Evening journal., 1913-07-30
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How West Virginia Came
Into Being
B, aansna

One evening in the summer of 1881
was the guest of the late General
william Malone at the Richmond
Club in Richmond. Va, and | found
General Malone disposed to he
reminiscent and ready TO talk with ap-
parent freedom OF the policital leaders
of that time
General Mahones prominence as a
United states Senator from Virginia,
elected as a readmster. but soon after
his admission to the Senate afhliat-
Ing with the Republican party to-
eether with the reputation he gained
as a brilliant tighter in command OF
considerable portion of the Con
federate army invested all that he
said with an especially interesting
personality
asked General Malone how the
term "readmater' was selected as a
descriptive appellaton for the party
In Virginia which was in opposition
to the regular Democracy of that
time.
1T all goos back" said the gem
eral TO that extraordinarily inter
estine and peculiar condition the out
come of which was the creation of a
new state and It's admission into the
Union as West Virginia.
vYou know the Constitution pro-
yides that no state can he deprived
of any part of its territory without
It's own consent In other words il
would be impossible to divide Texas,
say. into two or more states unless
the present state of Texas were to
consent
We'll. that is how the state Of
West Virginia was until the ostab
ushment OF the Confederate govern
ment as an integral part of the com
monwealth of Virginia. In many re-
spects it differed greatly from the
! other parts of the old Dominion. II
was settled by the Scotch-lrish and
Welsh. who differed in their ideas, in
their methods of thought and in their
religious ideas from those who dwelt
east of the Blue Ridge Those peo-
pie we're strongly opposed from the
beginning TO the withdrawal of Nir-
ginia from the Union. They voted
against IT, They protested that they
we're still in the Union.
'sWen, that part of Virginia which
| had given a majority IN favor ol
secession could not consistently ap
peal to the Constitution of the United
| States to prevent the withdrawal o
what is now Virginia, because ole
Virginia claimed to be out of The
| Union
"On the other hand. I happened e
know that President Lincoln had io
time grave doubts about the pro
priety of receiving the proposed stat
of West Virginia. But IL was al las
represented to him that these peopl
i'm West Virginia claimed all that wa
left of old Virginia and therefore the
had a perfect right under the Con
stitution of the United States to max
a new boundary
ut was stretching point an
President Lincoln and some member
of his cabinet knew it. because the wa
was waeed upon the Union side upo
the theory that none of the State
which seeded was really out of IN
Union. However, in the perils and eA
elements of that time the new Stat
was born. and its right 1f admissio
was never serio sly questioned.
war and reconstruction Old Virgini
had large debt to refund, but one
third of what before the war wa
Virginia had been created a me-
state. The question was what pr'
portion of the old debt of Virgini
the new State should bear Il was
tremendous political question A
last we devised a plan of rea6ius
ment of the debt and went before III
people on the sole issue. We calle
ourselves the 'Readjuster party W
were successful and It was the RI
adiuster party which elected me
the United States Senate.
Il sometimes thing that one OF th
Queerest of the many queer result
of the attempt to establish the Cor
federate government was the appeal
ance of an absolutely new Stat
carved out of the old Commonwealth
of Virginia
Copyright. 1918. by r. ] Edward
All rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell {