Treasury amounting to $213,475.58; and the invested school fund in addition amounted to $229,300.

As a means to easy, cheap, and rapid transportation, much attention was given during this time to projects of internal improvement. Governor Stevenson says, in his message (1871): "I cannot too earnestly recommend liberal legislation to public spirited men, who, in good faith, undertake to build railroads, improve our rivers, or inaugurate other enterprises to develop or transport the material wealth of the State."

The great number of county agricultural and mechanical associations organized during this period, as well as county fairs held, give evidence of an increased interest in agriculture and general industry. The agricultural productions during the year 1870 were greater than in any previous year. Statistics collected by the Governor show "in many cases, the surprising increase in the productions of the State." Immigration both from other States and from Europe was encouraged.

10. Campaign and Election of 1870.-The state election in October, 1870, was something of a surprise to both Republicans and Democrats. It came with the bitterness of disappointment to the political leaders who had controlled the policy of the Union Republican party, for it presaged the final overthrow of that policy. John J. Jacob, the Democratic candidate, defeated Stevenson by a majority of 2,010 votes; the Democrats had a majority of two in the State Senate and a majority of twenty-four in the House of Delegates, insuring the return of a Democrat to the United States Senate in place of Senator Willey; John J. Davis, Democrat, had defeated General Nathan Goff for Congress in the first District; Frank Hereford, Democrat, had defeated General Witcher in the third; and James C. McGrew, Republican, had been elected over Downey, in the second, by a slender majority. The Flick amendment of enfranchisement had not yet been

adopted. Why then this crushing defeat? The Fifteenth, the last of the series of war amendments to the Constitution of the United States, had taken effect in March, 1870. The attitude of West Virginia during the war had been determined largely by two potent influence: (1) the desire to maintain the integrity of the Union as against Secession; and (2) to secure that local independence in their political and economic administration for which they had been contending for more than half a century. There was little sympathy with the institution of slavery; but the abolition of slavery with them was not a paramount issue. The Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery they were willing to accept; the Fourteenth Amendment they perhaps could tolerate as one of necessity for securing the life, liberty and property of the blacks: but the Fifteenth Amendment, which made a voter of the slave, was accumulating reforms too rapidly; the public mind was not yet prepared for it; a reaction took place; and thousands of votes, heretofore cast for the Union Republican party, were now cast for the Democratic candidates. Moreover, there was a general "letting up" in the more stringent features of the requirements for registration of voters, and vast numbers, who had theretofore been disfranchised, voted at this election. These votes went to the Democracy. Jacob posed as a moderate, conservative, and independent candidate. Two years later he was thought not unworthy of the support of independent Republicans as against the regular nominee of the Democratic party.

II. Election of a United States Senator (1871).—On February 1, 1871, the Joint Assembly for the election of a United States Senator for the term beginning on the 4 day of March following, to succeed Senator Willey, was convened in the hall of the House of Delegates. In the Senate Henry G. Davis had received fourteen votes and James H. Brown seven; in the House Davis had received thirty-nine votes and Brown fifteen; so Henry G. Davis was declared elected.

CHAPTER XV.

JACOB'S ADMINISTRATION (1871-1877).

1. Inauguration of State Officers (1871).—The inauguration of Governor Jacob took place at the front steps of the Capitol in Charleston in the presence of about three hundred persons. He had been welcomed to the capital by a committee of the Legislature and by representatives of the people of Charleston. The administration of the oath of office by Judge Edwin Maxwell of the Supreme Court of Appeals was followed by the qualification of the other executive officers, the inaugural address of the Governor, a spread of champagne and cake in the Senate Chamber furnished by the people of Charleston, and responses to toasts upon call by the retiring as well as the incoming Governor.

2. Policy of Governor Jacob.-The Governor's policy, was on the whole, conservative. He approved the Flick amendment in his inaugural address, and was silent on the subject of a convention to change the Constitution. His messages are chiefly directed to the infinite variety of subjects and measures arising in state administration, particularly to the betterment of loosely constructed laws, and the development of the State. He recommended a modification of the delinquent land laws, so as "to protect innocent holders against forfeitures;" stronger supervision by the Auditor over the collectors cf taxes; an armory for the University; the repeal of the law permitting corporations to hold and sell real estate for profit; the local regulation and control of education by the State to the exclusion of Federal interference; the improvement of rivers; the organization of a state geological survey.

But his statesmanship in some respects was not broad; he seemed but half awakened from a dream of the utter extinguishment of the reserved rights of the State by the Federal Government.

3. The Virginia Debt.-The ordinance of the restored Government of Virginia, providing for the formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of Virginia, passed by the Convention at Wheeling, August 20, 1861, contained the following provision with respect to the debt of the State of Virginia:

"The new State shall take upon itself a just proportion of the public debt of the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to the first day of January, 1861, to be ascertained by charging to it all the expenditures within the limits thereof, and a just proportion of the ordinary expenses of the state government, since any part of said debt was contracted; and deducting therefrom all the monies paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth, from the counties included within the said new State, during the same period."

Upon the organization of the new State the following provision was inserted in the Constitution (1863):

"An equitable proportion of the public debt of the Commonwealth of Virginia, prior to the first day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, shall be assumed by this State."

No move was made to ascertain the extent of the obligation resting upon West Virginia for seven years, when the initiative was taken by Virginia in the appointment of a commission, on February 17, 1870, to treat with the authorities of this State. The commission appeared in Wheeling during the session of the Legislature of 1870, and upon their representations of a desire to adjust the question, a commission was appointed "to treat with the authorities of the State of Virginia on the subject of a proper adjustment of the public debt of that State," prior to January 1, 1861, "and a fair

division of the property belonging to that State on that day." This resolution, passed in the closing hours of the session, by an oversight failed to carry an appropriation to meet the expenses necessary to be incurred by the commission. For this reason the commission failed to act. But at the next session (1871) a similar resolution was passed, supplying the deficiencies of the resolution of the preceding session. In the meantime Virginia changed her policy as to the mode of settlement, and proposed to this State "an arbitration of all matters touching a full and fair apportionment between said States of the public debt," but by arbitrators not citizens of either State; and the arbitrament, when made, was not to be subject to ratification by the Legislature of either State. West Virginia declined the arbitration and appointed her commissioners, and invited Virginia to do the same, under the resolution adopted February 17, 1870. The Governor appointed as commissioners to represent West Virginia, General John J. Jackson, Jonathan M. Bennett, who had been Auditor of Virginia, and Archibald W. Campbell, editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer. The Governor of Virginia was informed of the appointment. He replied that while the Virginia resolution proposing arbitration did not in terms repeal the resolution providing for a commission, it was nevertheless "intended to supersede it," and therefore he did not feel authorized to appoint commissioners. No course was left open for the West Virginia commission to pursue, except to take independent action. The commissioners met in Richmond on November 9, 1871. They spent "several days in the examination of such public documents as were available" to them at the Capital, "and realizing the necessity for further and more explicit and official information," they appealed to the Second Auditor. He declined to make the investigations necessary to answer the questions propounded, on account of the amount of work and labor required; but he courteously tendered the books and records of his office for the inspection of the commissioners. They proceeded to ascertain as far