New State Meeting in Marion.
February 4, 1863
The people of Marion county were addressed on Monday in an able speech by E. B. Hall, Esq., member of the Convention and New State Commissioner. It was the beginning of the Quarterly Court, and the Court House was well crowded by a deeply interested and earnest auditory. We have seldom listened to a speech so singularly free from partisam bias; so broad and catholic in its deductions and so clear and convincing in its facts. He reviewed at length the inception and progress, first of the movement for re-organizing the State government, and then following it, the movement for the New State. He exposed the treachery of some and the inconsistency of all of the men now opposing the New State. Following this he produced a startling array of statistics, showing the State debt, how it had been piled up, and for what. We shall endeavor to put these statistical facts in shape, and publish them within a day or two. He concluded by showing clearly from the facts adduced that a continuance of our legislative connection with the east, could but involve us in ruin and death, while a separation would save us, and not only so, but make the West great and prosperous. His delineations of Eastern oppression in times past, and the prospects in times to come, if we were remanded to their tender mercies, were most graphic and effective, and made a marked impression upon his hearers.
The friends of a New State in Marion are in fine spirits and confidently expect not only to elect a sound member to the Convention to supply Mr. Haymond's place, but to ratify the work of that body when it is done.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: February 1863