USA > West Virginia > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of West Virginia. Including reference articles on the industrial resources of the state, etc., etc. > Part 4
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"I hardly suppose it is necessary to controvert the idea before the people of West Virginia, that the Richmond Legislature since the 17th day of April, 1861, was the true and rightful Legislature of Virginia. Traitors may think so, but loyal men cannot think so. Those who
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
believe in the doctrine that a State has a right to secede from the Union may be excused for entertaining such an opinion, but those who believe that Virginia is still in the Union, and one of the United States, cannot tolerate such a political heresy. Why, sir, those men at Richmond were rebels. They had abjured their allegiance to the United States and sworn to support the Constitution of the so-called Con- federate States. They had levied war against the United States. Shall they be acknowledged as the rightful Legislature of Virginia? Not by me, sir, while God spares my life! Not by me while the old flag of my fathers floats over one foot of ground between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."
He quoted from the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated case of Luther vs. Borden, to establish the pro- position that Congress having admitted Sena- tors and Representatives under the government as restored at Wheeling, that it could alone be held to be the lawful and rightful government of Virginia; and its decision was "binding on every other department of the government." As to the objection that Congress was exercis- ing its power in an oppressive and unconstitu- tional way, by requiring a clause on the subject of slavery, he said that no law of very great im- portance was, perhaps, in all respects perfectly acceptable; the feelings and prejudices of all had to be consulted. While he would have preferred to have had the State admitted under the constitution as it was originally framed, yet he could not hesitate; the advantages of admission embarrassed by the change proposed by Congress, over its total rejection, were so overwhelming that there was no apology for hesitation. He cited in opposition to the argu- ment of Congressional dictation so many in- stances wherein it had been provided by Con- gress in the admission of States, that restrictions and qualifications had been imposed, that the precedents gave it the force of law, if it were not absolutely so in fact. In the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Territories north- west of the Ohio River, slavery was absolutely forbidden therein. The admission of Missouri was upon condition of a change absolute and imperative in relation to slavery. Likewise the State of Michigan was admitted with imposed conditions by Congress. Wisconsin was ad- mitted with explicit fundamental conditions in
the act in relation thereto, which were to be complied with before it took effect. The same was true of Texas, and finally of Kansas. The principal objection to the measure by its oppo- nents was, he thought, not because of alleged Congressional dictation, but because if the amendment were adopted West Virginia would become a free State. This branch of the sub- ject he discussed in the aspect it presented as a question of political economy; maintaining that slave labor ought not to be brought into com- petition with the white labor of West Virginia; that slavery was not adapted to the soil or cli- mate of West Virginia, and cited copious ex- tracts from the opinions of eminent Virginians in the colonial days and earlier history of the State, to show that the institution everywhere was pernicious in its effects. He arrayed the progress of the free States of the Union against the inactivity and dulness pervading those in which slavery existed, by pertinent columns of meaning statistics. He declared that the sepa- ration could not injure Virginia in the least, and would derange no mutual interest. No social interest, he said, would be disturbed, be- cause "in the East the tone of society is aristo- cratic; in the West it is democratic." This latter declaration he enforced in the following words:
"It was when speaking of what he called the 'peasantry' of the West, that Benjamin Watkins Leigh, in the constitutional convention of 1829, said that in political economy slaves fill exactly the same place as the white laborers of the West. 'What real share,' said this illustrious representative of the aristocratic sentiment of Eastern Virginia, 'What real share, so far as mind is concerned, does any man suppose the peasantry of the West can or will take in the affairs of State?' Yes, sir, this was the sen- timent of the Tidewater and Piedmont districts of the State at that time-an assumption of so- cial and political superiority based on slave labor and slave property. Nor has this senti- ment at all abated. It was at the bottom of the present rebellion."
