USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 20
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At 12.40 A. M. the east-bound mail train on the Bal- timore and Ohio railroad, with Conductor Andrew J. Phelps, Express Agent Jacob Cromwell, and William Wooley, engineer, in charge, reached Harper's Ferry. It was stopped and detained a considerable time, but was at length allowed to proceed, the conductor having been requested by Brown to state to the superintend- ent of the road that under no circumstances would another train be permitted to pass Harper's Ferry. So quietly had everything been managed, that the town was not aroused until daybreak, when it was discovered
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
that the Government buildings were in the possession of a band of insurgents, who, with armed sentinels, guarded every approach to the town, thus rendering its inhabitants prisoners. At daylight the workmen en- gaged on the buildings went as usual to their work and were made prisoners, and confined in a large building in the yard.
When the true state of affairs became known, the wildest excitement prevailed ; messengers were sent to the neighboring towns, and by noon military com- panies began to arrive. A volunteer company com- manded by Colonel Baylor, from Charlestown, was first upon the scene. They made a dash toward the bridge, and the insurgents took refuge in the Armory, where they held the attacking party in check. Later in the day two companies arrived from Martinsburg, and the Arsenal was at once stormed, and the building in which the workmen were imprisoned carried. A des- ultory fire was kept up until nightfall, by which Fon- taine Beckham, a railroad agent; Shepherd Hayward, colored porter at the railroad station ; Joseph Burley, of Harper's Ferry ; George Turner, a graduate of West Point, and Evan Dorsey and George Richard- son, of Martinsburg, were killed. The insurgents' dead were: Brown's son Oliver, Kagi, his secretary, and William H. Leeman. Among the prisoners held by the insurgents were : Armistead Ball, chief draughts- man at the Armory ; Benjamin Mills, Master at the Armory ; J. E. P. Dangerfield, Paymaster's clerk; Lewis Washington, and John Allstadt and his son.
Brown had taken the precaution to have the wires cut, so that the outside world should not be informed of his proceedings until he should have firmly estab-
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JOHN BROWN SUPPORTING HIS DYING SON.
315
HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
lished himself; but late in the evening of the 17th, mes- sengers bore dispatches beyond the damage to the wires, and transmitted them to Baltimore, Richmond, Washington and other points, at all of which the intel- ligence produced the wildest excitement, and through the South it amounted almost to a reign of terror. Upon its receipt at Washington, Colonel Robert E. Lee, with one hundred United States marines, was at once dispatched to the scene of action. Upon his arrival, Colonel Lee sent Lieutenant J. E. B. Stewart to demand an unconditional surrender, only promising the insurgents protection from immediate violence and trial under the civil law. But Brown refused to capitulate on other terms than these: That they should be per- mitted to march out with men and arms taking their prisoners with them; that they should proceed unpur- sued a specified distance from the town, when they would free their prisoners; the soldiers would then be permitted to pursue them and they would fight if they could not escape. Lieutenant Stewart could not con- sent to such terms, and an attack was at once made, which resulted in the capture of Brown and several of his fellows, all of whom were forced to surrender at the point of the bayonet.
Brown was so severely wounded that it was thought he would die soon after being brought out of the Armory, but instead he revived and was removed to a room where he received medical aid. Here on the next day he was visited by Governor Henry A. Wise, in answer to whose interrogatories, Brown said: "I rented the Kennedy farm, and here I ordered to be sent from the east all things required for my undertaking. The boxes were double, so no one could suspect the contents
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of them, not even the carters engaged in hauling them up from the wharf. All boxes and packages were directed to J. Smith & Son. I never had more than twenty-two men about the place, but I had it so arranged that I could arm at any time 1500 men with the fol- lowing arms : 290 Sharp's rifles, 200 Maynard's re- volvers, and 1000 spears and tomahawks. I would have armed the whites with the rifles and pistols, and the blacks with the spears, they not being sufficiently familiar with other arms. I had plenty of fixed ammu- nition and enough provisions, and had a good right to expect the aid of from 2000 to 5000 men at any time I wanted them. Help was promised me from Maryland, North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Canada. The blow was struck a little too soon. * * But I only regret I have failed in my designs ; I have no apologies to make or concessions to ask now."
Brown appeared quite exhausted, and the Governor on taking his leave told him he would better be pre- paring for death, to which Brown responded, that though the Governor might live fifteen years he would have a good deal to answer for at last, and that he would better be making preparations also.
