STATE GOVERNORS. John J. Jacob Henry M. Matthews... E. Willis Wilson.. 1863 1869 1871 1877 1881 1885 1890 1893 Francis H. Pierpont, of Marion county, See UNITED STATES, WEST VIRGINIA, in governor; Daniel Polsley, of Mason county, vol. ix.; VIRGINIA. lieutenant-governor ; and an executive council of five members. The governor immediately notified the President of the United States of insurrection in western Virginia, and asked aid to suppress it. He raised $12,000 for the public use, pledging his own private fortune for the amount. A legislature was elected and met at Wheeling, on July 1, and John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willey were chosen to represent the "restored commonwealth" in the Senate of the United States. The convention reassembled on Aug. 20, and passed an ordinance for a new State, which was submitted to the Samuel Price... people, and by them ratified. George W. Atkinson.. Westcott, THOMPSON, editor; born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 5, 1820; educated in Pennsylvania; admitted to the bar in 1841; was a law reporter on the Public Ledger in 1846-51; editor of the Sunday Despatch in 1848-84; editor-in-chief of the Inquirer in 1863-69; and became editor of the Philadelphia Record in 1884. He has contributed articles to periodicals, and written Life of John Fitch, the Inventor of the Steamboat; The Tax-payer's Guide; The Chronicles of the Great Rebellion against the United States of America; Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, etc. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 8, 1888. Westerlo, EILARDUS, clergyman; born in Cantes, Holland, in October, 1738; graduated at the University of Gröningen; was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany in 1760-90; sympathized with the colonies during the Revolutionary War, and when Washington visited Albany in 1782 he made the address of welcome. He died in Albany, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1790. framed, which the people ratified on May 3, 1862. On the same day the legislature approved all of the proceedings in the matter, and established a new commonwealth. On July 20, 1863, West Virginia was admitted into the Union as a State, by act of Congress, which had been approved by the President, Dec. 31, 1862. A State seal, with an appropriate device, Western Company, THE. John Law was adopted, inscribed, "State of West was the successor of Crozat in a commerVirginia. Montani Semper Liber" (moun- cial scheme in Louisiana (see LOUISIANA). taineers are always free), and the new He formed a company under the sanction commonwealth took its place as the of the regent of France (August, 1717), thirty-fifth State of the Union, covering and it was called the Western Company. an area of 23,000 square miles. Popula- The grants made to it were for twenty-five lation in 1890, 762,794; in 1900, 958,800. years, and the sovereignty of all Louisiana -an undefined region-was given to the the latter rate began to buy something company. The sole conditions were hom- else besides shares the bonds quickly fell. age to the French monarch and a gold Depreciation was rapid, and wide-spread crown at the beginning of every reign. ruin was the consequence. See LAW, With a capital of 40,000,000 livres, Law JOHN. lion in vague or undefined boundaries of States. The boundaries of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland-six of the thirteen and his associates entered upon a great Western Lands. There was a scheme of commerce and colonization. the way" of the ratification of the ArtiArmed vessels bearing troops and colo- cles of Confederation—namely, the vexed nists were soon seen upon the ocean. Law question of the Western lands, within appointed Bienville governor of the domain, and he selected the site of New Orleans for its capital, where, in February, 1718, he left fifty persons to clear the ground and to build. Great prosperity was promised. The shares of the company rose in value, and in May, 1719, Law obtained from the regent power to join with it the French East India Company, having the exclusive right of trading beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Then the name of the association was changed to " The Indian Company," and it was authorized to issue 50,000 new shares. It made concessions of land to private adventurers under the control of the company, and these sent out settlers. had boundaries exactly defined. These were "non-claimant States." Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and the Carolinas extended, under their charters. to the Pacific Ocean, or to the Mississippi River since that had been established (1763) as the western boundary of Brit ish possessions in America. Georgia also claimed jurisdiction to the Mississippi; so, also, did New York, under color of certain alleged acknowledgments of her jurisdiction made during colonial times by the Six Nations, the conquerors, it was preNew establishments for trade were open- tended, of the whole Western country be ed on the Mississippi, the Red. and the tween and including the Great Lakes and Missouri rivers, and these plantations the Cumberland Mountains below the Ohio proved to be permanent ones. Success River. These were ' claimant States." As caused Law to venture upon the gigantic all that vast territory was to be wrested scheme of paying off a large portion