r hands. But the high sense
of justice which has always distinguished the United States in her
public policies would not permit the despoilment of Mexico. We
negotiated therefore for the territory needed, and paid for it a
larger price than would have been given by any other nation in the
world. The American Government went still farther. Many of our
citizens held large claims against Mexico, and the failure to pay
them had been one of the causes that precipitated hostilities.
Our government in addition to the money consideration of fifteen
millions of dollars which we paid for territory, agreed to exonerate
Mexico from all demands of our citizens, and to pay them from our
own Treasury. This supplementary agreement cost the National
Treasury nearly four million dollars.

If the United State were willing to place Virginia on the basis on
which they magnanimously placed Mexico after the conquest of that
Republic, a sufficient allowance would be made to her to compensate
at least for that part of her public debt which might presumptively
be represented by the territory taken from her. If it be said in
answer to such a suggestion that it would be fairer for West Virginia
to assume the proportional obligation thus indicated, the prompt
rejoinder is that in equity her people are not held to such
obligation. The public improvements for which the debt was in
large part incurred had not been so far completed as to benefit
West Virginia when the civil war began,--their advantages being
mainly confined to the Tide-water and Piedmont sections of the
State. There is indeed neither moral nor legal responsibility
resting upon West Virginia for any part of the debt of the old
State.

In determining the relative obligations of the National Government
and of the government of West Virginia, concerning the debt, it is
of the first importance to remember that the new State was not
primarily organized and admitted to the Union for the benefit of
her own people, but in far larger degree for the benefit of the
people of the whole Union. The organic law would not have been
strained, legal fictions would not have been invented, contradictory
theories would not have been indulged, if a great national interest
had not demanded the creation of West Virginia. If it had not been
apparent that the organization of West Virginia was an advantage
to the loyal cause; if the border-State policy of Mr. Lincoln, so
rigidly adhered to throughou