Reluctant Unionists-Pierpont's "Lost" Telegram

One of the notable tales of statehood concerns the telegram sent by Gov. Pierpont to President Lincoln in the last days of December 1862, before the statehood bill would have expired if left unsigned by the President after the 31st. It was presumed lost, and this is what Granville Davisson Hall says in his book "The Rending of Virginia".

PEIRPOINT SENDS A MESSAGE.

Before we come to the Cabinet opinions and Mr. Lincoln's own opinion, let us note a statement made by Governor Peirpoint touching his part in contributing to the reasons which decided the President to approve the act.

About the last days of December, James W. Paxton, Edward M. Norton and A. W. Campbell went to Governor Peirpoint at his office in the Wheeling Custom House to confer with him on the anxious situation. It was agreed that the Governor should wire Mr. Lincoln urging him to sign the bill. Mr. Campbell sat down at the table and wrote the message as agreed on. Governor Peirpoint told Mr. Campbell as late as 1897 that Mr. Lincoln had said to him that this message had decided him to sign the bill. The precise wording of a message having such a result would be of unusual interest to West Virginians as a historical fact. All four of the men who shared in sending it are dead, and it seems certain no copy was kept. A letter to President McKinley's secretary, to ask if it would be possible to find the telegram in the files of the Executive office, brought courteous reply from Mr. Cortelyou that he was informed files of the President's correspondence were not at that period kept at the Executive mansion, and that after Mr. Lincoln's death all papers remaining there were distributed among the departments. Colonel Hay, Secretary of State, had been one of Mr. Lincoln's secretaries; and thinking it possible he might be able to suggest in what department the paper could be found, I addressed an inquiry to him. This brought reply from Mr. John G. Nicolay (another of Mr. Lincoln's assistants, and collaborator with Colonel Hay on their book "Abraham Lincoln"), who wrote that he had no recollection of such a telegram; that if received "it ought to be among the Lincoln papers; but after examination," he says, "I do not find it among such as we have." "I think," Mr. Nicolay adds, "that Governor Peirpoint's recollection must be at fault if he stated that Mr. Lincoln had told him he had signed the West Virginia bill merely because of the Governor's request."

THE GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER TELLS ABOUT IT.

Not feeling convinced by Mr. Nicolay's conclusion, I made some inquiry of Governor Peirpoint's daughter, Mrs. Anna Peirpoint Siviter, of Pittsburgh, who wrote me under date of February 16, 1901, the following:

"Father's memory was absolutely faultless to the day of his death except a few weeks at the beginning of his illness at Fairmont; and I have heard him tell the story many times substantially as you tell it and know it was true. The only point I am not certain of is whether it was a letter or telegram that was sent. My brother was in the room at the time the conversation took place between my father and Mr. Campbell in 1897 concerning the sending of the telegram and Mr. Campbell as well as my father remembered the occurrence. This adds Mr. Campbell's evidence to my father's that such a message was sent . But even if I had not heard either of them make this statement, I should know it was true from a conversation I had with Senator Willey the day after my father's funeral. in March, 1899. He told me the whole history of President Lincoln's signing the bill. Mr. Willey was intensely anxious to obtain the President's signature at once and visited the White House in company with another gentleman. The President asked them to see the different members of the Cabinet and return to him the following morning (possibly a day later), when he would make known his decision. They went to see the Cabinet, and on the day set went to the White House so early that the servants were still cleaning the President's private office. They forced their way in, however, and in a few minutes the President appeared, and after making some laughing remark about their early appearance, he told them he was ready for them; and, stooping down, took out a bundle of papers from the drawer of his desk, stating that they contained the written opinions of the members of the Cabinet. The effect of the President's comment on these opinions was that they were not so unanimous as to lead him to sign the bill; "but," he continued, "I have another paper here which has had a great influence upon me and I will read it to you." He then drew out and read to them a message which they knew was my father's; "and this.' Mr. Lincoln said, "was the cause of my doing this" (or words to that effect). And then he showed his signature to the bill.

I suppose you know the substance of the dispatch. It was that whether the act was constitutional or not, the New State must be created. It was a war measure. The Union was engaged in a life-and-death struggle, and the bill must be signed."

In Charles Ambler's biography of Francis H. Pierpont the story of the telegram and its importance are again related, as follows-

Although he had already seen the President personally, had written him once and telegraphed him twice, Pierpont made a final and effective appeal in behalf of approval. At first he seems to have been unwilling to try again, because he regarded such action as useless. But through the interposition of Archibald W. Campbell, J.W. Paxton, and E.M. Norton, who together visited the executive office to urge another appeal to the President, Pierpont changed his mind. With Campbell seated at the Governor's desk, he paced up and down his office and dictated another telegram which Campbell sent to President Lincoln at once. Though somewhat ingenious this message was earnest and full of appeal. As later stated by Governor Pierpont himself, it said: "President Lincoln: I am in great hope you will sign the bill to make West Virginia a new State. The loyal troops from Virginia have their hearts set on it; the loyal people in the bounds of the new state have their hearts set on it; and if the bill fails, God only knows the result. I fear general demoralization and I must not be held responsible."

Three days before Lincoln's death Pierpont had the satisfaction of hearing from him directly that it was his final telegram on the West Virginia statehhod proposition that had decided to sign the bill for admission.

The telegram was not lost, however, and the wording of the telegram differs significantly from the version offered by Ambler, and it might be presumed that Granville Davisson Hall would have preferred it lost, as it betrays one of the basic premises of his book and West Virginia statehood, that West Virginians were pining for a state of their own. This is the basic premise of all histories of West Virginia, and is not true. The telegram is in the Library of Congress' collection of Lincoln papers, and this is the whole of Pierpont's message:

"Wheeling Va. Decr 30 / 62

Sir.

Mr A W. Campbell has read me a letter addressed to you on the subject of the new state-- I hope you will read the letter-- It contains the truth in my opinion The union men of West Va were not originally for the Union because of the new state-- But the sentiment for the two have become identified If one is stricken down I dont know what is become of the other-- I am&c

F. H. Peirpoint"

I have highlighted and boldened one of the most important sentences in West Virginia statehood history. What Pierpont had just told the President had many implications. For the first time the President is being told that what Wheeling's delegates in Washington had been telling the Congress about West Virginians yearning to be free of the eastern yoke was false, that statehood had actually hurt Union support in West Virginia. But now Wheeling had sold statehood to many Unionists as a war measure and they would not welcome disappointment.

Lincoln signed the statehood bill the day after receiving Pierpont's telegram. In his statement he wrote "We can scarcely dispense with the aid of West Virginia in this struggle; much less can we afford to have her against us, in congress and in the field." Considering that the Republicans had suffered many losses in the election just the previous month, especially in the House, he would have to give up the certain support of Wheeling's Congressional members-Waitman Willey and John Carlile in the Senate, W.G. Brown, Kellian Whaley, and J.B. Blair in the House. Also implied is a wavering in the loyalty of troops from West Virginia. Pierpont had written to J.G. Blair about possible "butternut" sentiment among Wheeling's soldiers. All these considerations combined to push the President to sign the statehood bill and it was a clever bit of understated extortion by Pierpont that achieved it.

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