of from Great Britain by joint efforts, it the public debt of France through the was claimed that it ought to be joint operations of the company. It was pro- property. The "claimant States" expectposed to take up, by the issue of company ed great revenues from these Western stock, government stock to the amount of 1,500,000,000 livres, in exchange for the privilege of collecting the revenues of the kingdom. The new shares were sought for by the French people with such avidity that 300,000 new shares were applied for when there were but 50.000 to distribute. The enlargement of currency and universal of Confederation that no State should be confidence in Law made every form of industry prosperous. But the attempt of a company of directors in Paris to manage a colony in America, the dishonesty of agents, the reliance for profit on mines that were never found and upon tobacco that was never cultivated, together with New York led the way towards reconthe wild spirit of speculation that con- ciliation by giving a discretionary power vulsed all France and made it a nation to her delegates in Congress (February, of lunatics, soon brought the operations 1780), to cede to the Union that portion of the company to an end. Shares had of her claim west of a north and south risen from the par value of 500 livres line drawn through the western extremity to 5,000 livres. When the purchasers at of Lake Ontario. The other claimant lands that would pay their debts, and they strenuously adhered to their rights: while the landless, or non- claimant, States," regarded with jealousy the prospect of the overflowing treasuries of their neighbors. The claimant States secured the insertion of a provision in the Articles deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. All the non-claimant States excepting Maryland reluctantly consented to this provision; the latter steadily refused to sign the articles while that provision was retained. States were urged by the Congress to fol- inary movements. It was provided that low this example, under a guarantee when any such State had acquired 20,000 (Sept. 6, 1780) that the lands so ceded inhabitants, the latter, on giving due proof should be disposed of for the common ben- thereof to Congress, should receive authorefit, and, as they became peopled, should ity from that body to call a convention of be formed into republican States to be representatives to establish a permanent admitted into the Union as peers of the government for themselves on the followothers. Connecticut offered (Oct. 10, ing basis: First, that they should forever 1780) to cede her claims to the region west remain a part of the Confederation of the of Pennsylvania, excepting a broad tract United States of America; second, that south of Lake Erie, immediately adjoin- they should be subject to the Articles of ing Pennsylvania. This was afterwards Confederation equally with those of the known as the Connecticut Reserve. Vir- original States; third, that they should in ginia ceded to the United States (Dec. 31, no case interfere with the rights of the 1780) all claim to the territory northwest United States to the soil of such States, of the Ohio, provided that State should nor with the ordinances and regulations be guaranteed the right to the remain- which Congress might find necessary for ing territory east of the Mississippi and securing the title of such soil to bona fide north of lat. 30° 30′ N. The New York purchasers; fourth, that they should be delegates executed a deed to the United subject to pay a part of the national debt States (March 1, 1781) of the territory contracted or to be contracted; fifth, that west of the line before mentioned; and no tax should be imposed on lands belongon the same day the delegates from Mary- ing to the United States; sixth, that these land, authorized by the Assembly imme- respective governments should be republidiately after the Virginia cession, signed can in form; and, seventh, that the lands the Articles of Confederation. This com- of non-resident proprietors should in no pleted the ratification of that fundamen- case be taxed higher than that of the restal law of the Union, and henceforth it idents within any new State. It was also was the supreme constitution until super- provided that whenever any of the new seded by another and a better one. States should have as many free inhabitants as the least populous of the thirteen original States, it should be admitted into Congress by delegates on an equal footing with the original States, provided the requisite number of the States forming the Union should consent to such admission. Western Reserve, THE. See GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM. Western Territory, THE. In 1784 Congress provided a temporary government for the country ceded by the several States and the Indians "beyond the mountains." Such territory was to be divided into dis- Westinghouse, GEORGE, inventor; born tinct States; the inhabitants of any such in Central Bridge, N. Y., Oct. 6, 1846; division might be authorized to hold a settled in Schenectady in 1856; received convention of their free males of full a high school education; served in the age" for the purpose of establishing a National army in 1863–65. After the temporary government, and to adopt the war he engaged in the manufacture of constitution and laws of any State already