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C h a p t e r 1 6 Convention Organization, Procedure, and the Public Record At noon on Tuesday, 16 January 1872, the West Virginia Constitutional Convention met in the Court of Appeals room at the new state capitol in Charleston. Delegate Benjamin Wilson of Wilsonburg, Harrison County, called the assembly to order and nominated Charles James Faulkner of Martinsburg as temporary president. The convention unanimously elected the nominee. After being conducted to his chair, Mr. Faulkner made some prepared opening remarks. Without trying to provoke any spirit of complaint or reproach, he asserted that this was the “first full and perfect representation of the people of West Virginia” that had occurred. The creation of West Virginia was an accomplished fact no matter what previous thoughts existed in somemindsaboutthe“regularity”ofstatehood.Thestatewasasovereignmemberof “that great confederacy of republics.” While reviewing the state’s industrial potential, Faulknerimpresseduponthedelegatestheirsolemnobligationstodotheirbest.What the delegates did would become relatively permanent. Among the responsibilities in constitution making, he urged a bill of rights to close “every crevice” “through which the subtle spirit of proscription may hereafter reach its victim” and advised economy in governmental organization and free education. He desired the debate to be “free, earnest, and exhaustive” and hoped it would not become “vapid.”1 The assembly warmly applauded the former minister’s opening charge. Many state newspapers carried the full text. The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer cautioned its readers that the remarks had been carefully revised before circulation. The editor admired it as “a very pretty and polished bit of rhetoric,” attributable to Minister Faulkner’s tour in the French court where the highest art of language was to conceal, nottoexpressthoughts.Hisunfortunateuseofthephrase“confederacyofrepublics” revealed that the temporary president hankered “after the flesh pots of richmond and montgomery.” Even though Faulkner had Confederate antecedents and association , he had “a keen nostril for popularity” and would attempt to steer his more unreconstructed Democratic allies through the demands of national realities.2 409 410 West Virginia’s Civil War–Era Constitution After the appointment of temporary convention secretaries, President Faulkner presented the governor’s proclamation naming all seventy-eight delegates elected to the body. The roll was called, and seventy-six answered to their names. The two absent were George O. Davenport and Matthew Edmiston. Davenport appeared the next day, but Edmiston of Lewis County never attended a convention session because of illness.3 The president then proceeded to the election of the permanent presiding officer . The state press had mentioned several men as possible convention presidents: Faulkner, Samuel Price, Matthew Edmiston, or Okey Johnson. When Johnson saw that he had no chance, he speedily nominated Price for the post. Former U.S. senator Waitman T. Willey of Morgantown nominated William Guy Brown, Union Democrat of Kingwood, Preston County. On a recorded viva voce vote, the results followed predictable lines: sixty-four for Price and twelve for Brown. Former Confederate lieutenant governor of Virginia Price took his seat, where he addressed the convention.4 After assuring all that he would be fair, just, and impartial in his application of convention rules, President Price asserted that the body had an advantage over the framers of the West Virginia Constitution of 1863. His Confederate version of the constitutional experience of the 1861–63 delegates and of the statemakers’ efforts attracted critical notice: “They were irregularly assembled together for the double purpose of providing, in the first place, for the birth of a State, and in the second place for the government of a State. We have nothing to do with the birth of the State. This State has been aptly called ‘the child of the tempest’ and we may say was brought intobeing by meansof a Caesarian operation, and itwas uncertain for some time whether she would live or not.” Because the state was a reality, the convention delegates, now not presiding over a birth, confronted the reality of governance. All were aware after nine years of operation of the current constitution’s defects, which were unspecified. Stressing fairness, equality, impartiality, and justice as principles of convention guidance, Price believed that six weeks were sufficient to complete the work properly. The body’s two objectives were to make a “good” constitution and frame one that the people will believe is “good.” Ratification was a paramount consideration.5 As with Faulkner’s opening speech, many state newspapers also printed Price’s ceremonial remarks. Democratic papers hospitably greeted them, but the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer was, as usual, more critical in its analysis. The...

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