WHEELING 



G266 



WHIG 



tees, and was the author of a bill on the 

 adjustment of the political disturbances in 

 Louisiana. In 1876 he was nominated for the 

 Vice-Presidency of the United States, and was 

 elected with Hayes. At the expiration of his 

 term in 1881 he returned to Malone and did 

 not again enter public life. 



WHEELING, W. VA., the county seat of 

 Ohio County and the metropolis of the state 

 in 1910, with a population of 41,641. In 1916 a 

 Federal estimate redmvd Wheeling to the po- 

 sition of the second city, Huntington's growth 

 having been more rapid. It is situated on the 

 east bank of the Ohio River at the mouth of 

 Wheeling Creek, and is built on a narrow 

 strip of land between the river and hills to the 

 east. It is sixty-six miles northeast of Pitts- 

 burgh, and is served by the Baltimore & Ohio 

 and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint 

 Louis railroads. Wheeling Island, on which a 

 part of the city is built, is connected with the 

 mainland by bridges, one a suspension bridge 

 more -than 1,000 feet long. Several bridges 

 span the river to towns on the Ohio shore. 



The city has the Linsly Institute, for boys, 

 and Mount de Chantal School for Girls. One 

 of the most interesting features is the Market 

 Auditorium, built in 1912 at a cost of $160,000. 

 It occupies a city square in the business dis- 

 trict. Other noteworthy features are Wheel- 

 ing and Riverside parks, a Federal building, 

 county courthouse, city hall, public library, the 

 Henry Clay and other monuments, and the site 

 of Old Fort Henry. The city has four large 

 public hospitals. Industry here centers in the 

 manufacture of iron and steel. Coal mining 

 and the manufacture of glass, enameled ware, 

 nails, tinplate, pottery and cigars are impor- 

 tant industries, and there is a prosperous whole- 

 sale jobbing trade. The surrounding section 

 produces large quantities of apples. 



Colonel Ebenezer Zane and his two brothers 

 founded Wheeling, the first town on the Ohio 

 River, in 1769. In 1774 Fort Henry, named in 

 honor of Patrick Henry, was built on a hill 

 within the present city limits. It was strongly 

 but unsuccessfully attacked by Indians the year 

 it was built and also in 1781, and again by 

 British and Indian in 1782. The town was in- 

 corporated in 1806 and became a city in 1836. 

 In 1861 it was the meeting place of a conven- 

 tion of Virginians who opposed secession, and 

 the constitutional convention of West Virginia 

 met here in 1861-1862. Wheeling was the state 

 capital from 1863 to 1870, and again from 1875 

 to 1885. The commission form of government 



became effective in 1917. The waterworks, elec- 

 tric-light plant and a crematory are owned and 

 operated by the municipality. Twice Wheel- 

 ing has suffered from great floods, once in 1884 

 and again in 1913. C.M.K. 



WHIG, the name assumed by two great po- 

 litical parties, one in Great Britain, the other 

 in the United States. One theory declares that 

 the word is derived from the initial letters of 

 the Scotch Covenanters' motto, "We hope in 

 God;" another derives it from whiggamon , a 

 nickname for the Presbyterian peasants in the 

 west of Scotland, probably from whig, meaning 

 to jog along. Whatever the origin there is no 

 doubt that it was a term of reproach. In 1679 

 the name was first used in a political sense by 

 the adherents of Charles II to compare their 

 parliamentary opponents to the Presbyterian 

 rebels in Scotland. 



Party's History in Great Britain. At first 

 used as a nickname, it was soon adopted as 'the 

 official name of the party. The Whigs, during 

 the eighteenth century, established a firm par- 

 liamentary government, which could check or 

 even set aside the power of the Crown. They 

 were, on the whole, the great landowners and 

 the merchants and tradespeople of the towns, 

 while the Tories were mostly the clergy and the 

 smaller landowners. When George III came to 

 the throne the government of England was 

 practically in the hands of a few great Whig 

 lords, who controlled Parliament not infre- 

 quently by corrupt methods. 



The king, however, gained ascendancy; about 

 1770 the Whigs lost their power, and under the 

 two Pitts the Tories became the forward-look- 

 ing party, relying for its power on the Crown 

 and the people, as opposed to the great Whig 

 families. The French Revolution, however, with 

 its doctrines of democracy, was too much of a 

 shock for the Whig landowners, and most of 

 them soon allied themselves with the Tories, 

 who then became identified, as a body, with 

 the desire to retain the existing order of things. 

 The Whigs, on the other hand, became the ad- 

 vocates of the new democracy of progress and 

 of reform. The Reform Bill of 1832 was the 

 result of their efforts, and with its passage the 

 Whig party practically came to an end. In its 

 place arose the Liberals, but to this day the 

 term Whig is sometimes applied to the con- 

 servatively inclined Liberals as a term of re- 

 proach. 



In the United States. As the name Whig 

 was used in England by those who opposed the 

 usurpation of power by the king, so in the 



