no man saw what four years would bring forth. Thus Virginia hesitated long before she cast her fortunes with the States already organized to oppose the government. When she took the fatal step; when she fought as only the brave can fight; when she was crushed by weight rather than vanquished, she accepted the result and emerged from the smoke of battle still great; and like Carthage of old, her splendor seemed only the more conspicuous by the desolation which war had brought.

The Virginia Legislature called a convention to meet at Richmond February 13, 1861. The time was short, but the crisis was at hand. The flame was kindling. Meetings were being held in all the eastern part of the State, and the people were nearly unanimous in their demand that the State join the Confederacy. At least few opposed this demand, but at that time it is probable that one-half of the people of the State opposed secession. The eastern part was in favor of it. West of the Alleghany Mountains the case was different. The mass of the people did not at once grasp the situation. They knew the signs of the times were strange; that currents were drifting to a center; but that war was at hand of gigantic magnitude, and that the State of Virginia was "choosing that day whom she would serve," were not clearly understood at the outset. But, as the great truth dawned and as its lurid light became brighter, West Virginia was not slow in choosing whom she would serve. The people assembled in their towns and a number of meetings were held even before the convening of the special session of the Legislature, and there was but one sentiment expressed and that was loyalty to the government. Preston county held the first meeting, November 12, 1860; Harrison County followed the twenty-sixth of the same month; two days later the people of Monongalia assembled to discuss and take measures; a similar gathering took place in Taylor County, December 4, and another in Wheeling ten days later; and on the seventh of the January following there was a meeting in Mason County.

On January 21 the Virginia Legislature declared by resolution that, unless the differences between the two sections of the country could be reconciled, it was Virginia's duty to join the Confederacy. That resolution went side by side with the call for an election of delegates to the Richmond Convention, which was to "take measures." The election was held February 4, 1861, and nine days later the memorable convention assembled. Little time had been given for a campaign. Western Virginia sent men who were the peers of any from the eastern part of the State. The following delegates were chosen from the territory now forming West Virginia: Barbour County, Samuel Woods; Braxton and Nicholas, B. W. Byrne; Berkeley, Edmund Pendleton and Allen C. Hammond; Brooke, Campbell Tarr; Cabell, William McComas; Doddridge and Tyler, Chapman J. Stuart; Fayette and Raleigh, Henry L. Gillespie; Greenbrier, Samuel Price; Gilmer and Wirt, C. B. Conrad; Hampshire, David Pugh and Edmund M. Armstrong; Hancock, George M. Porter; Harrison, John S. Carlile and Benjamin Wilson; Hardy, Thomas Maslin; Jackson and Roane, Franklin P. Turner; Jefferson, Alfred M. Barbour and Logan Osburn; Kanawha, Spicer Patrick and George W. Summers; Lewis, Caleb Boggess; Logan, Boone and Wyoming, James Lawson; Marion, Ephraim B. Hall and Alpheus S. Haymond; Marshall, James Burley; Mason, James H. Crouch; Mercer, Napoleon B. French; Monongalia, Waitman T. Willey and Marshall M. Dent; Monroe, John Echols and Allen T. Caperton; Morgan, Johnson Orrick; Ohio, Chester D. Hubbard and Sherard Clemens; Pocahontas, Paul McNeil; Preston,

William G. Brown and James C. McGrew; Putnam, James W. Hoge; Ritchie, Cyrus Hall; Randolph and Tucker, J. N. Hughes; Taylor, John S. Burdette; Upshur, George W. Berlin; Wetzel, L. S. Hall; Wood, General John J. Jackson; Wayne, Burwell Spurlock.

When the convention met it was doubtful if a majority were in favor of Secession. At any rate the leaders in that movement, who had caused the convention to be called for that express purpose, appeared afraid to push the question to a vote, and from that day began the work which ultimately succeeded in winning over enough delegates, who at first were opposed to Secession, to carry the State into the Confederacy.

