Mr. SAULSBURY. I have been requested by some gentlemen of Virginia when this bill should come before the Senate to give it some attention; but I suppose that this consent of Congress will be given to an act which, if it ever was legal, has been repealed by the State of Virginia before the consent of Congress was asked. I thinkl could demonstrate. if I thought it was of any use to go into the argument, that there never was any consent given by the Legislature of Virginia to what has been done by WestVirginia or what was done by the people of those counties. On the day that the election was required to be held by the law of Virginia on which the consent is based, as I understand, there were only 2 voting places at which any person could vote and they were on the line of the Potomac and while these 2 counties were in the possession of the military power of the Government. The act.of Virginia required an election to be opened at the respective voting places in these 2 counties, and made its consent dependent upon the fact that a majority of the people at such a vote to be held should vote flirt e transfer; that is should vote at the different. voting places in the 2 counties. There are other questions, though, connected with the matter of a more vital and fundamental character, grave, serious, constitutional questions, arising in this case; and yet I cannot consent to take up the time of the Senate in arguing a cause which I know is lost. to the people of those 2 counties. Sir, Virginia is a noble State. The greatest and best men that hav! ever adorned the council chambers of this nation or reflected honor upon the council chambers of any nation had their birth and have lived in Virginia; and I do not wonder that the people of Berkeley and Jefferson counties, when it is proposed to take them away from the great State of Virginia and to annex them to a new State which has grown out, if not the exigencies, of the passions of the war. should be opposed to such transfer and would like to cmainwith the old State. If I thought that couldsaya word which would do them good, r which could secure them, not this privilege, put this right. of remaining in the old State ll ofOtheirfathers lived, and in the prosperity lwhich and in the renown of which they feel personal pride, I would willingly stand here ir an hour to say something in their behalf. lut no, although every man in Jefferson and lerkclcybe opposed to this transfer, the transfer is to be made and on what ground? Be iiise the voice of rebels in such cases is not i be heard, and nobody but loyal men are to e heardl Mr. President, we have a wholesale way of deciding upon treason and crime. Under the constitution of the U.S and the laws the land there is a judicial mode of ascer ining who is a traitor and who has commit d crime, and there is only one mode in which in ml or anybod can ascertain whether a an is a traitor, an that is by presentment by grand jury, conviction by a petit jury, judg ent of a court of coinpetentjurisdiction; an ien the evidence comes before me in this iamber, or comes before mess it private citi n, comes before me in any capacity whatever, ran decide upon the criminality of no man, d [cannot ascertain his guilt in any other iy than by the production of the record of i trial and conviction and yet, sir, on the reassumption that a majority of the people these 2 counties have been guilty of trea n, the highest crime known to the law, and veryjustly forfeited theirlives, we are to ascer ii theirguilt, not as the Constitution and laws the land say it shall be ascertained, but by rmise, by conception. I will never, in the irate relations of life or in any public ca city whichI fill, determine the criminality anyone in that way, and I protest now iiiist whole communities and whole copies ng thus charged with treason and with crime en there is no evidence of a.legal character it there is a man in Jefferson or Berkeley it is guilty of treason. Till that evidence is furnished, let the people residing in those 2 inties have a voice in determining their ure situation and their future relations to so 2 States. If a majority of the people rewish to go to WestVirginia let them go; if y wish to remain in Virginia let them remuin. make these remarks with no feeling of hos ty to WestVirginia. I wish her all the isperity which now is open before her in career as a State; but I do say that in a:stion of this kind, where not only the prop! of citizens is to be affected, but where ir homes. everything that is dear to them, ir personal feeling, their personal interest, ir political association is concerned, these ple ought to have a right to say whether re shall be any such transfer. As I under did the facts as presented to me, they have er had any such opportunity. But at 2 res and 2 only, in Jefferson count Were polls opened at Shepherdstown an Har s Ferry and about 100 votes cast of the whole population ofJefferson county., sir. oposition can avail nothing.