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Excerpt: "A rebellious and treasonous enterprise"


    "In West Virginia, men have taken up arms against the state and the nation.  The head of the national government, who is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy, commanded them to disperse.  They defied this constitutional authority.  So they are engaged in rebellion - a defiance of the government of the state and the nation with arms.
    "The cause or causes do not matter.  Whatever the cause or the causes, get this fact and get it straight: the men of this state who are bearing arms against the government are in rebellion against all the people of the United States, engaged in a rebellious and treasonable enterprise and those who lend them aid and comfort are engaged in the same business...
    "Today, less than three years after world freedom was gained, the people of our own state of West Virginia are threatened by a greater danger than the hateful German power threatened in 1918.  This greater danger is right here at our door.  The enemy is right here, not thousands of miles away.  The enemy not only dares to shed the blood of peaceful citizens, but he would shatter our government.  He would make...us subservient to the will of a small class of our citizenship, which has now become a violent, murderous, and treasonable mob.  The lives of peaceful citizens are precious enough: but there is a thing more precious, and the enemy would destroy it.  That more precious thing is our free government."


Source: Charleston Daily Mail, September 1, 1921.