LITMIR.BIZ

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with what appeared to be a popular demand, however, these considerations were disregarded, and the convention by a vote of 50 to 28 passed an ordinance authorizing the formation out of the Commonwealth of Virginia of a new State to be called Kanawha, which was to embrace thirty-nine counties between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, provided the people thereof, at an election to be held on October 24, should express themselves in favor of such a measure; on certain prescribed conditions other contiguous counties could be annexed. At the election which was to decide this important question delegates to a constitutional convention were also to be chosen, and, if separation was approved by the people, these representatives were to assemble at Wheeling on November 26 and organize themselves into a convention. Any constitution which they might adopt was to be submitted to the qualified electors of the counties concerned. The new commonwealth was to assume a just proportion of Virginia’s public debt as it existed prior to January 1, 1861; private rights derived from her laws were to be valid under the proposed State, and were to be determined by the laws then existing in Virginia.^[172]

      The convention, as previously noted, reassembled on August 6. Three days later one A. F. Ritchie, a member from Marion County, forwarded to Attorney-General Bates at Washington a letter which requested and received an immediate reply. Mr. Ritchie published the response, of which this is the important part:

      The formation of a new State out of Western Virginia is an original, independent act of revolution. I do not deny the power of revolution (I do not call it right, for it is never prescribed; it exists in force only, and has and can have no law but the will of the revolutionists). Any attempt to carry it out involves a plain breach of both the constitutions—of Virginia and of the Nation. And hence it is plain that you cannot take such a course without weakening, if not destroying, your claims upon the sympathy and support of the General Government, and without disconcerting the plan already adopted by both Virginia and the General Government for the reorganization of the revolted States and the restoration of the integrity of the Union.

      That plan I understand to be this: When a State, by its perverted functionaries, has declared itself out of the Union, we avail ourselves of all the sound and loyal elements of the State—all who own allegiance to and claim protection of the Constitution—to form a State government as nearly as may be upon the former model, and claiming to be the very State which has been in part overthrown by the successful rebellion. In this way we establish a constitutional nucleus around which all the shattered elements of the commonwealth may meet and combine, and thus restore the old State in its original integrity.

      This, I verily thought, was the plan adopted at Wheeling, and recognized and acted upon by the General Government here. Your convention annulled the revolutionary proceedings at Richmond, both in the Convention and the General Assembly, and your new Governor formally demanded of the President the fulfillment of the constitutional guaranty in favor of Virginia—Virginia as known to our fathers and to us. The President admitted the obligation, and promised his best efforts to fulfill it. And the Senate admitted your Senators, not as representing a new and nameless State, now for the first time heard of in our history, but as representing “the good old commonwealth.”

      Must all this be undone, and a new and hazardous experiment be ventured upon, at the moment when dangers and difficulties are thickening around us? I hope not. … I had rejoiced in the movement in Western Virginia, as a legal, constitutional, and safe refuge from revolution and anarchy; as at once an example and fit instrument for the restoration of all the revolted States.

      I have not time now to discuss the subject in its various bearings. What I have written is written with a running pen and will need your charitable criticism.

      If I had time to think, I could give persuasive reasons for declining the attempt to create a new State at this perilous time. At another time I might be willing to go fully into the question, but now I can say no more.^[173]

      Mr. Ritchie, who had opposed a dismemberment of the old Commonwealth, was anxious, no doubt, to justify his vote by the endorsement of an eminent public character, and it is not improbable that before finally determining his action in so important a matter he was desirous of the opinion of some member of the Administration. Mr. Bates’s communication is dated the 12th; the convention did not adjourn till the 25th of August. At any time prior to January 1, 1862, it was subject to be reassembled by its president or by the Governor.

      The election of October 24, by a vote of 18,408 to 781, decided in favor of a division of the Commonwealth.^[174] At the same time fifty-three delegates, representing forty-one counties, were chosen to frame a constitution for the proposed State. Of this convention John Hall was elected president and Ellery R. Hall secretary. The task before it, by no means an easy one, was to draft a fundamental law that would secure the approval of the people of western Virginia, of the Legislature of the restored State and of Congress. After a session of nearly three months it adjourned, February 18, 1862. Commissioners to convoke this body, should its work be recognized by Congress, had first been appointed. On December 3 preceding the name of the new State was changed to West Virginia.

      In the convention were many members who desired silence on the subject of slavery; others saw clearly that to ignore the cause of their present troubles would ensure a rejection of their work by Congress. This element felt assured that the temper of the national Legislature would not indulge the slave power by giving it two additional Senators besides an increase of strength in the Electoral College. There was also a sentiment which desired a postponement of the disturbing question until all others had first been determined. The friends of gradual emancipation were warned by leading Republicans in Congress that the constitution would not be recognized without a satisfactory provision on this subject. The “peculiar institution,” however, still possessed influence enough to defeat such a purpose, and the convention adjourned without inserting any expression concerning slavery. Still, the friends of emancipation did not despair. Mr. Parker, one of these, caused to be printed in Ohio instructions to their assemblymen to make the following provision a part of their constitution if the speedy admission of the new State into the Union should appear to require it: “All children born of slave mothers in this State, after the constitution goes into operation, shall be free, males at the age of twenty-eight years, and females at the age of eighteen years, and the children of such females to be free at birth.”^[175]

      This unauthorized action of Mr. Parker, in connection with appeals through the newspapers, was not without effect. At their county-seat the citizens of Upshur passed, among other resolutions, the following: “That we, the citizens of Upshur County, do endorse and accept the policy recommended by the present Chief Magistrate of the United States, (Abraham Lincoln) in his message of the 6th of March, 1862, to Congress, in regard to the emancipation of the slaves of the border States, as the policy that should be adopted by the people of West Virginia; and we do now pledge ourselves to advocate, defend and carry out the said policy, as the most promotive of our liberty, safety and prosperity in the Union.”^[176] Another resolution, adopted on this occasion, declared that the meeting expected the convention would have given the people an opportunity of expressing their sentiments on slavery in the proposed State. The convention, they complained, did not reflect the popular will.

      The Union men and the loyal press of other counties followed the example of Upshur by approving the measure or copying the “Instructions.” Thus at the time of voting on the constitution an informal poll on slavery was obtained in twenty counties.

      A faction in the convention proposed to annex the Shenandoah Valley with its large negro population; the success of such a plan, it was well understood, would ensure a rejection of the new State by Congress. To anticipate somewhat the events presently to be narrated it may be remarked at this point that the adversaries of the measure in Washington employed precisely the same tactics to defeat the movement for erecting an independent State.

      The new establishment under Pierpont was regarded as representing the old Commonwealth. On December 2, 1861, the reorganized Legislature again assembled. The Governor recommended a repeal of the stay laws and confiscation of the property of secessionists. He congratulated the people that they had contributed their full quota, about 6,000 men, to the Union army.

      The adversaries of slavery endeavored to obtain the consent of the restored

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