USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 21
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The first public meeting for the purpose of expressing determination to adhere to the Union was held in Pres- ton county on the 12th day of November, 1860. So unanimous in feeling were the men composing it, that a resolution was adopted declaring, "that any attempt upon the part of the State to secede will meet with the unqualified disapprobation of the people of the county."
Twelve days later, November 24th, a similar meeting was held in Harrison county, and it was declared that
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" The people will first exhaust all constitutional reme- dies for redress before they will resort to any violent measures ; that the ballot box is the only medium known to the Constitution for a redress of grievances, and to it alone we will appeal ; that it is the duty of all citizens to uphold and support the lawfully constituted authorities."
Two days afterward, November 26th, the people of Monongalia county assembled at Morgantown, and headed by the local leaders of all the great political parties, resolved unanimously " that the election of the candidates of the Republican party does not justify secession, and the union of the States is the best guarantee for the present and future welfare of the people."
Actuated by a like spirit, similar resolutions were adopted by the people of Taylor county on the 3d of December following, by the citizens of Wheeling on the 14th of the same month, and by the people of Mason county assembled at Point Pleasant, January 7, 1861.
Virginia hesitated long. On the north and west lay the States still composing the Federal Union, while on the South lay those which had cast their fortunes with the Confederacy. But at length the time for final action came. Her Governor, John Letcher, issued a procla- mation convening the Assembly in extra session, and, in obedience to the summons, that body convened January 7, 1861, and then began the stormiest session in its history. Seven days later, a bill was passed calling for a Convention of the people of Virginia, the delegates of which were to be chosen in the manner prescribed for the election of members of the Assembly. The
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body was to consist of one hundred and fifty-two mem- bers. This action on the part of the Assembly was without a precedent in the annals of the Common- wealth. Never before had a call of a Convention been made, except by the voice of the people, but now they were not permitted to vote upon the question. The act, however, provided that the action of the Convention should be submitted to them for ratification or rejection. On the 21st of January the Assembly declared by Joint Resolution that if all efforts failed to reconcile the exist- ing differences between the two sections of the country, "it is the duty of Virginia to unite her destiny with the slaveholding States of the South."
All was haste and confusion. The delegates were elected on the 4th of February, and Wednesday morn- ing, the 13th of the same month, witnessed a memor- able scene in and around the old State House at Rich- mond. There Virginia had convened her renowned jurists, profoundest thinkers and literary characters. There sat ex-President John Tyler, Henry A. Wise, ex-Governor of the Commonwealth, and many others who had held high positions in the councils of the State and Nation.
It was a time fraught with matters of the gravest importance, and the people west of the mountains sent their wisest statesmen over the Blue Ridge. From the counties then existing and now within the confines of West Virginia, the delegates were as follows: From Barbour county, Samuel Woods ; Berkeley, Edmond Pendleton and Allen C. Hammond ; Braxton and Nicholas, B. W. Byrne ; Brooke, Campbell Tarr ; Cabell, William McComas; Doddridge and Tyler, Chapman J. Stuart ; Fayette and Raleigh, Henry L.
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Gillespie ; Gilmer and Wirt, C. B. Conrad ; Greenbrier, Samuel Price; Hampshire, Edmond M. Armstrong and David Pugh; Hancock, George McC. Porter; Hardy, Thomas Maslin ; Harrison, John S. Carlisle and Benjamin Wilson , Jackson and Roane, Franklin P. Turner; Jefferson, Alfred M. Barbour and Logan Osburn ; Kanawha, George W. Summers and Spicer Patrick, Sr .; Lewis, Caleb Bogess ; Logan, Boone and Wyoming, James Lawson ; Marion, Alpheus S. Hay- mond and Ephraim B. Hall ; Marshall, James Burley ; Mason, James H. Couch, Sr .; Mercer, Napoleon B. French ; Monongalia, Waitman T. Willey and Marshall M. Dent ; Monroe, Allen T. Caperton and John Echols ; Morgan, Johnson Orrick; Ohio, Sherard Clemens and Chester D. Hubbard; Pocahontas, Paul McNeil ; Preston, William G. Brown and James C. McGrew ; Putnam, James W. Hoge; Ritchie, Cyrus Hall; Ran- dolph and Tucker, J. N. Hughes ; Taylor, John S. Bur- dette ; Upshur, George W. Berlin ; Wetzel, L. S. Hall ; Wood, John J. Jackson ; Wayne, Burwell Spurlock.