On the subject of the provision relating to the debt of Virginia, he said that in the matter of assuming, by the new State, of a just and equitable proportion of it existing at the time of the ordinance of secession, "it was eminently right and proper;" that West Virginia would not deserve to be admitted into the Union on
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
any other terms. "Any attempt to evade it would be dishonorable." He deprecated any attempt to bring the issues of party politics into the arena in determining this great ques- tion before and by the people, as it was under- stood the opponents of the movement were seeking to do. In the spirit born of his native hills, and which seemed always ready to leap from his lips whenever the recollection of east- ern domination rose up before him, he closed his exhaustive argument in this language:
"Sir, I do feel that the long and chilly night of western destitution and demoralization is passing away forever; and that a new era is dawning upon us-an era of light and life which shall quicken the long dorinant energies of our people, reveal and develop the abounding treas- ures everywhere hidden beneath our mountains and valleys, attract labor and capital and skill from every quarter of the land, and elevate us to that condition of moral, intellectual, and phy- sical prosperity and happiness which we have a right to enjoy. ... Why should we hesitate to accept the great advantages before us? We have complied with every requisition of the law. We have fulfilled every constitutional obliga- tion. And now wealth, and popular education, and material and moral progress and develop- ment, and political equality and prosperity in every department of political economy, so long withheld from us, are all within our grasp. The 'golden moment' has come at last. If we fail to improve it we shall deserve the degradation in which our folly will have forever involved us."
The convention accepted the amendment, and the people by a popular vote ratified it. The proclamation of President Lincoln was the final act which admitted the people of West Virginia in their sovereign capacity into the Union of States; which admission dates from the 20th of June, 1863. While these things were taking place in Congress, Mr. Willey responded, as usual, to the demands upon him for popular addresses. On July 4, 1862, he addressed the 9Ist Pennsylvania Regiment at its encampment near Alexandria. He delivered an address at the forty-first anniversary of the Philadelphia Conference Missionary Society. On this occa- sion he gave utterance to this sentiment: " To my mind the most sublime object under heaven ever since the fall, we have in the conversion of a sinner." At another meeting in Philadelphia about the same period he electrified his audi- ence by his glowing oratory as he pointed out
the powerful influence of the Christian's Bible over men's minds in the righteous government of the world: and that through it the cause of justice and public liberty which the nation was struggling to promote must ultimately triumph, because it was just, and God would never desert the right. The chronicler of this meeting says that at this point "the enthusiasm of the audi- ence boiled over and found vent in fairly shout- ing 'The Star Spangled Banner." In Decem- ber, 1862, he delivered a missionary speech in Brooklyn; and again at Wesley Chapel in Wash- ington, on the 11th of January, 1863. On the assembling of the first Legislature of West Vir- ginia, Mr. Willey was elected as one of its Sen- ators in Congress, on the 4th day of August, 1863, on the first ballot, receiving fifty votes out of sixty-eight. As illustrating the delicacy of his views upon the appointment to such high and honorable trusts, it should be said that he remained away from the body during the pen- dency of the question and sedulously avoided any personal canvass as unbecoming. With his col- league, the Hon. P. G. Van Winkle, of Parkers- burg, he took his seat in the United States Senate, Monday, December 7, 1863. On draw- ing the lot usual under such circumstances, Mr. Willey drew the short term of two years. In January, 1864, Mr. Willey, by invitation, ad- dressed a mass meeting at the Musical Fund Hall in Brooklyn on the occasion of the forty- fifth anniversary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His address was thus mentioned in the organ of the society :
"Hon. W. T. Willey, Senator from West Vir- ginia, next addressed the vast audience on the material and moral result of the great Gospel Mission to man. His comparison of the differ- ent civilizations with Christian civilization was a triumphant vindication of the divine origin of Christianity, judging it by its fruits even in this world. It was not an unauthorized view of the Gospel Mission, but it was an unusual view, and one that required knowledge and power to bring it out clearly. His comparison of ancient and modern science, of ancient and modern literature, was as just as it was mas- terly. The whole address was a luminous com- mentary on the first of the passage, 'Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.' "
On the 22d of March, 1864, Mr. Willey made a speech in the Senate in favor of the constitu-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
