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UNIONISTS OF EAST TENNESSEE.

Throughout Tennessee there was undoubtedly a strong attachment to the Union, but particularly in the eastern part of the State, a region bordering on the Alleghany range, where the people, possessed of but few slaves, had few interests in common with the lordly planters of the rest of the State. Inhabiting a country the land of which can only be cultivated profitably by the personal labor of the proprietors, the people of East Tennessee have learned to depend upon their own resources. They have thus become industrious and self-reliant, and acquired a respect for labor which, as it assimilates them to the people of the North, tends to withdraw their sympathies from the Southern slaveholders, who, with negroes to do their work, exult in the aristocracy of idleness.

The action of the Tennessee Legislature was particularly odious to the independent yeomen of East Tennessee, and they immediately called a convention to be held in Knoxville, "disapproving," as they declared, "of the hasty and inconsiderate action of our General Assembly, and sincerely desirous to do, in the midst of the troubles which surround us, what will be best for our country and for all classes of our citizens." The resistance, however, of this portion of the State has not yet proved of much avail to the cause of the Union, and did not prevent the people of Tennessee, under the terrorism, doubtless, of the military power, from sanctioning, by a large majority of votes, the arbitrary action of the Legislature.

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Though the Federal Government was disappointed in its anticipations of support in Tennessee, it found great encouragement in Virginia, where the people of the northwestern district, in spite of the secession of the State, had taken a bold stand for the Union. This portion of Virginia, bounded on the east by the Alleghany range of mountains, on the north and west by the free States of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and on the south by the Kanawha valley, watered by the river of that name which empties into the Ohio, has much of the geographical and social characteristics of the North. of the North. The negro element of the population is comparatively small, there being but fifteen thousand slaves to three hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and ninety-two whites; while in the middle district, between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, the proportion of slaves is forty-eight thousand and forty to two hundred and fortythree thousand one hundred and fiftyfive whites; and in Eastern Virginia, lying between the Blue Ridge and the Atlantic, the number of slaves reaches the large proportion of four hundred and thirty-eight thousand four hundred and sixteen to four hundred and fortyeight thousand nine hundred and thirtytwo whites.

The proportion of the negro to the white population, moreover, has been rapidly decreasing in Western Virginia. The number of slaves, it is true, throughout the whole State, has lessened during the last ten years, but it is only in the middle and western districts, and espe

cially in the latter, where the whites tion. With a wholesome climate, cooled

have much augmented in number. Of the whole increase of the white population of the State, from 1850 to 1860, estimated at one hundred and fifty-two thousand seven hundred and seventynine, no less than seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and twelve-more than one-half of the total increase-was in Western Virginia.

This comparative freedom from slavery has produced not only a social diversity, but a difference of interest, which had long tended greatly to weaken the alliance of the western district with the rest of the State. There are, besides, natural influences which, at the same time, have continued to strengthen the sympathy of Western Virginia with the North. The abundant resources of coal and iron have attracted the enterprise of Northern capitalists and caused an immigration of working-men to a country where the slaves are so few as neither to degrade nor to compete with free labor. The close proximity, moreover, of the States of Pennsylvania and Ohio, between which Western Virginia is wedged, has naturally brought it into such an intimate social and trading relationship with them, that it has become emulous of the spirit of enterprise which, under the impulse of freedom, animates its neighbors. Its chief city, Wheeling, is already so alive with the zealous activity of commerce and manufactures, that it rivals in prosperity some of the most flourishing communities of the North. The whole region has immense resources for the support of a large and thriving popula