There were forty-six delegates from the counties now forming West Virginia. Nine of these voted for the Ordinance of Secession, seven were absent, one was excused, and twenty-nine voted against it. The principal leaders among the West Virginia delegates who opposed Secession were J. C. McGrew, of Preston County; George W. Summers, of Kanawha County; General John J. Jackson, of Wood County; Chester D. Hubbard, of Ohio County, and Waitman T. Willey, of Monongalia County. Willey was the leader of the leaders. He employed all the eloquence of which he was master, and all the reason and logic he could command to check the rush into what he clearly saw was disaster. No man of feeble courage could have taken the stand which he took in that convention. The agents from the States which had already seceded were in Richmond urging the people to Secession. The convention held out for a month against the clamor, and so fierce became the populace that delegates who opposed Secession were threatened with personal assault and were in danger of assassination. The peril and the pressure induced many delegates to go over to the Confederacy. But the majority held out against Secession. In the front was General John J. Jackson, one of West Virginia's most venerable citizens. He was of the material which never turns aside from danger. A cousin of Stonewall Jackson, he had seen active service in the field before Stonewall was born. He had fought the Seminoles in Florida, and had been a member of General Andrew Jackson's staff. He had been intrusted by the Government with important and dangerous duties before he was old enough to vote. He had traversed the wilderness on horseback and alone between Florida and Kentucky, performing in this manner a circuitous journey of three thousand miles, much of it among the camps and over the hunting grounds of treacherous Indians. Innured to dangers and accustomed to peril, he was not the man to flinch or give ground. He stood up for the Union; spoke for it; urged the convention to pause on the brink of the abyss before taking the leap. Another determined worker in the famous convention was Judge G. W. Summers, of Charleston. He was in the city of Washington attending a "Peace Conference" when he received news that the people of Kanawha County had elected him a delegate to the Richmond Convention. He hurried to Richmond and opposed with all his powers the Ordinance of Secession. A speech which he delivered against that measure has been pronounced the most powerful heard in the convention.

On March 2 Mr. Willey made a remarkable speech in the convention. He announced that his purpose was not to reply to the arguments of the disunionists, but to defend the right of free speech which Richmond, out of the halls of the convention and in, was trying to stifle by threats and derision. He warned the people that when free speech is silenced liberty is no longer a realty, but a mere mockery. He then took up the Secession ques

tion, although he had not intended to do so when he began speaking, and he presented in so forcible a manner the arguments against Secession that he made a profound impression upon the convention. During the whole of that month the Secessionists were unable to carry their measure through. But when Fort Sumpter was fired on, and when the President of the United States called for 75,000 volunteers, the Ordinance of Secession passed, April 17, 1861.

The next day, April 18, a number of delegates from Western Virginia declared that they would not abide by the action of the convention. Amid the roar of Richmond run mad, they began to consult among themselves what course to pursue. On April 20 several of the West Virginians met in a bed-room of the Powhatan hotel, and decided that nothing more could be done by them at Richmond to hinder or defeat the Secession movement. They agreed to return home and urge their constituents to vote against the Ordinance at the election set for May 24. They began to depart for their homes. Some had gotten safely out of Richmond and beyond the reach of the Confederates before it became known that the western delegates were leaving. Others were still in Richmond, and a plan was formed to keep them prisoners in the city—not in jail-but they were required to obtain passes from the Governor before leaving the city. It was correctly surmised that the haste shown by these delegates in taking their departure was due to their determination to stir up opposition to the Ordinance of Secession in the western part of the State. But when it was learned that most of the western delegates had already left Richmond it was deemed unwise to detain the few who yet remained, and they were permitted to depart, which they did without loss of time.

Before the people knew that an Ordinance of Secession had passed, the convention began to levy war upon the United States. Before the seal of secrecy had been removed from the proceedings of that body, large appropriations for military purposes had been made. Officers were appointed; troops were armed; forts and arsenals belonging to the Government had been seized. The arsenal at Harper's Ferry and that at Norfolk had fallen before attacks of Virginia troops before the people of that State knew that they were no longer regarded as citizens of the United States. The convention still in secret session, without the knowledge or consent of the people of Virginia, had annexed that State to the Southern Confederacy. It was all done with the presumption that the people of the State would sustain the Ordinance of Secession when they had learned of its existence and when they were given an opportunity to vote upon it. The election came May 24, 1861; and before that day there were thirty thousand soldiers in the State east of the Alleghanies, and troops had been pushed across the mountains into Western Virginia. The majority of votes cast in the State were in favor of ratifying the Ordinance of Secession; but West Virginia voted against it. Eastern Virginia was carried by storm. The excitement was intense. The cry was for war, if any attempt should be made to hinder Virginia's going into the Southern Confederacy. Many men whose sober judgment was opposed to Secesssion, were swept into it by their surroundings.

CHAPTER XIII,

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THE RE-ORGANIZED GOVERNMENT.

