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Pennsylvania, a man of clear, statesmanlike ways of thinking and a determined opponent of slavery, suggested that in regard to representation five slaves should be considered equal to three free men. He who draws his political inspiration simply and solely from his bible of principles plays Don Quixote. Political policy is a necessity. But a concession which involves a principle that can be neither morally nor politically justified is a heavy weight, which sooner or later becomes too heavy for the strongest political swimmer." '

The formation of the Supreme Court at every period prior to the late war was affected by the slavery question. It excluded from that bench absolutely every native of the white portion of the State, — the mountain ous region now forming the State of West Virginia. The same jealousy was felt ofthat portion of the State as was afterwards felt of Northern interference. The dominant slave holders who were in control would make no concessions to the white people of Vir ginia. The issues which were afterwards those wiped out in blood were the real con troversies in the Commonwealth in 182930. Slavery then divided the State, and it was never afterwards heartily united. Free dom on a white basis was unfortunately overpowered at the date of the adoption of that Constitution. Said Lewis Summers of Kanawha, now West Virginia, in that famous convention on the question of representa tion on a white basis : — "Can the world believe that the protection of property has been the object sought for here? Will not the disguise be thrown off? Will not this question show the most determined effort ever made in the American States to render the many the vassals of the/«*>/" i The Constitution was adopted by a major ity of the persons who were permitted to vote. In the counties of the eastern portion of the State, which were those in which slaves were numerous, the vote was largely in its favor; but in the western or white portion 1 Von Hoist's Constitutional and Political History of the United States, vol.!. p. 289. '* Debates of Convention, 1829-30. p. 664.

of the Commonwealth the vote was over whelming against it. Accomac County, on the Atlantic, gave 266 in favor of, and 70 rejecting the Constitution. Ohio County, in the extreme west, gave 3 votes in its favor and 643 against it. Brooke County unanimously rejected it by 371 votes.1 These returns foreshadowed the war. The abolition societies had gained no foothold anywhere. It was the people of Virginia struggling to free themselves from the horrible curse of slavery. The ques tion was clearly and fully understood, but never dealt with in a statesmanlike man ner by the dominant faction in control of the destinies of the State. Its settlement was knowingly committed to the accidental Utopia of the future. It was plain to every one that the owners of the slaves were soar ing on Icarian wings. The evil grew worse, and on the 2oth of January, 1832, it had become so unendurable that the Legislature attempted to solve it. What was to be the policy of the Commonwealth with respect to its slave population was the absorbing problem before that body. The Hon. Charles James Faulkner, of Berkeley County, the elo quent leader in the cause of freedom, said : "If there be danger, let us know it, and pre pare for the worst. If slavery can be eradicated, in God's name let us get rid of it. If it cannot, let that melancholy fact be distinctly ascertained; and let those who we have been told arc- now awaiting with painful solicitude the result of your determination, pack up their household gods, and find among the luxuriant forests and prairies of the West that security and repose which their native land does not afford. . . . The spirit of free inquiry is abroad upon the earth; and govern ments and all of the institutions connected with them must be sustained, not by any mystical and superstitious reverence for them as existing insti tutions, but as they are ascertained after a severe and searching scrutiny to subserve the great ends of popular weal. . . . The Gordian knot must be untied, — if it is by the sword; Asia must be vanquished, the country must be saved." * 1 Ibid. p. 903. Brooke County is in West Virginia. 2 " Slavery Debates " of 1832, Virginia State Library.