tional amendment abolishing slavery. In entire harmony with his character he is always found upon the side of order and precedent. He argued for the passage of the amendment, be- cause it then became a part of the organic law, which defied the turbulence of the times or the sophistries of the demagogue. Nothing, he maintained, could justify a violent step outside of the obligations of the national Constitution. Of his speech on this occasion Forney's Wash- ington Chronicle said: "The speech of Senator Willey was indeed an effort of commanding ability, and will long be remembered and profit- ably read by patriotic men." Mr. Willey voted for the amendment on its final passage. In May, 1864, Mr. Willey addressed the Laymen's Convention, assembled at Philadelphia for the purpose of considering the propriety and expe- diency of admitting lay delegates into the legis- lative councils of the M. E. Church. Of this address the Methodist, of New York, said that "it was a notable feature of the convention." In September following he delivered the annual address before the Union and Philomathean societies of Waynesburg (Pa ) College. And dur- ing the same fall he canvassed a large part of the new State for the Republican Presidential ticket of Lincoln and Johnson. January 31, 1865, he was again elected to the Senate, this time for six years: being the only person nom- inated in either branch of the Legislature, and receiving fifty-three out of sixty-nine votes. The bill coming up on the 27th of June, 1866, to extend the right of suffrage to negroes in the District of Columbia, Mr. Willey offered an amendment confining the right to such as could read and who could write their names, and in support of his view made a speech which was published in pamphlet form. He took an active part in the gubernatorial campaign that fall in his State, at which Gov. A. I. Boreman was again elected, having been previously chosen the first Governor of West Virginia. The fol- lowing winter, in connection with President Garfield, he addressed, by special invitation, the meeting of the managers and friends of " The Protestant Orphan Asylum," at the Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington. In March, 1867, by invitation, he addressed the Sabbath- School Association of the Philadelphia Confer- ence at its anniversary, held at Harrisburg, on
the subject of "The Relation of the Sabbath- school to the Welfare of the State." The fol- lowing year he threw himself with all his fervor into the presidential canvass which resulted in the first election of Gen. U. S. Grant. After this election he was suggested in several papers, among others by the Wheeling Intelligencer, as a proper person for a cabinet position. Among other questions which excited great attention about this period was that of compensation to Southern loyalists for their private property taken for public use owing to the late rebellion. In March, 1870, Mr. Willey made a speech upon the subject, in favor of compensation. In the spring of 1870, Mr. Willey introduced a bill into the Senate, for a division of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the several States, for educational purposes. In this he was the pioneer of all the movements that have since been made in this direction. He addressed the Senate on the subject on the 26th of April, 1871, in some carefully prepared remarks, which are replete with ripe statesmanship and most valu- able suggestions. He maintained that the duty of the hour required that the mass of newly en- franchised persons upon whom the mantle of citizenship had been cast by events growing out ' of the war should be prepared for an intelli- gent exercise of their newly acquired rights. It was not alone from the ignorance of the African race that dangers were to be feared. Mr. Willey showed that there were 467, 023 white voters, according to the census of 1860, who could neither read nor write. He thought the policy of American statesmen looked too much to the development of the exclusively material- istic-the physical resources of the nation. These, he said, were not the only, indeed not the principal, elements of national welfare. The true statesman and the wise political econ- omist look more to the intellectual and moral. Here they find the only safe principles which must underlie all abiding national prosperity and glory. Moreover, looking only to the de- velopment and advancement of material inter- ests, it was demonstrated that the general edu- cation of the people would be the most efficient and reliable basis of success. A philosophic contemplation of the future of the country must inspire the gravest apprehensions in the mind of every thoughtful patriot. The territory of
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
the nation was expanding. Already every
zone almost to the tropic, was included in the variety of climate, from the borders of the frigid
realm. History, physiology, philosophy ad-
monished of the effects of climate on the char-
acter, habits, passions, if not indeed on the
opinions of men. There was a vast diversity of
by the large influx of foreign immigration, cords of heterogeneous civilization introduced Differences of race and language and the dis- engendering internal antagonisms of policy. economical interests that would be constantly
would multiply the disturbing influences like-
African were already here, and Asia was begin- The European and ly to agitate the country.
This effort was most highly commended by sev- ties of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. delivered the annual oration before the socie- interest and profit." In July, 1870, Mr. Willey others, who had listened to him with evident the hearty congratulations of Mr. Sumner and lows: " When Mr. Willey concluded he received spoke of it at some length, concluding as fol- ful who heard and read it. The Boston Journal tion, attracted much attention from the thought- His speech, which was the pioneer in this direc- ning to pour her hordes upon the Pacific Coast.