An indictment, for treason and murder, was at once found against Brown, and he was closely confined in prison. The case came up for hearing in the Circuit Court at Charlestown on the 26th of October. Rich- ard Parker was on the bench at that time, James W. Campbell, High Sheriff, and John Avis, Jailer. Charles W. Harding was Prosecuting Attorney. Governor WVise appointed Andrew Hunter to assist the prosecu- tion. Judge Parker appointed George W. Hoge, George Lennott and Lawson Botts counsel for the
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
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defence. The last was killed at the second battle of Manassas while serving as Colonel of the Second Vir- ginia Confederate Regiment. It is worthy of note that his grandfather, Benjamin Botts, defended Aaron Burr from a similar charge.
The defence moved for a continuance because of the physical condition of the prisoner, but the motion was overruled, and a jury composed of the following named was empaneled : John C. Wiltshire, foreman, Richard Timberlake, Joseph Myers, Thomas Watson, Jr., Isaac Dust, John C. McClure, William Rightsteine, Jacob Miller, Thomas Osbourne, George W. Bowyer, George Tabb, and William A. Martin.
Throughout his trial Brown was unable to sit because of his wounds, and he lay upon a mattress. On the evening of the third day of the trial the jury returned a verdict of guilty and the prisoner was sentenced to be hanged December 16th. As a last resort his counsel sought executive clemency. The law of Virginia pro- vided that the Governor should not grant pardon to any one convicted of treason without the consent of the General Assembly. Governor Wise, by message notified that body of the petition of Brown's counsel, and it, on the 7th of December, by joint action re- solved : "That the said sentence is deemed plainly right, and no interposition of the authority of this legislature is deemed necessary or proper to delay the execution of the sentence of the court pronounced upon said persons."
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Brown now gave up all hope, if indeed he had ever entertained any, and during his last days letters of sympathy and condolence from eminent editors and politicians, North and South, poured in upon him.
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
At length the fatal day arrived ; the condemned man walked forth from the jail with a firm and steady step. Mounting the wagon which was to convey him to the gallows, he seated himself between Mr. Avis, the jailor, and Mr. Saddler, the undertaker. Arriving at the place of execution, he descended from the wagon and ascended the scaffold, the first man to stand upon it. The cap was drawn, the rope adjusted, the signal given, and the body was dangling in the air. When life was extinct, it was cut down and Mr. Saddler placed it in a walnut coffin. It was sent to North Elba, New York, where an eloquent eulogy was pronounced over it by Wendell Phillips. Henry A. Wise said that "Brown was as brave a man as ever headed an insurrection. He was the farthest possible remove from the ordinary ruffian, rake or madman." Notwithstanding this, that he died a fanatic, a victim to a delusion which entirely possessed him, none will deny.
Six of Brown's companions were also executed : Cook, Coppoc, Copeland and Green, on the 16th of December, and Stephens and Haslitt on the 16th of the following March. Thus closed the first scene in the drama of civil war.
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CHAPTER XX.
CONSTITUTIONS OF VIRGINIA.
The Constitution of 1776 .- The Property Qualification of the Right of Suffrage. -Unequal Taxation and Representation .- Opposition between the East and the West .- Conflicting Interests of the two Sections .- Constitutional Convention of 1829-30 .- Failure of the West to secure a Redress of Grievances .- The Vote upon the Constitution in the Trans-Allegheny Counties .- Increased Opposition between the two Sections .- The Question of the Expediency of a Division of the State .- The Constitutional Convention of 1850-1 .- The Delegates from the Western Counties .- Civil War the Opportunity for securing a Division of the State.
IN the year 1776, Virginia framed and adopted a Constitution by which she was governed for more than fifty years. It was the first document of the kind pre- pared by an American State, and, formed without a pre- cedent, it was but natural that in it should be found many imperfections. First among these were its two great distinctive features-Sectionalism and Aristocracy -both of which had their origin a century before the preparation of that Constitution. The unequal repre- sentation of the counties, which was the remote cause of its sectional character, was established in the year 1661, by the House of Burgesses, representing a popula- tion residing exclusively in the Tidewater region, and consequently at that time homogeneous in character and identical in interest. The limitation of suffrage to free- holders, which gave to it its Aristocratic character, was imposed on the Colony in 1677, by Royal instruction from Charles II., to the Governor of the Colony of Virginia "To take care that the members of the
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Assembly be elected only by freeholders, as being more agreeable to the customs of England," to which he might have added, " And more congenial also with monarchial institutions."
