March 7, 1862
At a meeting of the Union citizens of Bethany and the vicinity, held in the Bethany Church, on Tuesday, the 4th inst., the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously passed.
WHEREAS, It is always the right, it is in times like the present, the duty of American citizens to assemble in primary meetings, and make declarations of love and loyalty to the government of their own founding and choice, and to encourage and support their agents in every constitutional effort to preserve its integrity, or to censure and [illegible] upon the conduct and acts of those they have entrusted with the guardianship of cherished interests; therefore,
Resolved, That we endorse and highly approve the policy of the National Administration in subduing this unholy rebellion and that we will render it all our moral and material support, until the Star Spangled Banner, the loved emblem of our liberty and unity, shall float triumphant over every fort, arsenal, dock yard, mint, custom house, or other national property in each and all of the thirty-four States represented in its glorious galaxy of stars.
Resolved, That we warmly applaud the course of such border state Senators as Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Tenn., and Hon. Garrett Davis, of Ky., and especially do we heartily commend the patriotic speeches and votes against the traitor Bright, and we trust that in future our two Senators, Messrs. Willey and Carlile, will try to emulate their patriotic examples.
Resolved, That the Senate Convention recently in session at Wheeling, in enlarging the original proposed boundaries of the new State, transcended not only their authority under the ordinance calling member together, but logically paved the way, in our belief, for an entire defeat of the new State; and that in refusing to incorporate in the Constitution a clause looking to the gradual eradication of slavery from the soil of the new State, and especially in refusing to submit such a clause in the schedule appended to that Constitution, by means of which the people could have voted yea or nay upon it, without detriment to the other parts of the Constitution or jeopardy to its adoption, were derelict to their duty, and have but simply re-inaugurated the Lecompton stratagem, of infamous memory, by which the people of Kansas were forced to the alternative of either rejecting their Constitution altogether or adopting its obnoxious pro-slavery features.
Resolved, That in voting for a new State, an object of paramount importance with us, was the gradual extinction of slavery; because, first, in our opinion, such a policy is our only hope for future prosperity, and because, second, it is the only rational hope of our admission as a new State in the Union.
Resolved, That the resolution offered in the Convention by Gordon Battelle, a member from Ohio County, have our unqualified approval, and we here take occasion to express our cordial sympathy with the author.
Resolved, That the packed resolutions prepared and submitted by J.D. Pickett and others to a packed meeting, held in this village and in this house, on the first day of January, 1861, were not representative of the opinions of the people of this community, and we deem it due to our good name abroad to announce that they were passed by the votes of non-residents, (students at the college and others,) and that we utterly condemn their spirit and tenor.
Resolved, That the foregoing preamble and resolution be published in the Wheeling Intelligencer, and that the papers of Western Virginia be requested to copy them.
COMMITTEE:
R.L. JONES,
A. COEN,
AARON HEDGE,
J.B. LOCKHART,
J.A. CAMPBELL
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: March 1862