The Convention organized by electing John Janney, a delegate from Loudon county, President, and John L. Eubank, of the city of Richmond, Secretary. A committee on Federal Relations was appointed, consist- ing of Robert Conrad, A. H. H. Stewart, Henry A. Wise, Robert E. Scott, W. B. Preston, Lewis L. Har- vie, Sherard Clemens, W. H. McFarland, William McComas, R. L. Montague, Samuel Price, Valentine W. Southall, Waitman T. Willey, James C. Bruce, W. W. Boyd, James Barbour, S. C. Williams, William C. Rives, Samuel McD. Moore, George Blow, Jr., and Peter C. Johnson. Stewart and Clemens requested to be and were excused from serving.
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From the first it was evident what the final result would be. On the 14th, the second day, the creden- tials of the Confederate Commissioners-John S. Pres- ton, from South Carolina; Henry L. Benning, from Georgia, and Fulton Anderson, from Mississippi- were received. On the 18th the two latter were heard, and both, in speeches resplendent with rhetori- cal flourish and literary excellence, portrayed the danger of Virginia remaining longer with the North, and held up to view a new government of a new nation, of which Virginia, should she pass an Ordinance of Seces- sion, would become the chief corner-stone. The next day the commissioner from South Carolina declared that the people of his State believed the Union un- natural, and that no human force, no sanctity of human touch, could ever compel them to again unite with the people of the North. No such union could ever be effected unless the economy of God were changed.
On the 20th, a committee made a partial report showing that returns from all the counties of the State except sixteen had been received, and resulted in a majority of 52,857 in favor of submitting the action of the Convention to the people. On the 26th William L. Goggin, a delegate from Bedford county, delivered an eloquent oration, in which he denied the Right of Secession, but closed with the declaration that if Vir- ginia went, he would go with her. March 2d, John Goode, Jr., also a delegate from Bedford, offered a reso- lution asserting that as the power delegated to the General Government by Virginia had been perverted to her injury, therefore every consideration of duty, interest, honor and patriotism required that Virginia
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should declare her connection with the Government to be dissolved.
On the 9th, the Committee on Federal Relations made a lengthy report, in which it was set forth that any State had a constitutional right to withdraw from the Union whenever the people of that State chose to do so. On the 19th, the same committee reported a series of proposed amendments to the Federal Con- stitution, such as would be satisfactory to the people of the South. By these, Involuntary Servitude, except for crime, was to be prohibited north of 36° 30', but should not be prohibited by Congress or any Territo- rial legislation south of that line ; the importation of slaves from places beyond the limits of the United States was to be prohibited; the granting of the elec- tive franchise and right to hold office by persons of the African race was forbidden. April 6th, Wood Bouldin, a delegate from Charlotte, offered a substitute declar- ing that the independence of the seceded States should be acknowledged without delay, but it was lost-yeas, 68 ; nays, 71. On the 9th Henry A. Wise submitted a resolution to the effect that Virginia recognizes the independence of the Seceded States, which was adopted -yeas, 120 ; nays, 20.
At length the crisis came. On the 17th the Conven- tion went into secret session. Wise addressed the body, and said that events were then transpiring which caused a hush to come over his soul. So they were. It was then a blaze of fire around Fort Sumter ; the State authorities were preparing to seize the Federal navy-yard and property at Norfolk, and a force of nearly two thousand State troops, collected in the Shenandoah Valley, and doing the bidding of a mys-
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terious power, were at that hour attempting the seizure of the Government Armory and Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but the garrison destroyed most of the valuable property, and firing the buildings, fled into Maryland. At 1.30 P. M., Wednesday, the vote was taken, and the Ordinance of Secession was passed-yeas, 88; nays, 55.
