The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-12-09

lknleEtllNG Nab9 ALAtANg 80 lNN'NA 'Ns
TyTrLudEScER to the presence oil the
Hon Samuel Woods, OF Barbour coun-
~ in the city and to the historic set
NJ resolutions which he offered carly in
the sittings OF the Secession convention
a, Richmond in 1861. That memorable
convention met on the sixth Of Febru-
ory OF that year and Mr.. Woods his
torlc resolutions were offered as early
az the thirteenth, one week after it met.
In the canvass preceding the election
for members in January the hope
among the Union people Of what was
then North Western Virginia was that
the membership would stand together
in the convention and give no aid or
comfort to the madmen who were bent
on taking Virginia out OF the
Union and handing her over
TO the then incohate Con
federacy at Montgomery, Ala. This
hone was sadly dashed by the bad
break OF Mr.. Woods on the day re-
iefred to. He had the honor OF leading
off in the interests OF secession and OF
Gaming at once the attention and COM
mendation oil Henry A. Wise, the arch
conspirator OF the plot to annex Vir-
riuia to the coniederaCy. Wise consid-
cred the attitude and tho resolutions OF
Mr.. Woods distinct gain from an un-
expected quarter, and hence he well
coined and commended them ut once in
a speech, and said to Mr.. Woods what
Little Jack Homer, who sat in the
corner, said to himself, what fine
how are YOU" This eulogism Of Wise
encouraged another man TO break from
the Northwestern Virginia delegation.
viz: Leonard Hail, OF Wetzel, and the
two together then constituted "a pair to
draw 10" in the estimation OF the fire
eater from the Eastern Shore,
wherewith to disrupt the Union
ranks in the convention.
Naturally there was much personal
feeling at that time among the Union
element against these two men. Such
men us C. D. Hubbard, Campbell Tarr,
James Burley, John ]. Jackson, ST., John
S. Garlic, Mailman I. Wiley, NJ. NJ.
Dent, William &. Brown, John S. Bur
dette, and others Of like attachment to
the Union cause, felt that they had no
further use Tor Messrs. Woods and Hall
and practically they had no personal
relations thereafter with them. Those
we're the days OF tense feeling and some
ofthose Unionists were ready to quote,
even il they did not actually utter, that
weli-known middleton OF Walter Scott
on those
whose treason like deadly blight
Comes DER the counses OF the bravo
To blast them in their hour oil might"
1t is only just, however, to
Mr.. Woods to say that he
dsclaimed any moral responsibility
for this attitude OF his colleagues.
His plea was that the sentiments en-
bodied in his resolutions were substan-
italy those upon which he had been
elected and therefore in offering them
be represented not only his own senti-
ments but the majority sentiment in
Barbour county. The facts OF his candi-
dacv and canvass for seat in the con-
yention were somewhat peculiar. He
was native OF Canada, but had been
reared and educated IN Pennsylvania,
and was not at the time OF his candidacy
IN old resident Of Virginia. Hence he
was suspected OF unsoundness ION the
goose" as the phrase then was, and had
felt himself obliged to submit his views
to the court house sanhedrlm OF Bar
bour, which views they passed upon
and endorsed, as did also his and their
constituents at the polls. Hence his
claim that he was no deserter from the
Northwestern Virginia ranks, and that
his resolutions were not only in line
with his profession OF faith to the Bar
bour Democracy but likewise in
line with those OF the great father OF
Democracy as embodied in the declara-
ory resolutions Of Virginia and Ken
tucky as far back as l7SS-S9
Nevertheless the attitude which Mr.
Woods assumed in the convention as u
would-be leader in the direction OF Sc
cession was regarded by his colleagues
as most uncalled for and unnatural, in
asmuch as it did not represent the I'M
alterable geographical situation or the
material interests OF West Virginia or
the hazards OF the conflict thus invoked
into life, but simply the negro breed:
ing interests OF eastern Virginia aud
the cotton interests OF the South.
Mr.. Woods was in q reminiscent mood
when called upon at the Stamm house
by representative OF the lNrELLlGEN-
GER. lie spoke quite freely OF all the
matters alluded to above, and added a
great deal that appertaiaed to his eX-
perience after the passage OF the Ordl-
nance OF Secession, that "direfuI spring
OF woes unnumbered." He spoke OF
the fact that Barbour county endorsed
his vote for the Ordinance by voting the
same way after its passage, viz. on the
9th OF May following, at which time the
people ratified it by about the same ma
jority which they had given him the
January preceding. He gave a some
what graphic account OF his departure
from Philippi the evening before the
battle, viz, on Sunday evening,
June ID, at o'clock, and going
on horseback rs far as Mustows
tavern, on the Beverly pike; OF his
sleepless night there and his early
rising next morning just as tho sound OF
cannon came breaking over the hills
from Phiiippi, sixteen miles away; oil
his departure before breakfast Tor sipe's
tavern, further on the road to Beverly;
OF the inquiries OF the people en- ro9ute,
as to what those sounds meant, aud OF
their inability to make out whether 1t
was thunder or cannon; Of his being
suspected as Yankee spy and being
eyed very suspiciously at stopping
places on the road to Staunton, where
he finally diamounted from his horae
and took the cars to Richmond, reach
ing there in time to resume his seat IN
the convention that reassembled on the
18th Of June; OF tho now constitution
which that reassembled convention