machinery under his various patents. His established, and, under certain restric- inventions include a rotary engine; sevtions, to make political divisions in the eral devices in railway signals; electric newly organized territory into counties machinery; the Westinghouse air-brake, and townships. These were to be prelim- etc. WESTMINSTER ABBEY Westminster Abbey. Founded by Edward the Confessor when released from his vow to make a pilgrimage to the grave of St. Peter at Rome. It was built on the site of an older church, and was the first cruciform church erected in England. In it the sovereigns of Great Britain were crowned from the time of Edward the Confessor to the present, and many of them are buried there. The present church is mainly the work Archdeacon of Westminster (now Dean of of Henry III. (1220-69) and Henry VII., Canterbury); who laid the corner-stone of the chapel which bears his name, Jan. 24, 1502. The western towers were rebuilt by George I. and George II. Westminster Abbey is most frequently entered by the great northern door, usually known as Solomon's Porch. I will, The Share of America in Westminster however, ask the courteous American Abbey. The following article was written visitor to walk through St. Margaret's by the Venerable F. W. Farrar, D.D., church-yard, and round the western façade of the Abbey, and to enter by the A ment reared by the nation to the memory of Captain Cornewell, who perished nobly in the sea-fight off Toulon in 1742. passage recently cut through the Sicilian marble pediment of this block of sculpture Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing admits you into the baptistery, which foam Melts if it cross the threshold." Of all the glory of this symbolic archi- "They dreamt not of a perishable home stands under the southwest tower. There you will see the seat in which the judges sat when the baptistery was used as a consistory court, the tomb of Craggs, with its poor epitaph by Pope, and the beautiful memorials of Wordsworth, Keble, Maurice, and Kingsley. An American may well look with peculiar interest on the fine bust of Kingsley, for his lecture how much may be claimed in part by on the abbey was delivered to many America? In one sense all of it which belongs to the epoch which elapsed between the age of Edward the Confessor and the disas trous days of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. An English writer who lives in America has said that "in signing away his own empire George III. did not sign away the empire of English liberty, of English law, of English literature, of Eng lish blood, of English religion, or of the English tongue." Americans enjoy, no less than we, the benefit of the great charter, the petition of right, the habeas corpus act. They need not go back for their history to Indian annals or Icelandic sagas. Theirs are the palaces of the Plantagenets, the cathedrals which enshrine our old religion, the illustrious hall in which the long line of our great judges reared by their decisions the fabric of our law, the gray colleges in which our intellect and science found their earliest home, the graves where our heroes and sages and poets sleep. Indeed, I have understated their share in the abbey. It reaches down not only to the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, but to the War of Independence. Chatham and Burke and Barré as well as Patrick Henry advocated the American cause, which engaged the sympathy of the great mass of Englishmen, if not that of Grenville and North. 66 thousands of Americans in their great cities. But there are two other memorials which combine with these to give to this spot in the abbey the name of Little Poets' Corner." They are the stainedglass windows in memory of George Herbert and William Cowper. They belong entirely to America, for they are the gift of an American citizen, my honored friend, Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia. In the stained glass are the effigies of the two poets. Both of them were Westminster boys, and the most beautiful representatives of all that is holy in two very opposite schools of religious thought. It was a happy inspiration which suggested the erection of this window. George Herbert and William Cowper were well deserving of memorials in the abbey, apart from the fact that they had so often played in its cloisters and worshipped in its choir. The combination of the two suggests the higher unity which reconciles all minor points of ecclesiastical difference. Leaving the baptistery, and walking to the third pillar of the nave on the north side, the visitor will see opposite to the pillar a slab in the floor which covers an empty grave. In this respect the slab is unique. It marks the spot where lay, for a few days only, the mortal remains of the generous American citizen, George PeaWe shall not have far to walk before body. The name of Mr. Peabody will be we find those memorials of the abbey remembered for centuries to come in Engwhich belong to America in some special land, because it is perpetuated by the and distinctive way, and it is to those buildings for the residence of the poor that I shall closely confine myself. On which are due to his great bequest. entering the western door you will see will be brought into yet more constant immediately to your right the huge monu- remembrance by this his temporary grave. It |