Upon the announcement of the result, all East Vir- ginia was wild with excitement. That night bonfires illumined the public squares of Richmond and Peters- burg, and at the interior towns the booming of artillery, fired in celebration of the event, died away in pro- longed echoes along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge. From the mountains to the sea all was enthu- siasm. But how different was the scene on the west side of the Alleghenies. There anxious thousands impatiently awaited intelligence from the Capital city on the James. But none came, for there was at that time but one telegraph line connecting the east with the west, and that night it was broken at Harper's Ferry. On the streets of Morgantown, Clarksburg. Weston, and other interior towns, earnest men looked each other in the face only to see reflected back the feelings which agitated their own breasts. Nothing definite could be known in many of the counties until the arrival home of the delegates. Then a thrill of excitement shook the country from the Alleghenies to the Ohio, and a few days sufficed to fan into flame the jealousies of other years.
The following is the text of the Ordinance of Seces- sion as it passed the Convention :--
AN ORDINANCE, To repeal the ratification of the
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Constitution of the United States by the State of Vir- ginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under the said Constitution.
THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA, in their ratification of the Constitution of America, adopted by them in conven- tion on the 25th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the Constitu- tion were derived from the people of the United States, and might be resumed whenever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Fed- eral Government having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA, but the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States.
Now, therefore, we, the People of Virginia, do de- clare and ordain, That the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the 25th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- dred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the . United States was ratified, and all the acts of the Gen- eral Assembly of this State ratifying or adopting amendments to said Constitution are hereby repealed and abrogated ; that the union between the State of Virginia and the States under the Constitution afore- said is hereby dissolved, and the State of Virginia is in full possession and exercise of all the rights of sove- reignty which belong and appertain to a free and inde- pendent State. And they do further declare that said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.
This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the votes of the people of this State cast at a poll to be taken thereon
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on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted.
Done in Convention, in the city of Richmond, on the 17th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Attest : JNO. L. EUBANK, Secretary of the Convention.
Of the forty-six delegates from the territory now comprising West Virginia, twenty-nine voted against it, nine for it, seven were absent and one excused. Those who voted against it hastened to leave the city, and the same evening Chester D. Hubbard and Sherard Clem- ens, of Ohio County ; John S. Carlisle, of Harrison ; Marshall M. Dent, of Monongalia; John S. Burdette, of Taylor; Campbell Tarr, of Brooke, and George McC. Porter, took the first train north, and were in Washington City the next morning. Here they sepa- rated, Hubbard and Clemens, the latter of whom was still suffering from a wound received in a duel with O. Jennings Wise, proceeded to Baltimore, and thence by way of Harrisburg and Pittsburg to Wheeling, where they arrived early Friday morning, April 19th. Had they delayed a few days longer at Richmond, it is probable that they would have been detained, for those who remained until the next day, among them Wait- man T. Willey, William G. Brown and James Burley, were required to obtain passes from the Governor; but the fact that so many had previously left, rendered it useless to detain others, and the permits were readily obtained. If, however, all had still been there, it is probable that they would not have been permitted to
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leave, for it would have been an easy matter, and that without any violation of law or the rights of citizens, to have instructed the Sergeant-at-Arms to keep them under surveillance during the pleasure of the Conven- tion. What effect this would have had upon the new State movement it is difficult to say.
On Friday Sherard Clemens was removed to his resi- dence, a short distance in the country, and Saturday was spent by Union men of Wheeling in consultation as to what was to be done in the emergency, and in an unsuccessful effort to obtain arms from the armory at Pittsburgh. At night a meeting of Union men, for only such had been notified, was held at the American Hall, near the Fifth Ward Market. It was filled to its utmost capacity, and Chester D. Hubbard gave a faith- ful account of his stewardship, together with an account of the proceedings of the Richmond Convention. He urged the organization of Union men into companies, so that they could make their work effective. He then urged that, notwithstanding the next day was the Sab- bath, and he had been taught from his childhood to respect it, the exigencies were such as to admit of no delay, and advised the formation of companies on that day. Accordingly two companies were formed, one at the American Hall and the other at the Hose House in the Fourth Ward. Officers were elected, and all were sworn with uplifted hand "To support the Constitution of the United States and the Old Flag." It was with difficulty that a Virginia official could be found to administer the oath, but at length A. S. Hal- lowell did it. It was the first oath ever administered on the soil of Virginia from which the obligation to sup- port the Constitution of the State was omitted.
