Union Meeting

Marietta Intelligencer, January 16, 1861

Pursuant to a call for a Union meeting, the citizens of Marietta and vicinity, including a number of the citizens of Wood County, Virginia, filled the Court House, in Marietta on the evening of January 8, 1861.

The meeting was organized by the appointment of the Mayor, Hon. Wm. A. Whittlesey, Chairman, T. W. Ewart and C. F. Buell, Secretaries.

On motion of M. Clarke, Esq., the chairman appointed M. Clarke, Arius Nye, R. E. Harte, A. W. M'Cormick, Davis Green, Douglas Putnam, William West, David C. Skinner and C. F. Buell a committee to report resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting.

On motion of Judge Nye; it was resolved that when the meeting adjourn, it adjourn to meet at this place on Saturday next at one o'clock, P.M. and that the Committee on resolutions report at that time.

On motion of A. W. M'Cormick, Esq., it was resolved that the citizens of this County and of Wood county, Virginia, and especially the citizens of Parkersburg, be invited to attend and participate in the meeting.

On motion of Judge Green, it was resolved that Gen. John J. Jackson, of Parkersburg, be requested to address the meeting on Saturday.

On motion of M. Clarke, Esq., the Chair appointed Levi Barber, John Hall, J. J. Brenan, Franklin Buell and E. Corey, a committee of arrangements for the adjourned meeting.

Brief addresses were made by Judge Nye, Judge Green, Hon. Wm. Stephenson, of Va., C. F. Buell, Esq., and M. Clarke, Esq.

On motion of D. Towsley, Esq., it was resolved that meetings be held in the several wards of this city, on Thursday evening, the 10th inst. to pass resolutions expressive of their views, to be reported to the committee on resolutions.

After a vote of thanks to the Young American Band for their music, the meeting adjourned with three cheers for the Union, and three for Western Virginia.

W. A. Whittlesey, President.

T. W. Ewart, C. F. Buell, Secretaries.

Adjourned Union Meeting

On the 12th day of January, 1861, a large number of the citizens of Washington county, Ohio, and of the adjoining county of Wood, in Virginia, assembled at the Court House in Marietta, Hon. Wm. A. Whittlesey, Mayor of the city, in the Chair.

A letter was read from Gen. J. J. Jackson, of Parkersburg, regretting his inability to be present and address the meeting as requested by a former meeting, and expressing briefly his views of the existing difficulties, and the remedy.

The Committee heretofore appointed, reported through M. Clarke, Esq., Chairman, the following preamble and resolutions, which, after a full and free discussion of the same, were adopted:

The People of Marietta and vicinity, without distinction of party, being assembled to consider the present threatning aspect of affairs, and especially the attempt of South Carolina and other States, to disrupt the Union, do after solemn and mature deliberation, declare and affirm as their settled judgements and conviction, the following propositions:

I.  The Government of the United States, is not a mere compact nor confederation, but is in the full and proper import of the term, a Government of the people.

II.  The doctrine of the secession of a State, has no warrant in the Constitution, but on the contrary, is in its effects, fatal to the Union, and subversive of all the ends of its creation; and in our judgement secession is revolution, and while we fully admit the right of revolution for the causes set forth in the Declaration of Independence, or for others of equal force, and while we are grieved to say that the Government and citizens of several of the States, both North and South, have been guilty of acts of great injustice towards others; yet facts do not exist which warrant a resort to that last and final remedy, revolution, and we have still an abiding faith in the capacity and adaptation of the General Government, to redress all grievances, suffered by its citizens, whatever their origin.

III.  We believe it to be the duty of the President, to uphold and enforce the laws by all the power of the Government, and in so doing he is entitled to the sympathy and support of every good citizen.

IV.  All State enactments conflicting with the Constitution of the United States, or calculated only to produce irritation or exasperation of feeling on the part of the people of sister States, ought to be a once repealed.

V.  It is not true that there is in the Northern States an organized party, nor any respectable number of citizens, who either avow or entertain any purpose or desire, to destroy, or in any way whatever to interfere with slavery in the States when it exists by law.  The great body of the people of the Northern States, believe that Congress has no power over the domestic institutions of a State - that the Constitution of the United States does recognize the fact of the existence in several of the States, under the laws thereof, of the relation of master and slave, as a domestic institution, over which the State is absolute sovereign; that such relation is not dissolved by the escape of the person so held to service, into another State, and that the right to reclaim such person is fully guaranteed by the Constitution.

VI.  The apprehensions which seem to exist in portions of the country, that the election of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, is but the prelude to an attack by the General Government, through all its departments, upon the domestic institutions of some of the States, with a view to their ultimate overthrow, are wholly unfounded.

VII.  Notwithstanding former differences of opinion on this subject, for the purpose of making a final adjustment of the unfortunate controversy now raging in our country, we are willing to accept as the basis of a compromise, the re-enactment of the Eighth Section of the Missouri Compromise act;  or we are willing to adopt the principle, that the whole subject of Slavery in the Territories, shall be left to be determined by the will of the bona fide residents of such territory; provided they be also left free to elect their own officers - Executive and Judicial, as well as Legislative.

VIII.  We cordially approve the resolution passed by the House of Representatives, endorsing the conduct of Major Anderson in Charleston Harbor, and the present course of the Administration towards the Seceders.

IX.  It is our deliberate and abiding conviction, that our greatest prosperity and success as a Nation, and our hopes of happiness and security in the future, depend upon the preservation of the Union as it is.

X.  Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the papers of the city; and that copies of the Resolutions be sent to our Senators and the Representative from this District in Congress.

Adjourned.

Wm. A. Whittlesey, Chairman.

T. W. Ewart, C. F. Buell, Secretaries.