surprised to find the people so far in advance of their estimates. The expression was nearly all one way. Kanawha which had been overrun by Wise in the early Summer voted 1,039 for division, one against. Putnam gave 209 to none; Cabell, 200 to none; Harrison, 1,148 to 2; Marion, 760 to 38; Monongalia, 1,591 to 18; Upshur, 614 to none; Randolph, 171 to 2. The official vote as communicated by the Secretary of the Commonwealth to the constitutional convention in December, was 18,408 for division, to 781 against. PEOPLE COULD NOT BE FOOLED. November 5th the Intelligencer said: The people thoroughly understood the gist of the whole outcry against present expediency. They recognized this plain and palpable fact that the men who got it up were not friends of the new State, and at no other time would they be a bit more likely to vote for it than now. They seized the strong commonsense view of the subject as if by intuition and determined that whether the project succeeded or not before Congress, the world should see that it was the choice of the people of the Northwest to have a new State, and that they were not one whit less firm and inflexible towards the Eastern Virginia usurpers now than they were last spring. Had we voted down the new State, that would have ended it. We never in this generation could have brought it to a vote again. All our talk for the past twentyfive years would have been considered as retracted. THE MAIN QUESTION PRESENTS ITSELF. And now a new question began to raise itself in the foreground. Not new in its nature; rather as old as the question of division itself; but new in the sense that for the first time it had to be met with some practical solution. It had been settled by the result of the election that Western Virginia would go to Congress for admission into the Union; and the question what to do with slavery in view of that ordeal would have to be answered in the constitution to be framed by the Convention to assemble November 26th. On the morning of that day, the delegates were greeted in the editorial columns of the Intelligencer with an introduction to the question on which the issue of new Statehood was ultimately to turn: The convention to form a constitution for a new State out of the territory of the Commonwealth of Virginia meets to-day in this city. It is one of the most important bodies ever convened in any State of this Union. Its action will possess a national interest. Its assemblage marks an era in the history of the great rebellion. It meets in response to the all but unanimous call of the loyal people of more than thirty-nine counties of Western Virginia. NO, THANK YOU! There had been some newspaper talk about a general dismemberment of Virginia, the contemplated transfer of Accomac and Northampton Counties to the State of Maryland, and the suggestion that such a partition might throw the Valley to the new State to be formed west of the mountains. Touching this, the editor continues: For our part, we hope to escape the affliction of being united to the Valley-notwithstanding the many loyal people that are there and the two or three loyal counties that have voted to come with us. The greatest portion of the Valley is as antagonistic to the West as ever was the Tide-water region. We want a homogeneous State. Such we never could have united We to the Valley. Negroes are their staple. They are not ours. want to get clear of negroes. The Valley does not. We want in a few years to become a free State. If, however, the wish shall become anyways general among the people of the Valley, when this rebellion shall have been put down, to join us, they can do so by adopting the free-state policy which the West will have originated. In this way only, and with this understanding only, would their acquisition be of any benefit. We do not wish to be connected any longer with the miserable one-idead negro policy that has cursed us all the days of our lives thus far. That policy has always been arrogant, selfish and absorbing. We have had enough of it. Let us have a natural State. Our interests lie eastward, not southward. It is the capital, skill and enterprise and hardy manhood of the Eastern States that are to develop Western Virginia; that are to build cities and towns, villages, factories and workshops, school-houses and churches, in places now almost unknown within our limits. We know that without foreign enterprise labor and capital, the city of Wheeling would have been nothing. We know that Western Virginia without these same helps will be nothing in a hundred years to come. What we want, then, is a policy that will meet the case; and that policy is obviously and manifestly a free-State policy. Let feudalism and every species of middle-ageism and all sorts of anti-progress be kept out of our constitution from the start. Do not let us build up hindrances and stumbling-blocks for those who shall come after us. Our bitter experience ought to teach us compassion for our successors. Will we be equal to the emergency? We shall see within the next few weeks. CHAPTER XV. FRAMING THE ORGANIC LAW-ITS ADOPTION BY THE PEOPLE-LEGISLATIVE CONSENT. THE CONVENTION MEETS. The delegates chosen to frame a constitution for the proposed new State of Kanawha met in the United States court-room, in the Federal building, in the city of Wheeling at 11 a. m. November 26, 1861. Chapman J. Stuart of Doddridge County called the body to order, and on his motion the venerable John Hall, of Mason, was made temporary chairman and Gibson L. Cranmer, of Wheeling, temporary secretary. Delegates from thirty-one counties answered roll-call. The following were later found to be entitled to seats: Cabell-Granville Parker. Braxton-Gustavus F. Taylor. Barbour-Emmet J. O'Brien. Boone-Robert Hagar. Brooke-James Hervey. Clay-Benjamin Stephenson. Doddridge Chapman J. Stuart. Gilmer-William Warder. Hardy-Abijah Dolly. Hancock-Joseph S. Pomeroy. Harrison-Thomas W. Harrison and John M. Powell Jackson-E. S. Mahon. Kanawha-James H. Brown and Lewis Ruffner. Lewis-Robert Irvine. Marion-Ephraim B. Hall and Hiram Haymond. Marshall-Elbert H. Caldwell and Thomas H. Trainer. Mason-John Hall. Pleasants-Joseph Hubbs. Preston-John J. Brown and John A. Dille. Putnam-Dudley S. Montague. Raleigh-Stephen N. Hansley. Taylor-Harmon Sinsel. Tyler-Abraham D. Soper. Tucker-James W. Parsons. Wayne-William W. Brumfield. Wirt-Benjamin F. Stewart. Ohio-James W. Paxton, Daniel Lamb and Gordon Battelle. -Wood-Peter G. Van Winkle and William E. Stevenson. Subsequently the following additional delegates were admitted: Fayette-James S. Cassidy. Logan-Benjamin H. Smith. Mercer-Richard M. Cook. McDowell-J. P. Hoback. Nicholas-John R. McCutchen. John Hall of Mason was made permanent President and Ellery R. Hall, then from Taylor, afterwards resident at Fairmont, permanent Secretary. |