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6. The Republican Party’s Banquo’s Ghost
- The Kent State University Press
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140 West Virginia’s Civil War–Era Constitution C h a p t e r 6 The Republican Party’s Banquo’s Ghost The probable national ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, the declining Republican victory margins in state elections, and the increasing passage of time since the war caused deep Republican introspection about their course to achieve future political success. The party’s fate, even its survival, in West Virginia was at stake. Northern Panhandle Republicans had already witnessed local Democratic ascendancy where conflict and bitterness about the war were not as severe as elsewhere in the state. Simple Republican appeals to national patriotism and for continued political proscription of former Confederates did not attract Panhandle voters. Sanguine Republicans in Wheeling realized that there was no future in continuing the same failing approaches either in their locality or statewide. Inevitably, the state of West Virginia had to include former Confederates into the political process. Sons of the disfranchised multiplied their registration numbers every year, and no one doubted their political orientation. Political accommodation carried its own risks for Republicans, as they might lose control in the process—a result that might occur in any event. Several prominent Republicans believed that failure was inevitable if their party rejected political proscription. They opposed any alteration of policy. May 1869 and following months arose as the time of change. The immediate occasion for Republican self-examination was an editorial appearing in the Monroe Republican at Union, West Virginia, that advocated the calling of a constitutional convention to revise the governmental frame to address changed political conditions . The author was probably Cyrus Newlin, a Greenbrier County lawyer and Republican state legislator, who claimed in June 1869 to have controlled the newspaper ’s political columns since its establishment.1 The Monroe Republican editorial argued that the altered and improved condition of the state, to achieve needed conformity to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and to change constitutionally fixed state executive salaries required 140 The Republican Party’s Banquo’s Ghost 141 a convention. Granville Davisson Hall concurred with the changes that Newlin highlightedbutdisagreedaboutthenecessityforaconvention.Threesimpleamendments could address Newlin’s concerns. A convention could bring constitutional changes that were undesirable. Fundamental constitutional change should never be made for light and transient causes. “The evils of change may be greater than those existing,” Hall cautioned. “The erection of a separate State and the adoption of a Constitution fundamentally different from that in Virginia, revolutionized the system to which our people had been accustomed.” Codified law that was in force and was supposed to be available in published form still was unpublished because of “botch-work” of those legislators who managed the matter. The Constitution of 1863 had not been fairly tried, Hall contended. After some experience with it and the code, constitutional overhaul might be appropriate. It “would be exceedingly unwise to call a convention, tear up the foundations, turn everything topsy-turvey and launch into another five years of experiment, confusion, vexation and expense.” Amendment could easily be made with little expense, Hall assured.2 The Monroe Republican’s original editorial stated that in southeastern West Virginia about three-fourths of the voters in 1861 were disqualified. Being taxpayers and expected to uphold laws, this group’s condition was “unnatural, abnormal, and anti-Republican.” State proscriptive legislation was defective because it treated all degrees of political crime alike and with the same rigor. Two classes of Rebels existed: “the comparatively innocent and the culpably guilty.” The largest group, the former, “went into the rebellion under a mistaken conviction of duty, and as a consequence of persistent, gross misrepresentation of facts.” Convinced of their error, this group accepted the war’s results and had been law abiding since. The others had, until the election of Grant in 1868, “engaged in a persistent effort to brand fealty to the Union as both a social and political crime.” West Virginia law had mistakenly treated both groups alike.3 Responding to the Republican’s analysis of levels of Confederate conduct, Granville Hall of the Intelligencer composed a seminal editorial titled “Republican Policy in West Virginia.” Newspapers of all political persuasions statewide recognized the importance of Hall’s observations as signaling a change in the Republican approach to dealing with former Confederates. They reprinted verbatim the long, more than two-column editorial. Hall observed that Republicans could not ignore the disfranchisement of Rebels much longer. The enfranchisement of blacks, Hall hoped, was ensured. The Rebel enfranchisement question would only grow in importance...