FORMATION OF THE NEW STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA.
We must now turn aside from the records of war, and notice the rise
of a new commonwealth—the only one ever formed within the territory
of an organized State.
As has been stated, the people of the western portion of Virginia
were opposed to the sessation of the State; this was evidenced by the
vote upon that question, a majority of which in all the western counties
was against it, and in several the negative vote was almost unanimous.
Soon after the election of 1860, the inhabitants of this section
began to express their feelings upon the questions which then agitated
the country.
The first meeting that was held to give expression to the sentiments
of the people, took place in Preston county, on the 12th of November,
1860. Men of all shades of political opinion participated in the proceedings.
Resolutions were adopted opposing sessation, and declaring that
any attempt on the part of the State to sever her connection with the
Union, would meet with the disapproval of the people of that county.
On the 24th of November, a meeting was held in Harrison county,
which declared that they would exhaust all constitutional remedies for
redress, before they would resort to any violent measures; that the ballot-box
was the only medium known to the Constitution for a redress of
grievances, and to that alone would they appeal. The people of Monongalia
county convened at their court house on the 26th of November,
and passed a series of resolutions declaring that the election of the candidates
of the Republican party did not justify sessation, and that the
Union as it was, was the best guarantee of the people's future welfare.
A meeting of the people at the court house of Taylor county, on the 3d
of December following, declared that they were opposed to any action
looking to the dissolution of the Union for existing causes.
The citizens of Ohio county convened in the city of Wheeling on the
14th of the same month and adopted resolutions similar to the foregoing.
In many other western counties meetings of like import and significance
were held.
The Virginia Convention passed the Ordinance of Secession on the
17th of April, 1861, and then began a series of meetings and an expression
of public sentiment, before unparalleled in the history of Virginia.
All united in a solemn protest against the sessation of the State
and asserted that the Union was the object of their undying attachment,
and that they would cling to it, despite the efforts of the East to plunge
them into the gulf of sessation and consequent ruin; that sessation was
only unmitigated treason against the Constitution and the government
of the United States; that Western Virginia, for a half century, had
patiently submitted to the oppression of Eastern Virginia, but that now
the measure of tyranny was full, and that if, as was claimed, sessation
was the only remedy for supposed State wrongs, the day was not far
distant when the West would arise in its majesty, sever all political and
civil relations with the East, organize a new State, and remain firmly
attached to the Union.
A mass meeting of the citizens of Taylor county, held on the 13th of
April, declared that the government of the United States ought to be
maintained, and all constitutional laws enforced; and if the eastern part
of the State should secede from the Union, then they were in favor of
establishing an independent government in the western portion of the
State. Moved by a similar sentiment, the people of Wetzel county, on
the 22d of the same month, resolved that if the State cast her fortunes
with those of the Gulf States, then, as citizens of Western Virginia,
they would deem it a duty to themselves and posterity to use such
measures as would result in a division of the State.