The officers and visible government of Virginia abdicated when they joined the Southern Confederacy. The people reclaimed and resumed their sovereignty after it had been abdicated by their regularly constituted authorities. This right belongs to the people and can not be taken from them. A public servant is elected to keep and exercise this sovereignty in trust, but he can do no more. When he ceases doing this the sovereignty returns whence it came to the people. When Virginia's public officials seceded from the United States and joined the Southern Confederacy they carried with them their individual persons and nothing more. The people of the State were deprived of none of the rights of self-government, but their government was left, for the time being, without officers to execute it and give it form. In brief, the people of Virginia had no government, but had a right to a government, and they proceeded to create one by choosing officers to take the place of those who had abdicated. This is all there was in the re-organization of the Government of Virginia, and it was done by citizens of the United States, proceeding under that clause in the Federal Constitution which declares: 66 The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of government.

The Government of Virginia was re-organized; the State of West Virginia was created, and nothing was done in violation of the strictest letter and spirit of the United States Constitution. The steps were as follows, stated briefly here, but more in detail elsewhere in this book. The loyal people of Virginia reclaimed and resumed their sovereignty and re-organized their government. This government, through its Legislature, gave its consent for the creation of West Virginia from a part of Virginia's territory. Delegates elected by the people of the proposed new State prepared a constitution. The people of the proposed new State adopted this constitution. Congress admitted the State. The President issued a proclamation declaring West Virginia to be one of the United States. This State came into the Union in the same manner and by the same process and on the same terms as all other States. The details of the re-organization of the Virginia State Government will now be set forth more in detail.

When Virginia passed the Ordinance of Secession the territory now forming West Virginia refused to acquiesce in that measure. The vote on the Ordinance in West Virginia was about ten to one against it, or forty thousand against four thousand. In some of the counties there were more than twenty to one against Secession. The sentiment was very strong, and it soon took shape in the form of mass meetings, which were largely attended. When the delegates from West Virginia arrived home from the Rich

mond Convention and laid before their constituents the state of affairs there was an immediate movement having for its object the nullification of the Ordinance. Although the people of Western Virginia had long wanted a new State, and although a very general sentiment favored an immediate movement toward that end, yet a conservative course was pursued. Haste and rashness gave way to mature judgment, and the new State movement took a course strictly constitutional. The Virginia Government was first re-organized. That done, the Constitution of the United States provided a way for creating the new State, for when the re-organized government was recognized by the United States, and when a Legislature had been elected, that Legislature could give its consent to the formation of a new State from a portion of Virginia's territory, and the way was thereby provided for the accomplishment of the object.

On the day in which the Ordinance of Secession was passed, April 17, 1861, and before the people knew what had been done, a mass-meeting was held at Morgantown which adopted resolutions declaring that Western Virginia would remain in the Union. A division of the State was suggested in case the eastern part should vote to join the Confederacy. A meeting in Wetzel County, April 22, voiced the same sentiment, and similar meetings were held in Taylor, Wood, Jackson, Mason and elsewhere. But the movement took definite form at a mass-meeting of the citizens of Harrison County, held at Clarksburg, April 22, which was attended by twelve hundred men. Not only did this meeting protest against the course which was hurrying Virginia out of the Union, but a line of action was suggested for checking the Secession movement, at least in the western part of the State. A call was sent out for a general meeting, to be held in Wheeling, May 13. The counties of Western Virginia were asked to elect their wisest men to this convention. Its objects were stated in general terms to be the discussion of ways and means for providing for the State's best interests in the crisis which had arrived.

Twenty-five counties responded, and the delegates who assembled in Wheeling on May 13 were representatives of the people, men who were determined that the portion of Virginia west of the Alleghany Mountains should not take part in a war against the Union without the consent and against the will of the people of the affected territory. Hampshire and Berkeley Counties, east of the Alleghanies, sent delegates. Many of the men who attended the convention were the best known west of the Alleghanies, and in the subsequent history of West Virginia their names have become household words. The roll of the convention was as follows:

Barbour County-Spencer Dayton, E. H. Manafee, J. H. Shuttleworth. Berkeley County-J. W. Dailey, A. R. McQuilkin, J. S. Bowers. Brooke County-M. Walker, Bazael Wells, J. D. Nichols, Eli Green, John G. Jacob, Joseph Gist, Robert Nichols, Adam Kuhn, David Hervey, Campbell Tarr, Nathaniel Wells, J. R. Burgoine, James Archer, Jesse Edgington, R. L. Jones, James A. Campbell.

Doddridge County-S. S. Kinney, J. Cheverout, J. Smith, J. P. F. Randolph, J. A. Foley.

Hampshire County-George W. Broski, O. D. Downey, Dr. B. B. Shaw, George W. Sheetz, George W. Rizer.

Hancock County-Thomas Anderson, W. C. Murray, William B. Freeman, George M. Porter, W. L. Crawford, L. R. Smith, J. C. Crawford, B. J. Smith, J. L. Freeman, John Gardner, George Johnston, J. S. Porter,