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Monday morning, the 22d, the Intelligencer published a notice of the meeting and also of the organization of the companies, and the mayor of the city waited upon C. D. Hubbard to inquire what they were going to do. " Nothing," was the reply, "but keep the peace of the city." In the afternoon of that day a citizens' meeting was held at the Court House, and a resolution was offered urging the newly formed companies to unite with the police of the city, but the meeting adjourned without action. The next morning the resolution was again taken up, but so persistently opposed by the Union men, that a substitute was offered by Daniel Lamb, to the effect " That we pledge ourselves to do all we can to preserve the peace and order of the city, and to protect the persons and property of all persons whomsoever against any lawlessness or mob violence," which was adopted.
Meanwhile, the organization of companies continued in all parts of the city, and on Saturday the 27th, the officers of ten companies met at the Guard's Hose House and effected a regimental organization by elect- ing the following officers : Chester D. Hubbard, Col- onel; Thomas H. Logan, Lieutenant-Colonel ; Andrew Wilson and S. H. Woodward, Majors, and James H. Paxton, Adjutant. The regiment had no arms or equipments except such as the men could themselves furnish, but notwithstanding, they held the city under their control and made possible the later proceedings which led to the formation of the State; and when the first regiment was being formed for active service, two of these companies, the "Rough and Ready Rifles," Captain A. H. Britt, and the "Iron Guards," Captain E. W. Stephens, enlisted almost to a man, and from
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the remainder a sufficient number were enrolled to form three companies of the regiment which went to the field under Colonel B. F. Kelley.
While these events were transpiring in Wheeling, Campbell Tarr, the delegate from Brooke county to the Richmond Convention, reached home accompanied by John S. Carlisle, of Harrison county, and they were relating to interested hearers at Wellsburg and else- where, their recent experience. Both urged all lovers of the Union to make preparations for resistance of the Secession movement, not only at the ballot-box but by arms. Arms they had not, and to procure them a large assemblage of the people of Brooke and Han- cock counties at Wellsburg, appointed, as a committee to go to Washington and procure arms the following named: Campbell Tarr, Adam Kuhn, Joseph Apple- gate and David Flemming. This committee at once left for the National Capital, and on their way, called on Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, to whom they stated that their section of the State, in opposition to the wishes of its inhabitants, would be dragged out of the Union. He expressed sympathy for them on be- half of the people of Pennsylvania, and promised them armed assistance should they need it. Arriving in Washington, they called upon E. M. Stanton, with whom they were acquainted, he having been a resident of their neighboring town of Steubenville. Through him they were introduced to the Secretary of War, to whom they explained the object of their mission. The Secretary hesitated to comply with their request, but Stanton became security for them, and the committee joyfully secured two thousand stand of rifles with suit- able ammunition, and returned to their friends, who,
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thus supplied, determined to resist both invasion and all efforts to carry them out of the Union. These arms, except a small number retained at Wellsburg, were afterward sent to Wheeling, and part were used in equipping the Ist West Virginia Federal Regiment.