by the bracing atmosphere of the mountains; with a soil of valley and hillside enriched by the flow of numerous rivers, and sources of wealth in its forests, its water power, its minerals, its navigable streams, and its railroad communications, Western Virginia presents a seductive invitation to enterprise and a certain promise of liberal reward. While the affinities of this district are thus naturally with its energetic neighbors of the free North, local political differences, apart from an original antagonism, have for a long time existed to interrupt its relations with the predominant slave power of the State. Presuming upon its political ascendency, Eastern Virginia had executed vast projects of improvement, especially for its own benefit, and imposed an unequal weight of the prodigal expenditure incurred, upon the western district. A tax was laid, but all slaves under twelve years of age were exempted. As Eastern Virginia was chiefly engaged in raising negroes for the Southwestern slavemarkets, this exemption of a large portion of what was one of their most valuable products, was considered an unjust exception in favor of its own interests. Western Virginia complained grievously, and finally strove in consequence to separate from the eastern part of the State. Efforts to this effect had been made, and seemed at one time to have nearly succeeded.

An opposition to the action of the political leaders of Eastern Virginia in their movement toward wresting the

ACTION OF WESTERN VIRGINIA.

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State from the Union, naturally came This, however, was not adopted, on from the inhabitants of the west. At the ground that it acknowledged the the convention which met on the 17th principle of secession, and thus seemed of April at Richmond, the delegates to justify the act of the secessionists of from Western Virginia protested almost Virginia, against whom and their docunanimously against the act of secession trines the loyal men of the West had which was passed. Such was the pop- arrayed themselves. Mr. Carlile's resular indignation to which they exposed olution of separation being, however, themselves by their firm resistance to changed into one of inquiry as to its the prevalent disunion sentiment of that policy, became more acceptable, and in locality, that they barely escaped with this form was adopted. their lives from the excited mob of the rebellious city.

Not satisfied with protests, Western Virginia determined to resist by action the violent disruption of its relations with the Union. Large meetings were held, and it was recommended at a April gathering in Harrison County, 22. that the people of all the counties of Northwestern Virginia should appoint delegates, not less than five in number, of "their wisest, best, and discreetest men," to meet in convention at Wheeling, on the 13th of May, to "consult and determine upon such action as the people of Northwestern Virginia should take in the present fearful emergency."

This recommendation met with general approval, and accordingly delegates, representing thirty of the fifty western May counties, assembled at Wheeling. 13. The long-desired object of many Western Virginians became the prominent subject of discussion, on the proposition of Mr. Carlile for the separation of the western district of Virginia from the rest, and its organization into a State to be called "New Virginia."

The convention, waiving for the present the question of separation, contented itself with passing resolutions denouncing the action of the secessionists of the State, expressing its own loyal attachment to the Union, recommending the citizens to vote against the act of secession to be submitted to their suffrage, and in case it should be passed, to appoint delegates to a general convention to meet for the purpose of devising such measures and taking such action as the welfare and safety of the people they represent might demand. Closing with this ardent appeal to the loyalty of the people of Northwestern Virginia, the convention adjourned:

"In obedience to the fourteenth* resolution of the convention which met in this city on the 13th instant, we earnestly conjure you to enter actively and immediately upon the great work of preparing your neighbors and friends,

"Resolved, That each county represented in this con

vention, and any others that may be disposed to co-operate with us, be requested to appoint a committee of five, whose duty it shall be to see that all things that may be necessary to be done be attended to, to carry out the objects of this convention, and to correspond with the central committee."

as well as yourselves, for the firm, stern, and decided stand necessary to be taken and adhered to at all hazards, and maintained at any and every cost, if we would preserve to ourselves and transmit to our posterity that unity of government which constitutes us one people, which we justly regard as the palladium of our liberties and the main pillar in the edifice of our independence. In this way, and in this way alone, we can save ourselves from the innumerable evils consequent upon secession and all the horrors of civil war.

