John Snyder Carlile (December 16, 1817October 24, 1878) was an

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merchant, lawyer, slaveowner and politician, including a

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. A strong supporter of the

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cause during the

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, he represented the loyalist faction of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, which was eventually separated into two distinct states.

Biography

Carlile was born in

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

. He was educated by his mother until he was fourteen years old, when he became salesman in a store, and at the age of seventeen went into business on his own account. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and began practice in Beverly. Entering politics, he joined the

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. He was selected as a delegate to the Virginia state constitutional convention in 1850. Carlile served in the

Virginia State Senate The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...

from 1847 to 1851. He joined the new Know Nothing political movement in 1854 and represented

's 11th District in the

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for one term. Carlile was a delegate from Harrison County to the Virginia

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

convention in 1861, voting no on the controversial resolution. He was a leader in the anti-secession movement, and was prominent in the

Wheeling Convention The 1861 Wheeling Convention was an assembly of Virginia Southern Unionist delegates from the northwestern counties of Virginia, aimed at repealing the Ordinance of Secession, which had been approved by referendum, subject to a vote. The first ...

of June 1861. On June 13, 1861, at the first session of the Second Wheeling Convention, Carlile authored "A Declaration of the People of Virginia." The document pronounced Virginia's Ordinance of Secession illegal because the convention at which it had been drafted had been convened by the General Assembly, not by a referendum. It also called for the reorganization of the government of Virginia, arguing that due to Virginia's decision to secede from the United States, all state government offices had been vacated. The pro-Union

Restored Government of Virginia The Restored (or Reorganized) Government of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and join ...

was quickly recognized by

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and

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as the legitimate government of the entire Commonwealth of Virginia, with Wheeling as its provisional capital. He was averse, however, to the formation of a new state out of the bulk of the pro-Union territory of Virginia—what became

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

. Carlile was again chosen to Congress in 1861 on a Unionist Party position, but kept his seat in the House of Representatives only from July 4 through July 13, when he was elected as one of two United States Senators representing the Restored Government. He served until 1865. In the Senate, he was uniformly in favor of a strict construction of the

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, opposing all measures recognizing that there existed a rebellion of states instead of individuals, and denying the right of Congress to interfere in any way with the slaves (Carlile being a slaveowner himself). He frequently met with Lincoln to try to garner his support for his causes. Following the war, Carlile retired from politics and returned home to resume his law practice. He died in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

References and links

John S. Carlile
in ''

Encyclopedia Virginia Virginia Humanities (VH), formerly the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is a humanities council whose stated mission is to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth of Virginia by creating learning opportunities f ...

'' * ''Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography'', edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887–1889. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlile, John S. 1817 births 1878 deaths 19th-century American lawyers American slave owners Delegates of the 1861 Wheeling Convention Democratic Party United States senators from Virginia Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia People from Beverly, West Virginia Politicians from Clarksburg, West Virginia Politicians from Winchester, Virginia People of West Virginia in the American Civil War Union (American Civil War) political leaders Unionist Party United States senators Virginia Know Nothings Virginia lawyers Virginia Secession Delegates of 1861 Democratic Party Virginia state senators Virginia Unionists West Virginia lawyers Unionist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia Know-Nothing members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American politicians Lawyers from Clarksburg, West Virginia United States senators who owned slaves