With the increase of population and the organiza- tion of counties west of the Blue Ridge, the principle was reversed, and what had been equal representation had become unequal representation, and while many of the western counties paid into the public treasury many times the amount paid by some of the eastern counties, yet the representation of both was the same. Loudoun county had a population twenty-six times as great as Warwick, and paid twenty times as much of the State taxes, while both had the same representation upon the floor of the General Assembly. What was true of these two counties was, by comparison, true of many others in the two sections. It was "taxation without representation "-one of the leading causes of the Revolution-and it is not surprising that it became a source of great dissatisfaction to the dwell- ers in the Valley, and to men who were felling the forests on the western slope of the Alleghenies and in the valleys toward the Ohio.
This basis of representation gave to the East the balance of power, and rendered the western section almost powerless in all matters of State legislation. In the Assembly in 1820, the former had one hundred and twenty-four members, while the latter had but eighty. The result was that the East secured to itself nearly everything in the character of internal improve- ments. There hundreds of thousands of dollars were appropriated to the building of canals and highways, while the delegate from the West returned to his con-
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
stituents, who were highly pleased, if he had been able to secure for them a few hundred dollars to be used in the construction of a mud turnpike. The public build- ings, with a single exception-the Western Lunatic Asylum at Staunton-were all east of the Blue Ridge.
But that which produced the greatest dissatisfaction, and caused deepest murmuring, was the restriction of the Right of Suffrage. Its exercise depended on a property qualification, and was restricted exclusively to the freeholders of the State. The doctrine-that " all men are born free and independent "-was declared in the first clause of the Bill of Rights, but while it was claimed to be true in theory, it was declared to be dan- gerous in application. In the East it was claimed that if extended it would put it into the power of those who would thus exercise it, and who were not slave owners, to oppress that species of property the more relent- lessly because of a peculiar power claimed for it in the Government, when, in truth, its guardianship sprang, in a degree, from the very number whose political power was to be diminished by making that property or taxes an element in the representative powers of the State.
The West claimed that the extension would vest the power in the hands of those who should hold it as the umpires between the varied and rival interests of the two sections. Under the Constitution then in force thousands of brave men, denied by it this inestimable privilege, formed the Virginia Line during the Revolu- tion, and when not engaged in defending her soil from the foot of the invader, were marching barefoot over the frozen snows of the North or wading the pestilen- tial swamps of the South. When the Second War
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
with the Briton came, other thousands marched to the field, who were treated as aliens in the land of their nativity, and that, too, by the very government they were giving their lives to defend. At the close of that struggle the bones of many brave men from the hills and valleys west of the Alleghenies, even from the banks of the Ohio, lay buried in the sands of Norfolk -bones of men who had never cast a ballot-deprived of that right because of its restriction to a property qualification. At the beginning of that war a company numbering seventy-four men marched to the field from Culpeper Court House, but two of whom had the right of suffrage. In behalf of these disfranchised defenders of Virginia, the orators of the West pleaded eloquently and long.
It was evident that a redress of grievances never could be secured under the existing Constitution, and as early as 1815, the question of a Constitutional Con- vention to revise that instrument began to be agitated. Much opposition was developed, and it was only after repeated failures that a bill was passed by the Assem- bly at the session of 1827-8, which provided for taking the sense of the voters upon the call of such a conven- tion. In the latter year, the polls were opened and the proposition carried by a vote of 21,896 to 16,646. Of the majority by far the greater number of votes com- posing it were cast in the western counties of the State, where the greatest opposition to the existing Constitu- tion had developed.
The Convention convened at Richmond October 5, 1829, and was the most remarkable body of men that had assembled in Virginia since that which ratified the Federal Compact of 1788. There sat James Madison
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
and James Monroe, ex-Presidents of the United States -John Randolph of Roanoke, and many others re- nowned for their wisdom and eloquence.
