Thus compelled against his will to be a candidate, Arthur entered at once upon a canvass of ceaseless activity. He did not mean to be defeated. He spoke every day and many times every day, and better still he talked constantly to the groups of men who surrounded him, setting forth his views persuasively and so convincingly that when the polls closed on that fateful fourth of February, it was found that Arthur Brent had been elected by a plurality which amounted almost to a majority, to represent his district in that constitutional convention which must decide Virginia’s commanding course, and in large degree, perhaps, determine the final issue of war or peace. When the convention met nine days later it was found that an overwhelming majority of the members held views identical, or nearly so, with those of Arthur Brent. There were a very few uncompromising secessionists in the body, and also a few unconditional Union men, who declared their hostility to secession upon any terms, at any time, under any circumstances. Among these unconditional Union men, curiously enough were two who afterwards became notable fighters for the Southern cause--namely Jubal A. Early and William C. Wickham. But the overwhelming majority opposed secession as a mistaken policy, uncalled for by anything in the then existing circumstances, and certain to precipitate a devastating war; while at the same time maintaining the constitutional right of each state to secede, and holding themselves ready to vote for Virginia’s secession, should the circumstances so change as to render that course in their judgment obligatory upon the state under the law of honor. That change occurred in the end, as we shall presently see. But, in the meantime, these representatives of the Virginia people wrought with all their might for the maintenance of peace and the preservation of the Union. They counselled concession and sweet reasonableness, on both sides. They urged upon both the commanding necessity of endeavoring, in a spirit of mutual forbearance, to find some basis of adjustment by which that Union which Virginia had done so much to bring about, and under which the history of the Republic had been a matter of universal pride both North and South, might be preserved and established anew upon secure foundations. More important than all this was the fact that these representative men of Virginia denied to the seceding cotton states the encouragement of Virginia’s sanction for their movement, the absolutely indispensable moral and material support of the mother state. For a time there was an encouraging prospect of the success of these Virginian efforts. Nobody, North or South, believed that the cotton states would long stand alone in their determination, if Virginia and the other border states that looked to her for guidance--Kentucky, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Maryland--should continue to hold aloof.