Governor, Gunrunner?: “Honest John” Letcher and the Secession Crisis

During the Secession Crisis of 1860-1861, members of President James Buchanan’s cabinet distributed arms to secessionists. According to General and future President Ulysses S. Grant, Secretary of War John B. Floyd “scattered the army so that much of it could be captured when hostilities should commence, and distributed the cannon and small arms from Northern arsenals throughout the South so as to be on hand when treason wanted them.” Southern governors, including John Letcher of Floyd’s home state of Virginia, got in on the act. ¹

I am not only a reference archivist, but also a historian of the Civil War. I focus on Richmond, and I possess an extensive knowledge of key figures in the Confederate capital, including Letcher. We have yet to plumb the depths of his activities before and during the war, but his Executive Papers and Journals afford ample opportunities to do so.

Letcher, known as “Honest John” for his fiscal conservatism, is often portrayed by biographers like F. N. Boney as a reluctant secessionist. “A moderate, conscientious politician forced into a war he never wanted, he became an outstanding war governor.”

This view was not shared by contemporaries of Letcher such as Charles Carleton Coffin of the Atlantic. “Weak in intellect, groveling in his tastes, often drunk, rarely sober, at times making such a beastly exhibition of himself that the Richmond press pronounced him a public nuisance, he was a fit tool of the Secession conspirators.” ²

Follow the money. On Monday, January 28, 1861, Secretary of the Commonwealth George W. Munford recorded the following in the Executive Journal:

A claim of Joseph Mayo, Jr. was submitted for $3.50 for freight on transportation of arms from Richmond to Baltimore destined for the County of Westmoreland. Ordered that the said auditor issue a warrant therefore on the appropriation for the collection and transportation of arms.

Mayo was the Mayor of Richmond, and at first glance, there is nothing unusual about the two distributing arms from the state capital to a county. One look at a map, however, shows that transporting arms from Richmond to Westmoreland County via Baltimore makes no sense.

It is difficult to imagine any explanation for the route other than Baltimore was the intended destination and Maryland secessionists were the intended recipients. The period between the election of Lincoln and the bombardment of Fort Sumter saw the secession of seven states, and the threatened secession of six more, including Maryland. The loss of Maryland meant the loss of Washington, D.C., and the Union.

No one understood this better than Lincoln. The only rail line connecting the nation’s capital and the North ran through Baltimore, and Maryland secessionists planned to assassinate Lincoln enroute to his inauguration. The so-called Baltimore Plot was scheduled for February, and was only thwarted when private detective Allan Pinkerton convinced Lincoln to travel early and incognito through the city. Lincoln was mocked in the press, but he survived to lead the Union to victory in the Civil War.