although that was only one of a number of factors in the complicated question of succession. Modern institutions are right to reject distortions as long as they reject all distortions, such as the one that the Civil War was solely about slavery and no other issues, or that VMI's Cadets fought at New Market were traitors fighting to preserve slavery. Rejecting the Lost Cause does not require ignoring the equally plain fact that Letcher was remembered by his contemporaries for honesty, public duty, resistance to corruption, an initial firm stand against secession, and service to VMI after the war. The relevant distinction is important. One may acknowledge, as historians do, that slavery was one of the major factors for secession and to the Confederacy's cause, while also recognizing that Letcher's own break with Washington, as presented in this obituary and in his response to Lincoln's call, was framed as a refusal to place Virginia's militia under federal command against other states. That is a narrower and more historically grounded claim than Del. Helmer's sweeping conclusion that honoring any persons in VMI's history connected to the Civil War, such as Letcher, necessarily amounts to honoring racism, the Lost Cause, or white supremacy. Send your comment on this directly to the BOV using this link: www.thecadetfoundation.org/action VMI or its alumni agencies do not provide support to The Cadet. Please help us remain one of the oldest independent student newspapers in Virginia through a donation at www.thecadetfoundation.org