A Traitor Betrayed.
Sherrard Clemens, of
Wheeling, who ones represented his district in Congress, and who was a member of the
Virginia State Convention of 1861, has published an address to the people of
Northwestern Virginia, in which he bitterly complains of the treatment he is receiving at the hands of his Abolition friends.
Clemens was opposed to the new State movement, and received numerous invitations to address the people upon that subject pending the recent election.
The friends of the movement and the military, however, determined that he should not be heard, and wherever his appointments were made he met the military or unruly New State men to silence him. At
Parkersburg he was waited upon by the
Mayor of the town, who informed him
that the whole matter had been placed in the hands of the military authorities, and that he would not be permitted to speak at all.--He says it was not the intention of the authorities to permit the Congressional amendments to the New State bill to be discussed or understood.
At
Middlebourne, Tyler county, it was arranged that a public discussion of the questions involved should take place between himself and the
Auditor of the
Wheeling Government.
The Auditor spoke the full period of his allotted time, but when
Clemens attempted to reply, he was prevented from concluding his remarks by threatened and actual violence.
An egg was thrown at him while speaking.
In consideration of these difficulties, he threw up the canvass, and published an address, counselling the people to withhold their votes at the election.
He says in alluding to the
Wheeling Government, "We shall set what will be the end of this hospital for politicians effected with incurable diseases." He thinks the
Constitution and laws of the country will finally come to the relief of the people.
He exhorts them to be patient and peaceable, and to "appear as the innocent flower, but be the subtle serpent under it."
He says the indignities offered, and the violence threatened him, came at the instigation of certain drunken and demoralized soldiers, among whom was a fallen Methodist preacher, who now sports as
Sergeant Williamson.
These hirelings of the
Lincoln and
Pierpont dynasties were distributed throughout
Western Virginia previous to the election to prevent an expression of opinion by the people at the ballot box.