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Why should the people of Northwestern Virginia allow themselves to be dragged into the rebellion inaugurated by ambitious and heartless men, who have banded themselves together to destroy a government formed for you by your patriot fathers, and which has secured to you all the liberties consistent with the nature of man, and has, for near three-fourths of a century, sheltered you in sunshine and in storm, nade you the admiration of the civilized world, and conferred upon you a title more honored, respected, and revered than that of king or potentatethe title of American citizen. Will you passively surrender it and submit to be used by the conspirators engaged in this effort to enslave you, as their instruments by which your enslavement is to be effected?

be accomplished in the broad glare of a noonday sun, but a deed of darkness, which had to be performed in secret conclave by the reckless spirits who accomplished it, in contempt of the people, their masters under our form of government, but whom the leaders in this work of destruction have determined to enslave.

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What is secession? Bankruptcy, ruin, civil war, ending in military despotism. Prior to the adoption of the ordinance of secession in Virginia, and to the passage by the Legislature of the bill calling a convention, all was peace, and the great business interests of our State were uninterrupted. From the hour that it was proclaimed the ordinance of secession had been passed, business of every description has been paralyzed; State, corporation, and individual credit is prostrate, and bankruptcy and ruin stare us in the face, and war, civil war, with all its attendant horrors, is upon us. Secession, all now see, is war. It is preceded by war, accompanied and sustained by war, ushered into being by war.

"Who are to stand the brunt of this contest? Will it be those who have clamored loudest for secession, and who have done the most to bring on the present crisis? These are the first to flee from the very approach of danger. They hurry, in every train and by every coach, from the anticipated scenes of disturbance. Will the disunion majority of the Richmond Convention come into the ranks and shoulder the musket "What is secession? A deed not to in the strife which they have inaugu

"Freemen who would remain free must prove themselves worthy to be free, and must themselves first strike the blow.

ADDRESS OF LOYAL VIRGINIANS.

rated? They will keep at a respectful distance from danger. They will fill the lucrative offices and secure the rich appointments which appertain to the new order of things. They will luxuriate on two or three or four hundred dollars per month, with horses, and servants, and rations to match, while the Union-loving people will be called upon, for the honor of Virginia and two shillings per day, to do the fighting and undergo the hardships of war. 'We are all Virginians,' say they; the State must be sustained, and, right or wrong, we must all fight for Virginia,' etc.

"What is it to fight for Virginia? What is it to sustain the State? Is it to urge her upon a course which leads to visible and gaping destruction? Is this the way and the only way in which we can testify our devotion to the commonwealth? If the feelings which actuated our Revolutionary fathers be not all dead in us, we shall exhibit our love for Virginia by repudiating this tyrannical rule which the Richmond Convention has endeavored to impose, and not suffer ourselves to be sold like sheep from the shambles. The people yet hold their destinies in their own hands; it is for them to accept or reject a tyranny worse many times than that from which the war of '76 delivered us-not the tyranny of one man, but of many.

"But, people of Northwestern Virginia, why should we thus permit our selves to be tyrannized over and made slaves of by the haughty arrogance and wicked machinations of would-be Eastern despots? Are we submissionists, craven

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cowards, who will yield to daring ambition the rich legacy of freedom which we have inherited from our fathers, or are we men who know our rights, and knowing, dare maintain them? If we are, we will resist the usurpers, and drive from our midst the rebellion sought to be forced upon us. We will, in the strength of our cause, resolutely and determinedly stand by our rights and our liberties, secured to us by the struggles of our Revolutionary fathers and the authors of the Constitution under which we have grown and prospered beyond all precedent in the world's history; we will maintain, protect, and defend that Constitution and the Union with all our strength and with all our powers, ever remembering that Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.'

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"We utterly repudiate the war sought to be forced upon us without and against the consent and earnest protestations of the people who have not produced it, but who have, we regret to say, thus far offered no resistance, but have submitted to the filling up of armies and the quartering of troops in their midst; taking for the purpose our young men who had, in a time of profound peace, and with no expectation of ever being called upon to aid in a rebellion, attached themselves to the volunteer corps of our State. The people, stunned by the magnitude of the crime, have for a time offered no resistance; but as returning reason enables them to perceive distinctly the objects and purposes of the vile perpetrators of this deed, their hearts swell within them, and already

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