The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-18

| tllfu toCtlOu OF the lOuItu Afblolo Va NA
Federal Constitution, is indispensable.
The mountainous country which would
constitute the new State has played a
notable part In our political history.
| During the Revolution, when the north
ern part Of IL belonged to Virginia
and the southern part to North Caro-
! Ina, its inhabitants were Wings 70
a man, whereas the population Of tide
water Virginia and Of the North Carolina
| lowlands contained many loyalists. II
was the flank attack Of the patriots from
| beyond the mountains that 40 seriously
embarrassed CoRNwAI.LIs's northward
march from South Carolina TO Virginia.
Defiant as they had been Of British au-
thority, the settlers Of eastern Tennessee
soon grew restless under the neglect OF
the officials composing the new State
government Of North Carolina, and
proceeded to organize commonwealth
Of their own, TO which they gave the
name Of Franklin" That is obviously
the appellation which ought to be con-
ferred on the State now projected,
should II be called into being. GEORGE
WASHINGTON has a State named after
him, but our other Colonial and Reyo-
lutionary worthy, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
has none.
The divergence Of interests and sym
pathies which during the Revolution
had marked Of the men beyond the
mountains from the denizens Of the
loWlands continued TO separate them
throughout the following eighty years.
Racially, socially and economically the
inhabitants Of southwestern Virginia,
eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee
formed a homogeneous body Of poor
whites who had little except their
color and their language in common
with the slaveholding aristocracies by
which they we're surrounded. They had
applauded their congener, ANDREW
JACKSON, when he crushed Notification
in South Carolina; and when the civil
war broke out they found spokesman
in BRowSLow and JOHNSON, and they
evinced a readiness TO fight for the Union,
not so much because they loved the
North as because they disliked the
oligarchies that had controlled the South.
From the outset Of the Reconstruction
period up TO the present hour, the three
communities have been the strongholds
Of the Republican party in the States TO
which they respectively belong. II was
the votes of eastern Tennessee that came
near to seating H. CLAY EVANS in the
Governors chair at Nashville. II has
been mainly through the strength evinced
at the ballot box by eastern Kentucky
that a Republican has more than once
become the State Executive at Frank
fort It was largely the support derived
by him from southwestern Virginia that
enabled Gen MALONE to control the Old
Dominion for considerable period.
A vivid recollection Of the facts just
mentioned may lead the Democratic
majorities in the Legislatures Of Virginia,
Kentucky and Tennessee TO assent to
the dismemberment involved in the
erection Of the proposed new State. That
State would contain between seven and
eight hundred thousand inhabitants,
and would therefore assure TO the Re-
puDuOhn party al duulluou " HN0 oi0C-
toral votes: a number, however, which
would be likely 10 remain stationary for
a long time, inasmuch as the population
Of the region in question increases slowly.
On the other hand, the Democracy could
rely with confidence on retaining there
after the thirteen electoral votes OF Ken
lucky, twelve Of which it lost in iISc,
ano which were imperilled in 1900 and
1904 The twelve electoral votes Of
Virginia and the twelve Of Tennessee
would also be thenceforward unshakably
Democratic. On this ground it is con-
ceivable that, as a matter Of party policy,
the Legislatures Of Kentucky, Tennessee
and Virginia might acquiesce in the Gre
alton Of a new Republican State.
It would be one Of the strangest sur
prises wrought by the whirligig Of time
II for the short lived State Of Franklin
should DO reserved q resurrection.