But the movement was not confined to the Panhandle counties. The excitement grew apace in other sec- tions of the State. On the 17th of April, the day on which the Ordinance of Secession was passed, the citizens of Monongalia County convened at Morgan- town, and in anticipation of the action of the Conven- tion at Richmond, of which they had not yet learned, adopted a lengthy series of resolutions, declaring that " The time had come when every friend of the Union should rally to the support of the Flag of his country and defend the same; that the people of Monongalia, regardless of past party affiliations, hereby enter their solemn protest against the Secession of the State ; that we owe undying fidelity to the Federal Union, and that we will cling to it despite the efforts of traitors to pre- cipitate us into the gulf of secession and consequent ruin ; that the idea of being thus severed from the Union of our fathers and attached to a Southern Confederacy is repulsive to every feeling and instinct of patriotism, and that we are unalterably opposed to such a measure; and further, that Western Vir- ginia has patiently submitted to and borne up under the oppressive policy of Eastern Virginia for the last half century, as is shown in her denial to us of equal representation, and her refusal to bear an equal share of taxation ; that now the measure of oppression is . full, and if, as she claims, Secession is the only remedy for all real or supposed wrongs, then the day is near
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when the West will arise in the majesty of its strength and repudiating its oppressors will dissolve all civil and political connection with the East and remain firmly under the Stars and Stripes." Then a vote of thanks to Waitman T. Willey and Marshall M. Dent, their representatives in the Richmond Convention, was passed, and they were instructed, in the event of the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, to propose a division of the State. Thus came from the people of Monongalia the first resolution relative to the forma- tion of a new State. But they were soon followed by expressions of a similar sentiment, for on the 22d of April the people of Wetzel, assembled in mass meet- ing, declared by resolution, "That Secession is no remedy for the evils which afflict the country, and we pledge ourselves to oppose any act of Secession which will sever us from the Federal Government, and if the Convention by an Ordinance of Secession attempt to force us into a connection with the Gulf States, then, as citizens of Western Virginia, we will deem it a duty to ourselves and posterity to adopt such means and use such measures as will result in a division of the State."
Similar action, with expressions of a like sentiment, was taken in many other Western counties, among them being Taylor, Mason, Jackson and Wood, but thus far all had been independent action in the various counties. It remained for a call for united action to come from Clarksburgh-the birthplace of Stonewall Jackson. Here, on the 22d of April, 1861, nearly twelve hundred citizens of Harrison county convened in compliance with a call issued forty-eight hours pre- viously. The meeting organized by electing John
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Hursey, President, and J. W. Harris, Secretary. Be- fore adjournment, the following preamble and resolu- tions were submitted and adopted without a dissenting voice :
WHEREAS, the Convention now in session in this State, called by the Legislature, the members of which had been elected twenty months before said call, at a time when no such action as the assemblage of a Con- vention by Legislative enactment was contemplated by the people, or expected by the members they elected in May, 1859, at which time no one anticipated the troubles recently brought upon our common country by the extraordinary action of the State authorities of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi Louisi- ana and Texas, has, contrary to the expectation of a large majority of the people of this State, adopted an ordinance withdrawing Virginia from the Federal Union, and, whereas, by the law calling said Conven- tion, it is expressly declared that no such ordinance shall have force or effect, or be of binding obligation upon the people of this State, until the same shall be ratified by the voters at the polls ; and, whereas, we have seen with regret that demonstrations of hostility unauthorized by law, and inconsistent with the duty of law-abiding citizens still owing allegiance to the Fed- eral Government, have been made by a portion of the people of this State against the said Government ; and, whereas, the Governor of this Commonwealth has, by proclamation, undertaken to decide for the people of Virginia that which they had reserved to themselves the right to decide by their votes at the polls, and has called upon the volunteer soldiery of this State to re- port to him and hold themselves in readiness to make
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war upon the Federal Government, which Govern- ment is Virginia's Government, and must in law and right continue to be, until the people of Virginia shall, by their votes, and through the ballot-box, that great conservator of a free people's liberties, decide other- wise; and, whereas, the peculiar situation of North- western Virginia, separated as it is by natural barriers from the rest of the State, precludes all hope of timely succor in the hour of danger, from other portions of the State, and demands that we should look to and provide for our own safety in the fearful emergency in which we now find ourselves placed by the action of our State authorities, who have disregarded the great fundamental principle upon which our beautiful system of Government is based, to wit: "That all Govern- mental power is derived from the consent of the gov- erned ;" and have, without consulting the people, placed the State in hostility to the Federal Government by seizing upon its ships and obstructing the channel at the mouth of Elizabeth river, by wresting from the Federal officers at Norfolk and Richmond the custom- houses, by tearing from the Nation's property the Nation's flag, and putting in its place a bunting, the emblem of rebellion, and by marching upon the Na- tional Armory at Harper's Ferry ; thus inaugurating a war without consulting those in whose name they pro- fess to act; and, whereas, the exposed condition of Northwestern Virginia requires that her people should be united in action, and harmonious in purpose-there being perfect identity of interests in time of war as well as in peace-therefore, be it
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