CONGRESS, U. S. 



307 



which we have sworn to support is to be the 

 rule of our action, I ask you, in all calmness 

 and all sobriety of feeling, is not the rule 

 plain ? 



" There was a Virginia once by that simple 

 name a great name at one period of our his- 

 tory, and one of the original formers of the 

 Constitution. She made it. She never was 

 admitted into the Union ; she formed it ; she 

 is a part of the original creation and being. 

 Does she ask to be admitted? No. But a part 

 of that State wishes now to be formed into a 

 new State, and to be admitted into the Union, 

 as an independent State. Is not that so ? Is 

 there any ingenuity or any technicality which 

 change the face of the facts? 



u You say that old Virginia no longer exists, 



d therefore can give no consent. Is there 

 one man here who can be misled and blinded 

 by such hypercriticism ? "We know the fact to 

 be otherwise. We know that at this time old 

 Virginia is in a state of rebellion, which we 

 are endeavoring, by all the means in our power, 

 to put an end to ; a rebellion which once put 

 an end to, will restore her to her constitutional 

 place in the Union just as she existed before. 

 You cannot admit a new State out of her boun- 

 daries without her consent, says the Constitu- 

 tion. That is the limit of your power, and 

 that is enough to settle the question. You are 

 appealed to and your power is invoked now to 

 make this a new State. It seems to me that 

 you cannot do it, I do not presume to argue 

 with you on this question, because it seems to 

 me that the very statement of it is an argument 

 stronger than anything that I can urge. "We 

 have heard a great deal of imagination and of 

 sympathy. That does not make constitutions. 

 That does not sustain empires. It is not out 

 of such stuff as that that the great, the majes- 

 tic pillars have been reared that support the 

 mighty fabric of this republic. This question 

 is to return to you. Remember that ! Look 

 to the future. Is there a man here who does 

 not contemplate the restoration of this Union, 

 and the restoration of all these States to it ? If 

 Virginia were to-morrow to lay down the arms 

 of her rebellion and to ask to be admitted into 

 our councils, to be part of us, as she is by the 

 Constitution to-day, to be actually what she is 

 constitutionally, what could you say to her if 

 you had created a new State out of her terri- 

 tory ? What could you say to" her ? Do you 

 believe that with the pride which ought to be- 

 long to one of the States of this Union, the 

 State would agree to come back, not as she 

 was, not with the boundaries she had, -but cut 

 up and divided and made into different States, 

 to come back with circumscribed and dimin- 

 ished power as a State ? Can you expect such 

 a thing ? " 



Mr. Blair, of Virginia, now rose to say : " I 

 take it, from the gentleman's argument, that he 

 is not aware that the Legislature of Virginia 

 has given its consent to the formation of this 

 new State. It is probable, however, that he 



does not recognize the government at "Wheel- 

 ing as the government of Virginia. If that 

 Legislature be the Legislature of the State, and 

 it has given its consent, then the whole people 

 of Virginia have given their consent, and the 

 constitutional requirement is fully met." 



Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, in reply said: 

 " This is one of the arguments to which I had 

 a general allusion when I spoke of the strange 

 arguments and fancies which had been em- 

 ployed upon this question. The gentleman's 

 argument supposes that the government at 

 Wheeling is the government of Virginia. Does 

 he not know that the contrary is the fact ? Do 

 we not all, in point of fact, know the contrary ? 

 Do we not know that the Legislature of the 

 old State of Virginia is sitting, for aught I 

 know, at this very moment, in the city of Rich- 

 mond, and has never discontinued its sessions 

 there ? 



" What does it amount to but that here is an 

 application to make a new State at the^instance 

 of the parties desiring to be made a new State, 

 and nobody else consenting, and nobody else 

 left to consent to it." 



Mr. Blair, of Virginia, further said: "I 

 would remind the gentleman from Kentucky, 

 that there were counties besides those em- 

 braced within the boundaries of the proposed 

 new State, represented in the Legislature of 

 Virginia, that gave this consent. . It was not 

 composed exclusively of counties included in 

 the new State ; and if it was the Legislature of 

 the State, it spoke the voice of the people of 

 the whole State, and the constitutional require- 

 ment is complied with." 



Mr. Crittenden, in reply, said : " Is the party 

 applying for admission consenting to the ad- 

 mission. That is the whole of it. If that is 

 not clear in itself, nothing that I can add to it 

 will make it clearer." 



Mr. Edwards, of New Hampshire, in favor of 

 the bill said : " It seems to me that the only 

 question that exists is the single one of whether 

 the State of Virginia, by its legislature, has 

 consented to the formation of this new State 

 within its boundaries? The Constitution of 

 the United States clearly contemplates the 

 formation of a new State out of the territory 

 of an existing State. Its language presupposes 

 that a case of this kind would be likely to oc- 

 cur in the progress of the country, and there- 

 fore provides for it. This is the clear and ad- 

 mitted interpretation of that provision. That 

 being the case, the only question now relating 

 to the question of power is whether the State 

 of Virginia, through her legislature, has con- 

 sented to the formation of this State. On that 

 subject I do not intend to go through the his- 

 tory of the proceedings in Virginia, eastern 

 or western, but shall rest my vote on these 

 grounds : first, that there was no legal legisla- 

 ture or government in Virginia after that gpv- 

 vernment put itself in the attitude of rebellion 

 against the United States, and refused to con- 

 form to the constitutional provisions necessary 



