<P> At the Richmond convention in February 1861, Georgian Henry Lewis Benning, who would later go on to join the Confederate army as an officer, delivered a speech in which he gave his reasoning for the urging of secession from the Union, appealing to ethnic prejudices and pro-slavery sentiments to present his case, saying that were the slave states to remain in the Union, their slaves would ultimately end up being freed by the anti-slavery Republican Party . He stated that he would rather be stricken with illness and starvation than to see African - Americans liberated from slavery and be given equality as citizens: </P> <P> What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition . It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North - was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery...If things are allowed to go on as they are, it is certain that slavery is to be abolished . By the time the north shall have attained the power, the black race will be in a large majority, and then we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything . Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that? It is not a supposable case...war will break out everywhere like hidden fire from the earth, and it is probable that the white race, being superior in every respect, may push the other back...we will be overpowered and our men will be compelled to wander like vagabonds all over the earth; and as for our women, the horrors of their state we cannot contemplate in imagination . That is the fate which abolition will bring upon the white race...We will be completely exterminated, and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back to a wilderness and become another Africa...Suppose they elevated Charles Sumner to the presidency? Suppose they elevated Fred Douglass, your escaped slave, to the presidency? What would be your position in such an event? I say give me pestilence and famine sooner than that . </P> <P> Unionist support by many was further eroded for many Virginians by Lincoln's first inaugural address, which they felt was "argumentative, if not defiant ." Throughout the state there was evidence that support for secession was growing . The Federal Relations Committee made its report to the convention on March 9 . The fourteen proposals defended both slavery and states' rights while calling for a meeting of the eight slave states still in the Union to present a united front for compromise . From March 15 through April 14 the convention debated these proposals one by one . During the debates, the sixth resolution calling for a peaceful solution and maintenance of the Union came up for discussion on April 4 . Lewis Edwin Harvie of Amelia County offered a substitute resolution calling for immediate secession . This was voted down by 88 to 45 and the next day the convention continued its debate . Approval of the last proposal came on April 12 . The goal of the unionist faction after this approval was to adjourn the convention until October, allowing time for both the convention of the slave states and Virginia's congressional elections in May which, they hoped, would produce a stronger mandate for compromise . </P> <P> One delegate reiterated the state's cause of secession and the purpose of the convention: </P>

Why was fort sumter in such a poor strategic position for the union