The body was composed of ninety-six members, of whom eighteen were from the territory now embraced within the limits of West Virginia. These were Wil- liam McCoy, of Pendleton county ; Andrew Beirne, of Monroe ; William Smith, of Greenbrier ; John Baxter, of Pocahontas; Thomas Griggs, Jr., and Hierome L. Opie, of Jefferson ; William Naylor and William Don- aldson of Hampshire; Elisha Boyd and Philip Pendle- ton, of Berkeley ; Edwin S. Duncan, of Harrison ; John Laidley, of Cabell; Lewis Summers, of Kanawha ; Adam See, of Randolph; Philip Doddridge and Alex- ander Campbell, of Brooke, and Charles S. Morgan and Eugenius M. Wilson, of Monongalia.
In the organization, no Western man was mentioned in connection with an official position. From the begin- ning of the session the conflicting interests of the two sections became more and more apparent; and the representatives from each were arranged in almost solid phalanx on opposite sides of nearly every ques- tion.
At length the work of the Convention was done, but none of the reforms sought had been secured. The Right of Suffrage was still restricted and the West de- nied equal representation. Thus the objectionable features of the old Constitution had all, or nearly all, been engrafted into the new. Upon the final vote in the Convention every delegate from the west side of the Alleghenies voted against it, with the single excep- tion of Philip Doddridge, who was unable to attend, being ill at his hotel. But it was in the popular vote
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
that the opposition of the two sections became most evident. The total vote was 41,618, of which 26,055 were for ratification and 15,563 for rejection. Every county east of the Blue Ridge, with one exception (Warwick), gave a majority for ratification ; while every county in what is now West Virginia, with two excep- tions (Jefferson and Hampshire), voted largely in favor of rejection. The result in the latter is thus shown :--
COUNTIES.
RATIFICATION.
REJECTION.
Berkeley,
95
161
Brooke,
O
371
Cabell,
5
334
Greenbrier,
34
464
Hampshire,
24I
211
Hardy,
63
I20
Harrison,
8
III2
Jefferson, .
243
53
Kanawha,
42
266
Lewis,
IO
546
Logan,
2
255
Mason,
3I
369
Monongalia,
305
460
Monroe,
19
451
Morgan,
29
156
Nicholas,
28
325
Ohio,
3
643
Pendleton,
58
219
Pocahontas,
9
228
Preston,
I21
357
Randolph,
4
565
Tyler, .
5
299
Wood,
28
410
Total,
1383
8375
Thus it is seen that of the total vote (9758) cast in these counties, 8375 were for rejection.
The new Constitution went into effect, and under it was added to the evils of the old-political ostracism in the West. Three-quarters of a century passed away, and in all that time but one man-General Andrew Moore, of Rockbridge-had ever been chosen from a county west of the Blue Ridge to represent Virginia
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
in the United States Senate, and in the same period but one man-Joseph Johnson, of Harrison-had ever been selected from a county west of the Alleghenies to fill the Gubernatorial Chair. Thus men in the West having political aspirations, saw in the supremacy of the East the impossibility of their realization, and smarting under what they deemed to be the greatest injustice, they began to dream of a time when condi- tions should exist under which a separation from the Mother State would be made possible, and in the ter- ritory thus separated they, themselves, should assist in establishing a new commonwealth. From the summit of the Alleghenies to the banks of the Ohio the expe- diency of State division was for years a theme of earnest discussion. Still, a large majority cherished a fond and patriotic love for the Old Dominion, of which the trans-Allegheny counties formed an integral part, and fondly hoped that all existing differences might yet be removed by legislative action. They demanded a revision of the Constitution, and in compliance with that demand, the Assembly, on the 9th of March, 1850, passed an act providing for the submission to the people the question of calling a convention to revise the Constitution. The vote in the following April resulted in favor of the convention, and the election of delegates occurred in the following August. The body convened on the 14th of October, 1850.
