March 12, 1863
For Parkersburg. - Quite a number of Butternuts left here yesterday morning on the Steamer Eagle to attend the meeting of Copperheads which is to assemble in Parkersburg to-day. The delegation was composed chiefly of the younger members of the party. We learned yesterday that many of the citizens of Parkersburg apprehend a serious row there to-day. We hope that nothing of the kind will occur and that the Butternuts will be permitted to assemble and transact their business without interruption.
The Convention at Parkersburg.
We understand that the anti-New State Convention at Parkersburg which was to have come off on Thursday, fell through and didn't come off. We have no particulars of the reason why, but presume that a dearth of attendance was one cause. If the few disappointed people who were on the ground want to see a Convention in Parkersburg as is a Convention, they have only to attend the "unconditional" Union assemblage that is called to meet there after the election on the 26th.
The Late Butternut Anti-New State Convention In Parkersburg - The Butternuts Intend To Publish An Address To The "Democracy" - We learn from a gentleman who reached this city on Saturday, from Parkersburg; that there were two reasons why the anti-new State Convention was not held there on the 12th. The first was the slim attendance of Delegates, and the other was, that the Sheriff would not let them have the keys of the Court House. Gen. Jackson applied for the keys but the sheriff informed him that there was reason to believe the people of Parkersburg would not permit the Convention to be held, and he (the sheriff) was not willing to endanger the public property. Gen. Jackson then said the Convention should be held in the Episcopal Church, but why it was not held there is not known. The few delegates present had a private meeting at Gen. Jackson's house, at which it was resolved to issue an address calling upon "Democrats" not to vote upon the new State proposition, for the reason that its opponents had been mobbed and interfered with by both the civil and military authorities. Thus these butternut leaders, finding the people almost a unit upon the new State question, intend to abandon the canvas and screen their lack of strength by crying Abolition mobocracy.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: March 1863