The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-11-21
WHEELING, November 10


WHEELING, November 10.
The fall elections arc oil over, and yol
have published the result to the worlt
and made your comments and deduCet
your morals, and given your readers NJ
opportunity TO do the same thing, and 81
] will venture to put in a word about TIT
7re NIL II Ills State and the rationale
AAsyou have seen, West Virginia ha!
reversed her political record completely
and gone over to the Democratic side
She has elected the entire Democratic
State ticket, also large Democratic ma
iority In the lower house Of the Legisla
ture, also two Democratic COngreSSmeI
out Of three, and, further, will elect o
United States Senator In January TO sue
coed Hon. Waitman T. Wiley after the
fourth Of March next.
This Is so sudden and thorough change
of front that ! presume some OF your
readers in other parts Of the country will
be interested in an explanation Us to how
it happened.
In the first place, let nc premise that
West Virginia, at the breaking out Of the
war, was a Democratic State, and has
therefore, simply resumed her status quo
ante bsllvpl., SOmept our, strong Repub'
lican counties wete strdlR Democratic
countieS 0t the PresideItlhl election in
1850. For instance, such Counties as
Monongalia, Preston. Richie, Harrison,
Doddridge, Upshur, Marion and jackson.
Besides these, we have county named
Wetzel that In 1860 Gust 700 Democratic
votes to 90 for Bell and Everett. And
another named Tucker, that gave Dem
ocratic majority Of nearly six 10 one,
Lewis county gave nearly two to one.
Logan county not quite three to one.
Peasants about two to one. Barbour
over two to one, and Gilmer over three
to one. And so on throughout the list Of
Democratic counties. 49,.
Lincoln and Hamlin only received 1923
votes in the whole State Of Virginia, and
OF these 1,108 were cast hero in the three
upper counties Of the Panhandle, this
county casting III Of them. Rather u
slim nucleus, was 1t not, those 1923 he
publican votes for o dominant Republican
b6rEy Ia Ills slate htifIie 19xt iden-
ddlIlection? But 6y iorcs Of ircpm'
Stances that grain OF mustard seed Then
s0wn grew to q great tree within those
four years; so much so that the fowls Of
the Dir, including the birds Of prey, came
and lodged in the branches thereof, even
to such an extent that some Of the branch
es have given way, and rudely broken
of.
On the question Of secession several Of
our counties gave considerable vote in
favor Of ythe ORDINANCE, but the counties
along the river aid Along the line Of the
Baltimore & Ohio and Northwestern Vir-
ginia Railroads, were decidedly for the
Union, several Of them aggressively so.
The Breckenridge and Douglas Dcmoc-
racy naturally antagonized each other on
the question of secession, and the latter,
together with large acCessions from the
Bell Everett men, made up the loyal ele-
ment in West Virginia at the outset, and
became aitcrward the Union Republican
PARTY. The pressure ptthe tsar, .the arm
ed occupation Of our soil BY tha Union
soldiers, the question OF o separate State,
the enlistment Of thousands otyoungmen,
and the cohesive power of the public
plumber" kept this aggregation from the
old parties In homogeneous shape throug j
most of the war, even despite the emOnci-
patton orthc negroes and their enlistment
inthearmy. Soswift wasthecuFrent Of
events, sOFapid the features Of the great
struggle, that no time for changes occur
red. and, apparently, all; Union, men were
inohe boat, with ODE aecoTd and all ,edu-
c6tsa up tOStHe situation, from day to day.
But this homcogcneity was more apparent
than real. This rapid growth was not
natural. There were many in the Union
party who were not Of the Republican
party proper on the negro question, and
along about the Lincoln Mcclellan cam
paign; of, 1864, o sloughing off process
Up 10 that time there was
but one political organization in the field,
and the Constitution ofthe new State Of
West Virginia was adopted, in 1868; by
q vote al 81, 748sto 6f9 against IL. But in
1884 the AlcC lellRn.P endleton party polled
lO,43S votes. This vote was Occastoned
blythe Ieapp earance at the polls of many
who had not voted for two or three years
previous, but were awaiting the result Of,
the arbitrament going Oh between the ar.
mieT ofthe font, Alter the close of the
war. at The first gubernatorial election,
the sloughing Off process; !'as wei as the
feapp earIng process, showed itself still
more decidediyyand accordingly the Dem
crarcy-polleil i7l58 votes ansincreaGc Of
sofne 10 ,ber cent: over tlleirvote Of 1884.
Two years aitetYard, aB the passions Of
M war cooled and wore,off, and the old
element became more confident and hope
MI thew polIel 232 ais, votes, further in.
crease on their previous vote Of 20 per cent.
All this time tho Republicans were
very little more thai holding their own,
ana tlieir mniofitles were ~ growing fine
BY degrees and beautifully lessl' For in
,tsnce in 1894 thew polied 23, 1853 votes
FL M EBiSSolS. ] Asain, in 1850 thew
HI1Sj e.. o., por9r,or % ono ,,o4aS