The delegates were chosen from the several Senato- rial districts. Those from the districts and parts of districts then lying in what is now West Virginia were as follows : From the District of Rockingham, Pendle- ton and Page, John Kenney, George E. Deneale, A. M. Newman and John Lionberger; from the District of
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
Shenandoah, Hardy and Warren, Green B. Samuels, William Seymour, Giles Cook and Samuel C. Wil- liams; from the District of Jefferson, Berkeley and Clark, Charles J. Faulkner, William Lucas, Dennis Murphy and Andrew Hunter; from the District of Frederick, Hampshire and Morgan, James E. Stewart, Thomas Sloan, Richard E. Byrd and Charles Blue ; from the District of Brooke, Ohio, Hancock and Mar- shall, Jefferson T. Martin, Zachariah Jacob, John Knote and Thomas M. Gally; from the District of Dod- dridge, Wetzel, Harrison, Tyler, Wood and Ritchie, Joseph Johnson, John F. Snodgrass, Gideon D. Cam- den and Peter G. Van Winkle; from the District of Marion, Preston, Monongalia and Taylor, William G. Brown, Edward J. Armstrong, Waitman T. Willey and James Neeson ; from the District of Randolph, Lewis, Barbour, Gilmer, Braxton, Wirt and Jackson, Samuel L. Hayes, Joseph Smith, John S. Carlisle and Thomas Bland; from the District of Cabell, Mason, Putnam, Wayne, Boone, Wyoming and Logan, Elisha W. McComas, Henry J. Fisher and James H. Ferguson ; from the District of Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Fayette, Raleigh, Nicholas and Kanawha, George W. Summers, Samuel Price, William Smith and Benjamin H. Smith ; from the District of Mercer, Giles, Tazewell and Mon- roe, Augustus A. Chapman, Allen T. Caperton and Albert G. Pendleton.
At last the work was done, and with its completion came a redress of many grievances. The Right of Suffrage was extended, taxation rendered more equit- able, and the basis of representation so remodeled as to secure to the West greater equality in the halls of legis- lation, and it now seemed that harmony would hence-
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
forth exist between the two sections. But civil war hovered near, and the mutterings were heard in the distance. The temple of Janus was to be opened wide, and blood was to deluge this fair land. The East favored secession, while the West opposed it. It was a question between loyalty to the State and loyalty to the Union. Again the breach was opened, and with the two sections thus arrayed against each other, the opportunity came for securing a division of the State.
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CHAPTER XXI.
VIRGINIA'S ORDINANCE OF SECESSION.
Expressions of Public Sentiment regarding Secession .- The Act of the Assembly Providing for a Convention .- Joint Resolution of the Same Body .- Election of Delegates to the Convention. - Meeting of the Same .- Members from that Portion of the State now Composing West Virginia .- Action Indicating Final Result .- Passage of the Ordinance of Secession .- Enthusiasm in the East .- Western Dele- gates Escape from Richmond .- Their Arrival at Home .- Determined Opposition in the West .- Action Taken at Wheeling .- Proceedings in Brooke County .- Committee Sent to Secure Arms .- Expressions of Public Sentiment in the West- ern Counties .- The Clarksburgh Convention.
WE have followed the fortunes of Virginia through the Old French and Indian War, through the stormy scenes of the Revolution, through two centuries of savage warfare, through the Second War with Great Britain, and have seen how her sons marched with alacrity to the distant fields of Mexico ; but now we are to see her plunged into a civil war unparalleled in the annals of nations. Owing to her geographical position she was destined to become the seat of war. On her soil was to be marshalled the contending hosts, and her mountains and valleys were to be crimsoned with the best blood of the Nation. Within her domain was to arise a new commonwealth, and the Mother and the Daughter were to reside upon the ancient estate.
The year 1860, found Virginia in a state of the wildest commotion, a condition unexampled in history, unless it be France in the early days of the French Revolution. Throughout the eastern part of the State meetings were held at which enthusiastic thousands heard from elo-
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HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA.
quent orators the portraiture of Virginia's future destiny when she should become the chief corner-stone of a new republic-when she should be the Old Dominion of a Southern Confederacy. Her people had recently wit- nessed the daring attempts of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and no one could foretell when or where the next blow against the institution of slavery would be struck. They believed that the recent insurrection was the result of a formidable conspiracy in the North, whose attempts upon slavery, though for the time stayed, would be renewed as quickly as the organiza- tion could recover from its recent failure at Harper's Ferry. Thus the people saw safety to Virginia nowhere but in a union with her Southern sisters in which all should share a common destiny.
But vastly different were the views entertained by the people west of the mountains. They regarded secession as being ruinous in its effects and maintained that safety could be found nowhere except beneath the folds of the flag of the Federal Republic to which they pledged undying attachment; and to these sentiments they hastened to give expression. Men of every polit- ical faith, though differing widely upon nearly all other issues, were united upon this-opposition to secession.
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