CHAPTER XVI.

MATHEWS'S ADMINISTRATION (1877-1881).

1. Inauguration of State Officers.-A program for the inauguration of the executive officers was arranged by a joint committee of the Legislature. The citizens of Wheeling, irrespective of party, seconded the efforts of the committee. At twelve o'clock, noon, on Monday, March 5, 1877, in the presence of a large audience at the west front of the Capitol, Governor Jacob introduced Henry Mason Mathews, the Governor elect, who delivered his inaugural address. Judge Haymond of the Supreme Court administered the oath of office. In the evening a reception was held in the Capitol, a grand inaugural ball took place, and an elaborate feast was served to the multitudes in attendance. It seemed that the asperities of the campaign were forgotten amid that scene of flowers and flags and banners and music, of feasting and revelry. The Morgantown Post, a Republican journal, in speaking of the inaugural address of Governor Mathews, says, editorially: "We have a broad, manly, and liberal address, which possesses, to our mind, an honesty of purpose, and a freedom from disguise, that is truly refreshing. The skies are brightening all around, and argue well for a long lease of the best fraternal feeling."

2. Policy of Governor Mathews.-Mathews sought the support and encouragement of the wise and patriotic of all parties. He desired perfect peace, that feud and strife might cease. He rejoiced in the renewal of good feeling, and the acceptance, in good faith, of the results of the war. "Let the dead past bury its dead," he said; "and with reorganized forces move up to the living issues of the present."

3. Management of Public Institutions (1877-1881).— Mathews adopted the sensible and liberal policy of appointing boards for the administration of the affairs of the state institutions, composed of men from both political parties. Results fully justified the wisdom of his course. No committee to investigate any alleged scandal or mismanagement was appointed during his term. The affairs of these institutions were generally administered with economy and efficiency. The opportunity for assailing an institution for political effect is practically neutralized by a bi-partisan board. But the wise policy of Mathews was not followed by his successors during some years, when boards composed of representatives of the dominant party alone administered the affairs of these institutions. The unwisdom of partisan control has at last been forced home to the minds of the people. Statutes now require Governors to appoint these boards so as to give both parties representation on them.

4. Great Railroad Strike of 1877.-A strike was started at Martinsburg on the morning of July 16, 1877, by the firemen on the freight engines of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It extended until not only the whole B. & O. system was involved, but many other trunk lines as well. The sum total of the disturbance was that nearly a hundred firemen, and a few others, in the employ of the company, remonstrated against a reduction of ten per centum in their wages. They left their engines; the company undertook to put new men in their places; the strikers used threats and intimidation. The storm center in West Virginia was Martinsburg, with conditions at Keyser, Piedmont, and Grafton threatening outbreak at any moment. The civil authorities were soon rendered powerless. There were in the State at this time but three volunteer military companies, the Berkeley Light Infantry stationed at Martinsburg, under command of Captain Charles James Faulkner, who was also a colonel and aide on the Governor's staff; the Mathews

Light Guards, stationed at Wheeling, under command of Captain W. W. Miller, which had but recently been organized; and a company at Moorefield, which had not yet been supplied with arms, under command of Captain J. Chipley. Captain Faulkner's company was ordered out, and the Mathews Light Guards were ordered to reenforce them. The railroad yard was blocked with freight trains: Martinsburg was the end of a division, where a large part of the shops of the company was then located. Captain Faulkner undertook to move a train with a new engineer and fireman; a volunteer attempted to open a switch; the mob fired upon him and wounded him; the military returned the fire, mortally wounding one of the mob; the engineer and fireman quit the train. Captain Faulkner informed the Governor that the force at his command was not able to cope with the formidable opposition. Colonel Delaplain, an aide-de-camp, was sent out. He reported that the military force of the State was "entirely too small to suppress the riot," and that "any attempt to do so would be attended with disastrous results." The miners in the vicinity of Piedmont were threatening a sympathetic strike. Great excitement and unrest prevailed at Piedmont, Sir John's Run, Keyser, and Grafton. Under these circumstances the Governor asked for Federal troops. A force numbering in all three hundred and thirty-two men was ordered out from the arsenal in Washington and from Fort McHenry near Baltimore, under command of General French, on the 18 of July. Their presence overawed the rioters. Two days later Colonel Delaplain reported to the Governor that the riot was suppressed, and that the sheriff was making arrests without difficulty supported by a detachment of the state troops. The blockade of trains was opened and traffic resumed; but both state and Federal troops were retained for some time at the most threatening points. It seems that the leaders in the disturbances were not natives of West Virginia, but adventurers, who sought to involve in their schemes laboring men who were irritated by what they considered illiberal

usage on the part of their employers. The ease with which law and order was reestablished in this State, contrasts strongly with the scenes of violence and bloodshed that were enacted in other places, particularly in Pittsburg, where for a time the wanton distruction of property and human life, enacted during the French. Revolution, found a parallel.

5. Riot at Ansted.-On January 8,1880, a number of miners at some of the mines on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ceased work, assembled in force, proposed to compel the miners at Ansted to abandon work and join them, and threatened injury to persons and destruction of property. The sheriff of Fayette County became alarmed, and asked for fifteen hundred soldiers to preserve the peace and execute the law. The Governor responded by sending one battalion under command of Major J. W. M. Appleton. The leaders were arrested and order was promptly restored.

6. Constitutional Amendments and Legislation.-The Legislature of 1879 proposed two amendments to the Constitution. The first was an entire revision of Article VIII, increasing the number of circuit courts from nine to thirteen; increasing the number of terms in each county from two to three; giving the State the right to appeal in revenue cases; abolishing the antiquated county court and substituting in its place a police and fiscal board of three commissioners for the administration of county affairs alone, without law or equity jurisdiction; and other changes of minor character. The second amendment related to section thirteen of Article III, and provided for trial by a jury of six in cases before the justice of the peace. Both amendments were ratified at the election held in 1880. The most important legislation of the session following their adoption was the act passed in the effort to adjust the statute law to the changes made in the Constitution. The Governor recommended an entire revision and codification of the laws; but his advice was not heeded.