-
Chapter 15: Tensions of Reconstruction
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
15 Tensions of Reconstruction The LegMy ofWar. Although West Virginia was a Union state during the last two years of the Civil War, her political and social history during Reconstruction was scarcely less traumatic than those of the states of the former Confederacy. Most of the tensions and hatreds were rooted in the war and produced permanent schismseven among Unionists. UnconditionalUnionists, such as Arthur I. Boreman, Archibald W. Campbell, Waitman T. Willey, and Chester D. Hubbard, were ready to accept emancipationof slaves, imposed by Congress, and wartime proscriptions, including suspension of habeas corpus, of the Lincoln administration in return for statehood. Conservative Unionists, includingJohn S.Carlile,SherrardClemens, John J. Jackson, and John J. Davis, wouldjeopardize statehood rather than bow to a governmentthat they perceived as dictatorial and abolitionist. This fundamental cleavage in Unionist ranks produced in the Radical-orientedgovernmentof West Virginiaa profound sense of insecurity. West Virginia authorities anticipated further troubles with the return of Confederate veterans, mostly Democratic, at the end of the war. In 1863 the legislatureprovided for confiscationof the property of enemiesof the state. The act was never seriously enforced, but it encouraged home guards and irregular marauding bands to wreak vengeance upon Confederate sympathizers and to use unsettled conditions for personal advantage. An oath of allegiance to the governments of the United States and West Virginia, required of state and local officials and later of attorneys, schoolteachers,and school trustees, served as a weapon for discriminationand persecution.In addition,numerous persons with Confederateleanings were arrested and detained, and some were sent to Camp Chase at Columbus, Ohio, as prisoners of war. The Oection of 1 8 6 4 .Even when allowances are made for campaign oratory and excesses, there can be no doubt that West Virginia authoritieshad considerable apprehension that Democrats and conservative Unionists might destroythe new state. On March 15, 1864,Ralph L. Berkshire wrote Willeythat he expected the Copperheads to make "great exertions" in both national and stateelections.He had no doubtthat they would fail nationally,but he fearedthat their machinations might result in a Democratic victory that would leave no hope forthe state.Willey laterdeclaredthat aconspiracy "has been organizedto wipe out West Virginia" and that he and others stood ready to combat the effort.' ArchibaldCampbellcondemnedthe Democraticparty in the columnsof the Wheeling Intelligencer as a "Rebel Aid Society," which did not recognize the new state.2 The Wheeling Register, the leading conservative newspaper of West Virginia , refuted the "prevarication and deception" of its rival. Lewis Baker, its editor,pointed out that only the SupremeCourtcould change the statusof West Virginia. He reminded his readersthat "our Abolition friendslabored to defeat the manner proposed by conservatives for its formation and succeededin doing so; they formed it in their own way, and now they seem wonderfully alarmed about its perpetuity."3 In the presidential election of 1864 Lincoln carried West Virginia over Democrat George B. McClellan by a vote of 23,152 to 10,438. His vote, however, fell more than five thousand short of the 28,321 cast for the Willey Amendmentthe previousyear. It indicated that many Unionistswhoreluctantly supported a necessary condition for statehoodwanted no part of Lincoln's war measures and that Carlile, Clemens, Davis, and others were laying the ground for a conservative organization that might collaborate with the Democrats to become a powerful force in West Virginia politics. The assassination of Lincoln raised new fears for the future of West %rginia. Governor Boreman hastened to Washington, and he and Senator Willey called upon PresidentJohnson,who assured them that the positionof the state would remain secure. Johnson also stated that he would recognize the Pierpont government at Alexandria as the dejure government of Virginia after the war. These guarantees facilitated the move of UnconditionalUnionists into the Republican Party. Unsettled conditions, marked by violence by Confederates or pseudoConfederates ,also causedauthoritiescontinuedconcern.In his annualmessage to the legislature on January 17, 1865, Boreman drew attention to robberies "committed on a large scale in many parts of the State" and the murderof some of the "best citizens" of Harrisonand Marion counties. He charged that disloyal persons who had remained at home fed and harbored "these marauders and murderers, knowing their purpose." Boreman urged loyal West Virginians to organize for their own protection, authorized them to kill "these outlaws wherever found," andpromised freearms and ammunitionforthat purp~se.~ He asked the legislature to enact more stringent laws with severe punishments for the guilty but with safeguardsto protect the innocent. 'Berkshire's letter is quoted in Richard Orr Curry,A House Divided...