The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-10-14
Democratic hostility I'm W. Virginia
(Erom Ms Mel0 YORK. Herald. }


There will be some nice argument
sooner or later on the rights of the State
of Virginia to take part in the Preslden-
tial election and to have her vote count
ed, and in this argument the question OF
new States will come up in shape diff
erent from that in which it'has hitherto
SO much agitated the country. There
is recent law of Congress under which
Virginia is regarded by all radical au-
thorities as distinctly ruled out Of this
contest, because she has not gone
through the patent double shuttle of re-
construction which the law requires all
Southern States to have done before
AS Virginia is tolerably certain to
go for the Democrats we cannot
expect radical Congress to abate
one jot of this radical rule. But
then there is another law OF
Congress quite different in tendency
and under which Virginia has a clear
right to stand in full sisterhood with all
the States. This latter act was passed
in December, 1852. AS the two laws are
necessarily irreconcilable it will prob
ably be held that the latter repeats the
former. In this case Congress will have
to do more than reject the vote of Vir-
ginia, that will doubtless be for Sey-
mour; it will have also to reject the
vote OF West Virginia, that will be for
Grant, since the very existence of West
Virginia as State and the presence of
her Representatives in Congress imply
and necessitate the validity of Virginia
as State and her right TO take part in
all acts done by the States collectively.
If Virginia is not State West Virginia
is not State, and If West Virginia
votes in this Presidential canvass cid
Virginia must vote also.
The constitution provides that no
new State shall be formed or erected
within tho fnFfndfRtfnn n an0fhnr Rkafn
without consent of the States concern
ed. AS naked piece of reasoning,
therefore, we see that as West Virginia
has been made State since the COM
mencemento of the war-since secession
Virginia herself must also have been
recognized State since that time, as
she could not have given a valid con-
sent as such. 1t may be said that Vir-
ginia had lapsed and that the new State
was not formed within the Jurisdiction
of another State, but from a district
having only territorial status. But the
trick of the Radicals by which West
Virginia gained her separate existence
heads of that plea. They made a
bogus government in West Vir-
ginja which claimed Jurisdiction
over the whole State, and as Congress
has power TO decide between govern
ments, it decided that the Richmond
Tor rebel) government was without au-
thority and that the radical bogus gov
eminent of the State was alone to be
recognized. That was Congressional
recognition that Virginia was in full
possession of all her faculties as a State.
That government recognized by Con-
gress, then, gave consent to the crea-
ton Of the State of West Virginia, and
the consent was acted upon and the
same government subsequently held
authority in Richmond. Congress,
therefore, has recognized Virginia as u
State in the Union by the provisions of
a particular law, and If her govern
ment was good and valid for one pur-
pose il is for another. That recognition
was part of radical trick, but the rad
zeal party must stand the consequences
of its own tricks when they take the
shape Of laws. T.Iz.