VIRGINIA, WESTERN. 



743 



troops from Ohio and Indiana and the volun- 

 teers in this region, the Confederate and regular 

 State troops were forced to retire entirely. 

 Under this new aspect of affairs the people de- 

 termined to form a political organization of 

 their own, which should either supplant the 

 old State organization throughout Virginia, or 

 become separate and distinct from it. 



This district of country known as Western 

 Virginia, is bounded north by Ohio and Penn- 

 sylvania; east, by the Alleghany Mountains; 

 south, by these mountains and South-western 

 Virginia ; and on the west by Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky, la consequence of its location, the 

 affinities of its inhabitants are more naturally 

 with those of the free States, than with those of 

 the slave States ; the soil, climate, and produc- 

 tions are the same as those of Ohio and Penn- 

 sylvania adjoining. The number of slaves has al- 

 ways been small, and their labor afforded small 

 remuneration, except in other pursuits than 

 agriculture. These circumstances placed her in- 

 habitants among the loyal people of the North, 

 devoted to the Union, and desirous of its per- 

 petual preservation. Their preliminary move- 

 ments for a political organization of their own, 

 (see VIRGINIA,) resulted in the assembling of a 

 convention of representatives of the people at 

 "Wheeling, on the llth of June. About forty 

 counties were represented. The Convention 

 was organized, and before proceeding to busi- 

 ness, each county delegation came forward and 

 took the following oath : " We solemnly declare 

 that we will support the Constitution of the' 

 United States and the laws made in pursuance 

 thereof, as the supreme law of the land, any 

 thing in the Ordinance of the Convention that 

 assembled in Richmond on the 13th day of 

 February last to the contrary notwithstanding, 

 so help us God." 



On the next day a committee of thirteen, 

 which had been previously appointed to pre- 

 pare business, reported a Bill of Rights for 

 adoption. It repudiated all allegiance to the 

 Southern Confederacy, and vacated the offices of 

 all who adhered to it, whether legislative, exec- 

 utive, or judicial. This was laid over for the 

 day. Resolutions were also offered and adopt- 

 ed, declaring the intention never to submit to 

 the Ordinance of Secession, but to maintain the 

 rights of Virginia in the Union, and calling on 

 all persons in arms against the United States to 

 disband and to return to their allegiance. 



On the 13th an ordinance was reported, 

 vacating the offices held by all State officers act- 

 ing in hostility to the Federal Government, and 

 providing for the establishment of a Provisional 

 Government and the election of officers; and 

 further requiring all State, county, and town 

 officers immediately to take the oath of alle- 

 giance. 



On the 17th a form of Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence was adopted unanimously, and signed 

 by all the members present. 



On the 20th, under an ordinance previously 

 adopted, a Governor, Frank Pierpont, a Lieu- 



tenant-Governor, and Council were elected. 

 The new Governor was inaugurated on the 

 sanii- day. The Declaration of Independence, 

 which had previously been adopted by the 

 Convention, thus reviews the proceedings of the 

 Richmond Convention : 



The true purpose of all government is to promote 

 the welfare and provide for the protection ana secur- 

 ity of the governed ; and when any form or organiza- 

 tion of government proves inadequate for or subver- 

 sive of this purpose, it is the right, it is the duty of 

 the latter to alter or abolish it. The Bill of Rights of 

 Virginia, framed iu 17"i>, reaffirmed in 1830, ana again 

 in 1851, expressly reserves this right to the majority 

 of her people ; and the existing Constitution does not 

 confer upon the General Assembly the power to call a 

 Convention to alter its provisions, or to change the 

 relations of the Commonwealth, without the previous- 

 ly expressed consent of such majority. The act of the 

 General Assembly calling the Convention which as- 

 sembled at Richmond in February last, was, therefore-, 

 usurpation ; and the Convention thus called has not 

 only abused the powers nominally entrusted to it, but, 

 with the connivance and active aid of the Executive, 

 has usurped and exercised other powers, to the mani- 

 fes_t injury of the people, which, if permitted, will in- 

 evitably subject them to a military despotism. 



The Governor, on taking the oath of office, 

 delivered a speech in which he thus defined 

 the position of Western Virginia: 



We have been driven into the position we occupy 

 to-day by the usurpers at the South, who have in- 

 augurated this war upon the soil of Virginia, and 

 have made it the great Crimea of this contest. We, 

 representing the loyal citizens of Virginia, have been 

 bound to assume the position we have assumed to-day 

 for the protection of ourselves, our wives, our children, 

 and our property. We, I repeat, have been driven to 

 assume this position ; and now we are but recurring 

 to the great fundamental principle of our fathers, that 

 to the loyal people of a State belongs the law-making 

 power of that State. The loyal people are entitled to 

 the Government and governmental authority of the 

 State. And, fellow-citizens, it is the assumption of 

 that authority upon which we are now about to enter. 



Meantime Governor Letcher issued the fol- 

 lowing address to the inhabitants of this part 

 of the State. 



To the People of North-western Virginia : 



The sovereign people of Virginia, unbiased, and by 

 their own free choice, have, by a majority of nearly 

 one hundred thousand qualified voters, severed the 

 the ties that heretofore bound them to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, and united this Common- 

 wealth with the Confederate States. That our people 

 have the right " to institute a new Government, laying 

 its foundations on such principles, and organizing its 

 powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely 

 to effect their safety and happiness," was proclaimed 

 by our fathers, and it is a right which uo freeman 

 should ever relinquish. The State of Virginia has 

 now, the second time in her history, asserted this 

 right, and it is the duty of every Virginian to ac- 

 knowledge her act when ratified by such a majority, 

 and to give his willing cooperation to make good the 

 declaration. All her people have voted. Each has 

 taken his chance to have his personal views repre- 

 sented. You, as well as the rest of the State, hare 

 cast your vote fairly, and the majority is against you. 

 It is 'the duty of good citizens to yield to the will of 

 the State. The Bill of Rights has proclaimed " that 

 the people have a right to uniform government ; and, 

 therefore, that no government separate from or inde- 

 pendent of the government of Virginia ought to be 

 erected or established within the limits thereof." 

 The majority, thus declared, therefore, have a right 



