National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-10-29
Transformation Of West Virginia.

lrrOm the NneeunR 1ntelllRenceE.J
The constitution framed in 1861, after the
civil war began, contained the following as its
first section:
The State of West Virginia shall be and re-
main one of the United States of America.
The Constitution of the United States, and
the laws and treaties made In pursuance there
of, shall be the supreme law Of the land.
In 1870 the Democracy re-obtained control,
and among their first acts was the converting
of a constitutional convention. That body
framed a new constitution. 1t became opera
tive in 1872 Its first section is the same as tie
one just quoted. But those that follow are to
be carefully scanned:
Sec. 9. The Government of the United States
is Government of enumerated powers, and all
powers not delegated to 1t, nor inhibited to the
States, are reserved to the people thereof.
Among the powers so reserved by the States
is the exclusive regulation of their own internal
government and policy; and 1t is the right aud
solemn duty of the several departments Of the
government created by this constitution to
guard and protect the people of this State from
all encroachments upon the rights 50 reserved.
Sec. 2. The provisions of the Constitution of
the United States and of this State are alike
operative in period of war as in a time OF
peace, and any departure therefrom, or viola
ton thereof, under the plea of necessity or any
other plea, is subversive of good government,
and tends TO anarchy and despotism.
The third section of the "Bill of Rights"
Article Ill, lets in further light on these decla-
rations, as history has proven their meaning to
be understood in the light of State Rights De-
mocracy.
Sec. 8. Government is instituted for the COM
mon benefit, protection and security of the
people, nation or community. Of all its va
rious forms that is the best which is capable
of producing the greatest degree of happiness
and safety, and is most effectually secured
against the danger Of NAL administration; and
when any government shall be founl made
quate or contraryto these purposes, majority
of the community has an indubitable, insien-
able and indefeasible right to reform, alter or
abolish it in such manner as shall b. judged
most conducive to the public veal.
1t must be borne in mind that the conyen-
ton by which the foregoing declarations were
framed was largely composed of and influenced
by the able men who, under the strained inter-
probation of similar declarations, (Which, by
sixty years of State sovereignty discussion,
filtered through every means of forming politi
cal intelligence had in 1861 precipitated the
State of Virginia into armed rebellion, and
thereafter associated themselves and their for
tunes with those of the Shareholders Confed-
eracy. The loyal men of West Virginia, read
ing the interior meaning of such assumptions
by the red light of civil war, contented them
selves with simple and stately declaration of
the perpetual unity of the new State with the
Union, and of the supremacy of the National
Constitution and laws in their State, as well as
in all others. The Democratic quibblers of
1871, resuming power after a losing struggle,
incorporated provisions such as those under
which their theories had heretofore always be-
logged the Southern people, and undermined
the duty they owed to ''the Government of the
people, by the people, for the people''-that
of the Federal Union.