Committee of the Republican party, he can- ent. At the solicitation of the Central Executive eral of the distinguished persons who were pres-
vassed the State in the fall of this year. It was
in this campaign that the political scale in West
he entered the field. His Senatorial life ended Willey intimated to his political allies soon after Virginia turned, which pending event Mr.
March 3, 1871, his term expiring at three o'clock
that he cordially supported the general policy torial career it can be said, in general terms, P.M., on that day. During Mr. Willey's Sena-
of the Republican party. Especially is this so
on all questions relating to the suppression of
the Rebellion. With him this was a duty patri-
When the questions were simply of a judicial otically and religiously paramount to all others.
character, he voted against the majority if his judgment so dictated. The notable instances in which he differed from his political friends
retain his seat. While in the Senate he was a right of Senator Stockton, of New Jersey, to expel Senator Bright, of Indiana; and on the in this class of cases, were on the resolution to
several years was chairman of the Committee of Columbia; Naval Affairs; on Claims; and for member of the Committee on Pensions; District
foes alike. His integrity of character won the made him a favorite with partisan friends and sense of personal pride. His urbane manners creditable to his State, and gratifying to his Mr. Willey among his fellow Senators was highly on Patents and Patent Office. The standing of
early a man of mark in a body so remarkable scholarly acquirements and research made him purpose to arrive at the very truth. His designed to evince any other than an honest from others, were never expressed in a manner esteem of all, for his views, however variant
for eminence in knowledge and learning. No
better conception of his position can be advanced
than that drawn by the skilful genius of one
conversation with the writer he remarked that tant factor in the history of the nation. In a net minister, and whose career is a very impor- who subsequently became a Senator and Cabi- tives during the period of his senatorial life, who was a member of the House of Representa-
Mr. Willey was a member of that small circle
of persons who in every deliberative body are
known and recognized as wise men; and are consulted in matters of great moment for their safe and discreet counsel. Once again, after a
stormy and laborious era, Mr. Willey is in the
Society of West Virginia on the Geographical read an elaborate paper before the Historical May of the same year. In June following, he soldiers' graves at Morgantown, on the 30th of delivered the address at the decoration of the home in March, 1871. He for the second time of his profession immediately on his return private walks of life. He resumed the practice
History of Monongalia County. In July of the
the editor, opposing the call for a convention West Virginian at Fairmont, at the request of same year, he wrote a series of articles to the
to amend the Constitution of the State. The
est in all the proceedings. When the Committee but maintained a dignified and watchful inter- He took no very active part in its deliberations, people of his county to represent them therein. without his solicitation, he was called by the convention was called by a popular vote, and,
on Taxation and Finance reported to the body the provisions as now found in sections five and
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
.
six of Article X. of the Constitution, and these had been adopted in committee of the whole, Mr. Willey not deeming them sufficiently ex- plicit on the subject of the unsettled financial status existing between the States of Virginia and West Virginia, offered to amend the report by adding thereto as an additional section to the article the following :
" An equitable proportion of the public debt of the Commonwealth of Virginia, prior to the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, shall be assumed by this State; and the Legislature shall ascer- tain the same as soon as may be practicable, and provide for the payment thereof."
