Raleigh, Virginia. — The rain last night was merely
an April shower. It has cleared off bright and warm. The grass looks fresh and
green. I have one hundred and fifty dollars in treasury notes. Last night
Lieutenant Hastings with Company I started for the Marshes of Cool to protect
the election and if possible catch the Trumps
Election day for West Virginia. One hundred and eight votes
polled here, all for the new Constitution. I doubt its success. Congress will
be slow to admit another slave State into the Union. The West Virginians are
blind to interest as well as duty, or they would abolish slavery instantly.
They would make freedom the distinguishing feature of West Virginia. With
slavery abolished the State would rapidly fill up with an industrious,
enterprising population. As a slave State, slaveholders will not come into it
and antislavery and free-labor people will keep away.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 222
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