On March 10, 1861, the Committee on Federal Relations at the Richmond convention submitted reports consisting of fourteen resolutions to the convention. These resolutions expressed the doctrine of states' rights, criticized slavery interference, advocated the right of secession and resolved that Virginia would be justified in seceding only if the Federal government usurped state powers or if it attempted to force the payment of tax duties from the seceded states or if it recaptured certain Southern forts. The first twelve resolutions had been adopted at the time of the unofficial firing on Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina on April 12th and the forced surrender of the Federal garrison. The Federal government had sent arms, troops and provisions to the aid of Colonel Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter. The Confederate government had considered the action a hostile act and had acted accordingly. The actual signal for the attack was given by Roger Pryor, a strong secessionist from Virginia; furthermore, the actual shot was fired by another Virginia secessionist, Edmund Ruffin. The ultimate surrender of Fort Sumter to the Confederates resulted in an immediate call from President Lincoln for volunteers to save the Union. Even as late as April 4, the Richmond convention had rejected secession by a vote of two to one. Some of the minority were strong in their wishes to secede immediately and to join the Confederacy, and they used the issues of self-government, states' rights and slavery as their points of variance with the national government. Furthermore, these advocates believed that an alliance with the Confederacy would at least remove them from the direct influence of high protective tariffs since a clause prohibiting protective tariffs had been included in the Constitution of the Confederacy. Two days after the firing on Fort Sumter, April 15, President Lincoln called on all the states in the Union to send volunteers, numbering 75,000 total, to invade the seceding states and to coerce them back into the Union.