This was the clause in the Constitution of 1863, under which the State had been admitted into the Union, and Mr. Willey strenuously maintained that a sense of fairness and political integrity required the people of the State to retain and fully recognize this obligatory provi- sion. The amendment was rejected by a vote of twenty ayes to forty-six noes. When the re- port of the Committee on Bill of Rights and Elections was under consideration, he moved to amend the amendment of the committee of the whole by inserting at the end of section sixteen which, as reported, closed thus, "The people of this State have the inherent, sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police thereof," these words: "But every citi- zen of the State owes paramount allegiance to the Government of the United States." This amendment was also rejected, by a vote of seven to fifty-six. The convention did not com- plete its work and adjourn until the 9th day of April, 1872, but Mr. Willey, being in delicate health, asked leave of absence for the remainder of the session on the 30th of March previous, which was reluctantly but unanimously granted. He then arose and in a very impressive manner addressed the body, saying among other things:
"Mr. President, the past cannot be recalled; it has gone into the province of history, by whose impartial record all men and all parties must ultimately abide. While we may not wisely reject the lessons it would teach to all thoughtful men, yet our especial duties and re- sponsibilities relate to the present and the future. But the interests of neither the present nor the future will be promoted by cherishing needless animosities, personal or political. For myself, I desire to see all the causes of such
strife removed-forever removed. Sir, I love peace and those moral and intellectual achieve- ments which can be accomplished only in times of peace. I abhor war and all its inseparable atrocities; and to-day and here, on the eve of sundering those personal and social relations with the members of this body, which, although they have been brief, have been uniformly cor- dial and kind, I can and do, with the deepest sincerity of heart, repeat the language put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Henry IV. of England:
"'No more the thirsty entrance of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces : those opposed eyes, Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred- Did lately meet in the intestine shock And furious close of civil butchery, Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks, March all one way; and be no more opposed Against kindred, and allies ; The edge of war, like an ill sheathed knife, No more shall cut his master.'
" In all free governments, political parties are inevitable; perhaps they are necessary. Prop- erly controlled, they contribute to the public welfare; unregulated by reason and patriotism, they will again, as they have done in time past, lead to the direst calamities. Mr. President and gentlemen of the Convention, henceforth let our only strife be the noble emulation of the states- man, seeking who can best promote the peace and advance the prosperity of our beloved young State, and of our common country. I now per- form what I have no doubt will be my last act of public life, in offering the resolutions which I send to the chair: 'Resolved, That in the opin- ion of this convention, without distinction of parties, the time has come when it would be wise and judicious that all political disabilities growing out of any connection with the late civil war should cease in West Virginia; and our Senators and Representatives in the Con- gress of the United States are hereby requested to use their influence in securing the passage of an act of Congress removing all such disabili- ties. Resolved, That copies of the foregoing res- olution, with the ayes and noes recorded in the vote thereon, be transmitted by the President of this Convention to our Senators and Repre- sentatives in Congress, to be laid before the Houses to which they respectively belong.'"
The resolutions were unanimously adopted. The remarks and the resolutions are entirely in accord with the magnanimity of Mr. Willey's character, and were a fitting close to a career of great activity in a field in which the fiercest human passions had been stirred, and had been
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
allayed in blood, but over which the sense of duty which fills the superior mind was the guid- ing star, although tears might be shed during its exercise. Although practically retired from the political arena, Mr. Willey was induced by the Central Committee of his party to take some part in the Presidential campaign of 1872, mak- ing several speeches at prominent points in the State. He was nominated for Congress at the Cranberry convention in 1874, against his ex- press will, and declined. During the following years, until 1876, he was busily engaged in the practice of his profession in Monongalia and surrounding counties. He did not, however, relinquish his literary labors and studies, but delivered addresses before religious and other bodies on various subjects; his chief lectures being "Wesleyan Hymnology versus Doggerel;" and his sketch of the life of Philip Doddridge, his law preceptor, before the West Virginia Historical Society. In 1876, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Cin- cinnati, and was chairman of the delegation from his State. He voted steadily and to the end for the nomination of the Hon. James G. Blaine of Maine. He subsequently took a part in the canvass which resulted in the election of President R. B. Hayes. In the same year he was appointed one of the six laymen by the Board of Bishops of the M. E. Church, to act in conjunction with six ministers, to confer with other Methodist churches concerning questions of fraternity and union. In 1878, he delivered the fourth in the series of lectures at the West Virginia University, his subject being “The Relation of Law to Civil Liberty;" which he subsequently repeated by request before the Philomathean Society at Kingwood. In May of the same year, he delivered the address on Decoration day at the Grafton National Ceme- tery. He was a delegate to the General Confer- ence of the M. E. Church which met at Cincinnati in 1880, and spent the month of May attending its sessions. He participated in the discussions pertaining to the report of the Cape May com- mission, which had reported an adjustment of the conflicting claims of the M. E. Church and the M. E. Church South, in relation to the church property in the South. He insisted upon the maintenance of the terms of the agreement made by the commission on behalf of the
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