assured a colleague of the opposite
side that the question would not be brought up that morning and he
wanted that all the proponents and opponents of the measure be present
at the taking of the vote.

Mr. Stewart, of Doddridge, the gentleman to whom Mr. Battelle
referred, having just entered, stated that he understood the motion
before the House to be a compromise measure that would settle the
question. Thereupon, Mr. Battelle served notice that while he would
support the pending motion, he had entered into no compromise. It was
his plan, therefore, to prosecute the case before the public forum.
The question was put and it was agreed with one dissenting vote that
there should be incorporated into the Constitution the first clause of
Mr. Battelle's resolution; namely: "No slave shall be brought or free
person of color come into this State for permanent residence after
this constitution goes into effect."[72]

On the third day of April the vote on the question of the adoption of
the constitution was taken; 18,862 votes were cast for adoption and
514 for rejection. A significant incident to the general election was
the informal vote taken, at the suggestion of _The Wheeling
Intelligencer_, on Mr. Battelle's emancipation proposition which had
been rejected by the Convention. Despite the irregular and
unauthorized manner in which this was done, by the several counties
holding such extra election, the count showed that six thousand votes
were cast for emancipation and six hundred against.[73] It is not
improbable, therefore, that the constitution would have been adopted
without difficulty had the emancipation clause been included. The
politicians and not the people were on the wrong side of the issue.

Pursuant to the call of the Governor, the general assembly met in its
second extra session on the sixth of May.[74] On the thirteenth day of
the same month it passed "An Act giving the assent of the Legislature
of Virginia to the Formation of and Erection of a New State within the
jurisdiction of this State."[75] Everything was now in readiness for
the presentation of documents and credentials to Congress, by the
proposed new State, in support of its application for admission into
the Union.

Prior to this Mr. Battelle, in pursuance of his earnest efforts to
make the proposed new State free, had prepared a masterly address on
the subject of the emancipation of the slaves, to be delivered in
convention to his colleagues. T