The Canvass in Marshall and other Counties.
March 16, 1863
No more enthusiastic and whole souled meeting has been held during the New State canvass so far, than that at Cameron last Saturday. The loyal and devoted people of that vicinity are awake and alive and will vote almost as a unit on the 26th. Marshall county is striving to be the banner county, and Preston and Monongalia will have to look well to their laurels. We should not be surprised to see that county give, exclusive of her soldiers vote (eleven companies) a clear majority of one thousand. She is one of the bravest and most reliable counties in the Union. The people there, ever since the war, have moved almost in solid body. They do nothing by halves. They do not go for the new State in piece meal. They go with their hearts and souls. The leading speakers are working nobly and indefatigably. They are canvassing every inch of the county. Messrs. Caldwell, Holliday and McConnel attend most of the meetings and are incessant in their labors. If anything like the work that is being done in Marshall is going on in other counties the new State cannot help having a clear aggregate majority of twenty-five thousand. Let the other counties emulate the example of Marshall. We know that most of them will. All of them should. Speakers should distribute themselves into those counties where they need help - counties like Randolph, Barbour, Harrison, Lewis, Doddridge, Wirt, Braxton, &c. The river counties are all right. Press the canvass home in the remote interior. Send all the spare speakers into such counties as we have named for the remaining time. All the people want is to hear the merits of the New State fairly presented. Every dishonorable effort has been made use of by the agents and tools of Carlile & Co., to poison their minds and enlist their prejudices. But these labors will avail them nothing. As we said the New State will be carried by an overwhelming aggregate majority. It is only a question of majorities in each county. We shall carry every county by more or less of a majority. We feel no hesitation in making that prediction. But it is desirable to swell the majorities in each county to as near unanimity as possible. Unremitting, active and intelligent work will do this. Press the canvass then, friend of the New State. Let every man who can speak or talk enter the arena in his district or in some other one. Let a dozen people be got together if no more can be got out. Explain to them fully and truthfully the issue, and let them in their turn explain to their neighbors who were not in attendance. And more than all else exhort them to organize thoroughly for the day of election. Have lists of all the voters in each precinct and see that every man who is a legal voter is called upon and invited to the polls. It is not wise, neither is it creditable in any way to conclude that the majority will be large enough without the personal exertion of every friend of the New State. We are not hoping for mere majorities: we know that we have them now. We all ought to want unanimity as nearly as possible. Such a result will be of incalculable benefit to the peace, harmony and prosperity of the New State in future. Work then, New State men, like the earnest men that you are from this to the close of the polls on the 26th.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: March 1863