Neither Winchester, nor the commonwealth of Virginia were particularly fond of secession from the Union. Virginia was not a cotton state, and the Valley's economy and culture centered around small family owned farms producing wheat and cattle. However pro-Union sentiment was often conditional. Historian William A. Link writes: At the same time, the resolutions renounced secession, promised "unfaltering attachment" to the Union, proposed boycotting imports from some northern states, and called for, if necessary, a national convention to resolve the sectional issues.